The Joint Board was established in 1974 by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Labor pursuant to section 3041 of ERISA. It operates under bylaws issued by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Labor.

Section 3042 of ERISA provides that the Joint Board:

Pursuant to section 3042 of ERISA, the Joint Board published regulations governing performance of actuarial services under ERISA. These Joint Board regulations are set forth at 20 CFR Part 901.

Any active enrolled actuary in good standing with the Joint Board and not under suspension or disbarment from practice before the IRS, may practice before the IRS by filing a written declaration stating that he or she is qualified as an enrolled actuary and is authorized to represent the party or parties.

Practice as an enrolled actuary is limited to representation with respect to issues related to specific provisions of titles 26 and 29 of the United States Code. These specific provisions are set forth at section 10.3(d)(2) of Circular 230.

Enrolled actuaries who practice before the IRS are subject to the provisions of Circular 230 in the same manner as attorneys, certified public accountants, enrolled agents and enrolled retirement plan agents.

The Executive Director, an IRS senior manager, is responsible for the administration of the enrolled actuary program and advises and assists the Joint Board in carrying out its duties under ERISA.

The attorney-advisor is responsible for certain legal and technical aspects of the enrollment program, as well as for reviewing and investigating complaints, and assisting with proceedings concerning the alleged misconduct of enrolled actuaries. The attorney-advisor also oversees the qualifying sponsor program, and serves as the Designated Federal Officer and Federal Advisory Committee Act subject matter expert for the Joint Board Advisory Committee on Actuarial Examinations.

The senior program analyst (hereafter called "senior analyst" ) is responsible for coordinating tax compliance and CPE audits and assisting the Executive Director with ancillary matters.

The management and program analyst (hereafter called "analyst" ) is responsible for receiving, evaluating, and processing applications for enrollment and renewal.

The staff support assistant is responsible for receiving, evaluating, and processing incoming mail/email, answering telephone calls, coordinating travel arrangements and processing reimbursements for JBAC quarterly meeting attendees.

Seasonal employees are temporary hires responsible for assisting the Joint Board staff with reviewing and processing renewal of enrollment applications during peak renewal season.

The analyst maintains a spreadsheet to coordinate the assignment of enrollment applications to be reviewed by the Joint Board members. Joint Board application decisions are documented as part of a practitioner record in e-Trak.

The JBEA staff conducts annual CPE and tax compliance audits on a randomly selected sample of active enrolled actuaries.

The JBEA staff conducts annual audits on a randomly selected sample of qualifying sponsors.

Electronic applications are submitted through pay.gov and processed in e-Trak. Paper applications are processed in e-Trak after verification of payment from Beckley Finance Center.

An exception report identifies enrollment applications and renewal of enrollment applications submitted on Pay.gov that did not migrate to e-Trak. This mitigates the risk that renewal of enrollment applications will be associated with an incorrect practitioner record and that duplicate records for new applicants will be created.

All noteworthy actions are recorded in the individual practitioner record in e-Trak.

Enrolled Actuary - an enrolled actuary is an individual who has satisfied the enrollment qualifications set forth in the Joint Board regulations and who has been approved by the Joint Board to perform actuarial services under ERISA.

Joint Board - the term used throughout this section to represent the Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries. See IRM 1.25.8.2, Regulatory Framework, for a description of the Joint Board.

Joint Board staff - the term used throughout this section to represent the IRS staff who administers the enrolled actuary program.

Circular 230 - the term used for Treasury Department Circular No. 230, Regulations Governing Practice before the Internal Revenue Service.

AAA - American Academy of Actuaries

ABCD - Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline

ASEA - American Society of Enrolled Actuaries

CCA – Conference of Consulting Actuaries

CPE - Continuing Professional Education

DFO – Designated Federal Officer

DOL – Department of Labor

ERISA - Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974

JBAC - Joint Board Advisory Committee on Actuarial Examinations

OPR – Office of Professional Responsibility

PII - Personally Identifiable Information

RPO – Return Preparer Office

SOA – Society of Actuaries

TEGE- Tax Exempt & Government Entities

PBGC – Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

GLS – Office of Associate Chief Counsel – General Legal Services

FACA – Federal Advisory Committee Act

Form 5434, Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries Application for Enrollment

Form 5434-A, Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries Application for Renewal of Enrollment

Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries on IRS.gov

Joint Board Staff on IRS Source

Regulations Governing the Performance of Actuarial Services Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974

Treasury Department Circular No. 230

Society of Actuaries

Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline

U.S. Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

Pursuant to section 3042 of ERISA, the Joint Board published regulations governing performance of actuarial services under ERISA. These Joint Board regulations, set forth at 20 CFR 901, contain five subparts:

The Advisory Committee on Actuarial Examinations (hereafter "Advisory Committee" ) is a discretionary committee established, via charter, under agency authority in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5 U.S.C. § 10. The Advisory Committee’s duties are to recommend topics for inclusion in the Joint Board’s examinations, develop and review examination questions, recommend proposed examinations, review examination results and recommend passing scores. In addition, the Advisory Committee makes other recommendations, as requested, relative to the Joint Board’s examination program.

