Pension administration in the United States is the act of performing various types of yearly service on an organizational retirement plan, such as a 401(k), defined benefit plan, or cash balance plan. The basic purpose of Pension Administration is to insure that an organizational retirement plan does not discriminate against the lower level employees while also insuring that the plan is not used as an abusive tax shelter. Stress tests include the average benefits test, Average Deferral Percentage, and minimum coverage. Yearly pension administration work involves filing a Form 5500 with the Internal Revenue Service . There are several professional designations available to those who perform this work, such as those offered by the National Institute of Pension Administrators and the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries . Pension Administration firms more often than not rely on financial brokers (or financial advisors) for their business prospects, although they do have other referral sources. Some pension administration firms carry out the financial advisory work within an internal unit of their own company, as well as accepting referrals from an independand broker network. Examples of firms with which these brokers are associated are Raymond James , Edward Jones Investments and Morgan Stanley. The brokers may be employees of these firms or independent contractors. The plan assets of the organizational retirement plans in question sometimes reside on a trading platform controlled by the administration firm. But more often than not the assets are held by large financial institutions who provide a variety of investment options for plan participants. Examples of large firms in this market space are Principal Financial Group, John Hancock Insurance , ING Group and Mass Mutual, although there are many others. Plans which contain over one-hundred participants must perform an independent audit each year, necessitating yearly coordination with representatives of a public accounting firm . In cases where a defined benefit plan is being managed the pension administration firm must employ an actuary to certify the plan’s present and future benefit liabilities and compliance with minimum funding standards set by the IRS. Pension administration firms with a large block of defined benefit plans often employ an actuary directly. But they may also retain the actuary as an independent contractor, and this is almost certain to be the arrangement in cases where the pension administration firm only works on a small collection of defined benefit plans. The actuary completes contribution calculations for the plan and provides a Schedule B so that the yearly Form 5500 may be completed . Without this Schedule the yearly filing for a defined benefit plan would be incomplete. In addition to the Internal Revenue Service, organizational retirement plan operation and maintenance falls under the regulation of the United States Department of Labor .