The Advisory Committee reports to the Chair of the Joint Board.

The Advisory Committee consists of not more than nine members. To ensure a balanced membership, the Joint Board seeks to appoint several members from each main practice area, including small single employer plans, large single employer plans, and multi-employer plans. In addition, to ensure diversity of viewpoints, the Joint Board limits the number of members employed by any one firm or affiliated with any one actuarial organization.

The Advisory Committee meets four times per year, holding two meetings that are partially open to the public and two closed meetings. The partially open meetings are held in Washington, DC in January and July of each year.

To satisfy the experience requirement, within the 10-year period immediately preceding the date of application, an applicant must have completed, either:

To satisfy the knowledge requirement, an individual must pass two Joint Board examinations: the basic EA-1 examination and the pension EA-2 examination. The pension examination is given in two parts: EA-2F and EA-2L. The requirement to take the EA-1 examination may be waived by the Joint Board under certain circumstances.

Pay.gov is an online portal that provides customers of various government agencies with a highly secure means for completing forms and making payments electronically. The system is available for enrolled actuaries to apply for and renew their enrollment.

The e-Trak Practitioner database (e-Trak) is the system used to capture data from enrollment and renewal applications. A record is created for each individual who applies for enrollment, and then serves as the comprehensive activity log regarding the individual’s enrollment, and also provides a snapshot of the enrollment status at any given time.

All enrollment applications are entered into e-Trak electronically through migration from the Pay.gov interface or manually from paper applications received by mail.

An application is first reviewed by the staff support assistant, who ensures it has been signed and dated, and that all required fields have been completed.

The staff support assistant notes if the applicant responds "Yes" to any of the following suitability questions on the application. If so, see IRM 1.25.8.6.1.1, Suitability Concerns, for the next steps.

The staff support assistant also reassigns the e-Trak record to the Return Preparer Suitability unit for a personal tax compliance check and a criminal background check. See IRM 25.20.3, Return Preparer Suitability, for information about these suitability checks.

The Return Preparer Suitability unit will determine if the applicant passes the suitability checks.

The staff support assistant uploads a complete copy of the application as a PDF file to the applicant’s e-Trak record and alerts the analyst.

The analyst then does the following:

The analyst compiles the application package and sends it to the Joint Board via secure electronic means. The completed application package contains the following:

Each application package is reviewed by a team of two or three Joint Board members. These reviewers make the determination to approve or deny the application.

If the reviewers need additional information, they notify the analyst, who will contact the applicant via email to request the information. When the applicant responds, the analyst shares the information with the reviewers.

After review, the Joint Board will vote to approve or propose to deny enrollment.

Responsibility for processing renewal of enrollment applications is shared by the staff support assistant, analyst, and seasonal staff employees. The same employee processes the application from beginning to end, unless noted otherwise.

To process a renewal of enrollment application, the assigned staff member does the following:

The assigned staff member then notes if the applicant responded "Yes" to any of the following suitability questions on the application. If so, see IRM 1.25.8.7.1.1, Suitability Concerns, for the next steps.

The assigned staff member then reviews the number of CPE hours listed on the application and determines if they satisfy the requirements for renewal. See IRM 1.25.8.8, Continuing Professional Education (CPE), for details about CPE requirements. If the enrolled actuary has not met the CPE requirements, see IRM 1.25.8.7.1.2, Failure to Meet CPE Requirements, for the next steps.

If the applicant is currently in Inactive Status, see IRM 1.25.8.7.2, Moving from Inactive to Active Status.

After confirming that all requirements for renewal have been met, the assigned staff member generates a renewal letter to be mailed by the staff support assistant via first class mail.

An individual in inactive status may apply to return to active enrollment at any time during the period of inactive enrollment. To return to active status, the applicant must potentially satisfy an increased CPE requirement and a pension actuarial experience requirement. See table below for details.

The renewal application (Form 5434-A) must be filed by paper if renewing during the second or third inactive cycle; Pay.gov may not be used.

The applicant must satisfy the following requirements to return to active status.

Applicants in their second or third inactive enrollment cycle are required to file a Form 5434-A and Schedule A (from Form 5434), which describes their pension actuarial experience. The analyst prepares and emails the Experience Certification Letter(s) to all supervisors listed on the Schedule A to certify the experience.

The application, along with copies of the Experience Certification Letter(s) and any responses, is sent to the Joint Board reviewers to approve or deny renewal. See IRM 1.25.8.6.3, Joint Board Review, for details about the review process.

An enrolled actuary must complete at least 36 CPE hours per cycle, of which at least 12 hours must be in core subject matter and 2 hours must be in ethics subject matter. In addition, at least 12 of the total hours must be completed in a formal program setting. The following are definitions of each component of CPE.

The required CPE hours must be completed by December 31 immediately preceding the start of the next renewal period. See IRM 1.25.8.3, Overview of Enrollment, for information about the renewal period.

CPE hours may be earned by completing a qualifying program, consisting of core and non-core subject matter, offered by a qualifying sponsor. For information about qualifying sponsors, see IRM 1.25.8.9, Qualifying Sponsors. CPE may also be earned in other ways, such as instructing a qualifying program, authoring a peer-reviewed publication, serving on the Joint Board’s advisory committee, or serving as a pre-tester or writer for one of the Joint Board enrollment examinations.

A waiver of the CPE requirements for a given period may be granted under extraordinary circumstances. Waiver requests must provide sufficient evidence that every effort was made throughout the enrollment cycle to participate in one or more qualifying programs that would have satisfied the CPE requirements.

Waiver requests must be submitted and approved prior to applying for renewal; requests must include appropriate documentation. The Joint Board staff, in collaboration with the Executive Director, will review each request and notify the enrolled actuary of the decision. If the request is granted, a Joint Board staff member will issue a CPE waiver approval letter. If the request is denied, or if the request is not submitted timely, the enrolled actuary must complete the required CPE to be granted renewal of enrollment.

To become a qualifying sponsor, an organization must contact the Joint Board staff at nhqjbea@irs.gov and state that it would like to become a qualifying sponsor. In response, the Joint Board will provide the sponsor with the application procedure.

As part of the application process, organizations are asked to provide a sample CPE program, sample certificate of completion, and sample certificate of instruction. In addition, organizations are asked to provide certain representations regarding compliance with the sponsor requirements set forth in the Joint Board regulations, including the content of programs, qualifications of instructors, content of certificates of completion and instruction, and retention of records.

The Joint Board reviews each application and, as applicable, provides corrections and recommendations to the sponsor. If approved, a sponsor recognition letter is issued, and the sponsor is added to the roster of qualifying sponsors. If denied, a letter is issued to the organization explaining the reasons for the denial.

Sponsors must renew their enrollment every three years. All sponsors have the same enrollment cycle.

A sponsor enrollment cycle begins on January 1 and ends on December 31. The sponsor enrollment cycles for the near future begin in years 2024, 2027, and 2030.

Renewal requests must be submitted by December 31st of the year preceding the start of a new sponsor enrollment cycle. Qualifying sponsors who do not request renewal by December 31st are removed from the list of qualifying sponsors, effective the start of the new sponsor enrollment cycle.

To renew its qualifying status, the sponsor must submit a signed letter requesting renewal. The renewal request may be emailed to the Joint Board at nhqjbea@irs.gov, or sent by mail. The mailing address can be found at How to Contact the Joint Board . To facilitate review, the renewal request should include:

If the request is satisfactory, a renewal confirmation letter is issued and the sponsor is added to the roster of qualifying sponsors for the new sponsor enrollment cycle. If the request is not satisfactory, the request is denied, and a letter is issued to the sponsor explaining the reasons for the denial.

Each year, a sample of active enrolled actuaries is randomly selected for a CPE audit. Those selected are notified of the audit by letter and are asked to provide records to support the CPE hours claimed on the most recently filed renewal application.

Audits are performed by the Joint Board staff typically between June and August.

Those selected are given a reasonable time to provide adequate proof of records. Anyone who is unable to provide adequate records within the allotted timeframe will be moved to inactive status until such time that adequate records are provided, or additional credit is earned.

Egregiously deficient results or patterns of conduct that suggest an enrolled actuary was not truthful when submitting a renewal application, may result in disciplinary action.

At the conclusion of the audit, enrolled actuaries will receive a closing letter advising them of the findings.

Each year, a sample of active enrolled actuaries is randomly selected for a review of their Federal tax compliance.

Audits are performed by the Joint Board staff between January and May.

Any selected enrolled actuary who failed to file an income tax return, failed to timely file a tax return, and/or has an outstanding tax balance, will be notified and asked to provide an explanation regarding the potential tax noncompliance and copies of any records confirming compliance with Federal tax obligations.

At the conclusion of the audit, enrolled actuaries will receive a closing letter advising them of the findings.

Each year, a sample of active qualifying sponsors is randomly selected for review to ensure programs coordinated or conducted by the sponsor are in compliance with the Joint Board regulations.

Qualifying sponsors are notified of the audit by letter and are asked to provide samples of content for their core and non-core programs. The Joint Board staff assesses the content and determines if it meets the requirements of the regulations.

At the conclusion of each audit, sponsors will receive a closing letter advising them of the findings.

A referral is a notification, usually by a third party, alleging that an enrolled actuary’s conduct has violated the Joint Board’s regulations.

Referrals are sent to the Joint Board headquarters in Washington, DC via mail, email or fax. There is currently no form available for interested parties to initiate referrals to the Joint Board.

The Joint Board staff may receive referrals from a variety of sources, both internal and external, such as TEGE, and external sources such as PBGC, actuarial organizations, clients/former clients and other enrolled actuaries.

When a referral is received, a Joint Board staff member will acknowledge receipt of a referral by sending a secure e-mail when received internally and by standard letter when received externally.

Referrals are initially reviewed to determine whether:

Upon receipt of a referral, the staff support assistant will consult e-Trak to confirm the existence of a record of the individual named in the referral.

If an enrollment record is found, the attorney-advisor

The attorney-advisor will carefully review the referral to determine whether the alleged conduct is regulated or proscribed by the Joint Board’s regulations.

A tax compliance review should be performed on all referrals once jurisdiction has been established. The attorney-advisor will work with the Return Preparer Suitability unit to conduct a tax compliance check of the same scale and extensiveness as tax compliance checks reserved for new enrollments and random tax compliance audits.

Attorney-advisor should review the enrolled actuary’s most recent enrollment or renewal form and identify whether any of the alleged conduct and/or tax compliance issues, if any, were accurately disclosed on the form.

Attorney-advisor will determine whether the evidence of the referral, on its face, supports an immediate issuance of an allegation letter, or if additional research is required.

If the attorney-advisor identifies that extensive research is needed or if needed information is not readily available, the attorney-advisor will develop an investigative plan identifying:

If sought-after information is readily available and can be obtained without delay, attorney-advisor should obtain the information immediately.

After obtaining available information or developing an investigative plan, attorney-advisor will prepare a memorandum that includes the following information:

The Executive Director will review the case memorandum and uploaded file contents in e-Trak and will concur or dissent with the attorney-advisor’s recommendation or refer back to the attorney-advisor with additional comments/recommendations.

If it is determined that there is no cause of action, the attorney-advisor will notify the staff support assistant to close the case and document as no cause of action.

Once it is determined that any allegations are supported factually and documented appropriately, attorney-advisor will prepare an allegation letter.

The allegation letter is the mechanism by which the Executive Director alleges that a violation of one or more of the Joint Board’s regulations has occurred. The contents of the allegation letter must:

When preparing an allegation letter, the attorney-advisor must receive Executive Director approval prior to mailing. Attorney-advisor will prepare a supplemental memorandum with the allegation letter attached for Executive Director review.

The enrolled actuary is afforded (30) thirty days to respond to the allegation letter and may request a conference with the attorney-advisor and Executive Director; however, a conference will not be granted in lieu of a substantive response.

The enrolled actuary’s response should include a detailed response to the allegations and should include any mitigating evidence, if applicable.

When reviewing the response, attorney-advisor may request additional information or documentation in support of any mitigating evidence offered by the enrolled actuary.

The attorney-advisor will prepare a memorandum for Executive Director review which highlights the recommendation for any proposed discipline. Any recommendation for discipline should only be made after considerable review and analysis of the allegations, the enrolled actuary’s response and mitigating evidence, conference deliberations and any discussions with pre-authorized technical experts.

Possible disciplinary actions that can be proposed for an enrolled actuary are:

If the parties are unable to come to an agreement on discipline, the Executive Director will contact Chief Counsel, General Legal Services to discuss the initiation of a proceeding before an Administrative Law Judge for suspension or termination.