Employee Benefit Plans Conference (VIRTUAL)

Mr. Aron has over thirty years of experience with EBSA working with audits of ERISA-covered plans. As the Chief, Division of Accounting Services, Mr. Aron’s responsibilities include implementation of EBSA’s CPA Firm Inspection Program, providing technical assistance to plan filers and plan professionals, and providing ERISA-related accounting and auditing expertise within EBSA.

Mr. Aron is a certified public accountant and holds a B.B.A. degree with a major in accounting from the College of William and Mary in Virginia.

Jason Newman

Jason D. Newman, CPA, is a partner with CohnReznick with 28 years of public accounting experience in areas including auditing and strategic business planning. Jason is the Assurance Practice Leader for New England and also co-leads the efforts of our Firm’s Employee Benefit Plan Practice in New England, where he performs audits of defined contribution and defined benefit plans, and is a member of the Firm’s Capital Markets and SEC Practice, where he provides services to a variety of closely held businesses and public companies.

Utilizing his expertise in these areas, Jason has actively developed continuing education and professional resources for the Employee Benefit Plan Practice, including the creation of templates that aid in financial reporting, the performance of control assessment engagements for service organizations, the audits of investment vehicles, and consultation on various employee benefit plan issues.

In his role with the Firm’s Capital Markets and SEC Practice, Jason serves a variety of public and private entities, including private equity partnerships, broker-dealers in securities, SEC registrants, investment advisors, real estate entities, third party administrators, and insurance operations. Jason has gained additional expertise in providing technical accounting support to the firm’s litigation support practice and in providing business advisory services for a variety of closely-held businesses

Corey Kohnle

Corey is a Director in the New England Employee Benefit Plan Practice with over nine years of public accounting experience. Corey’s responsibilities on engagements have included the supervision and review of work performed by senior associates and junior staff; leading communications between the audit team, firm specialists, and clients; reviewing financial statements for conformity with U.S. GAAP; and identifying control deficiencies, as well as preparing recommendations for improvement to management. Corey’s auditing experience includes investments, contributions, benefit payments, claims, post-retirement benefit obligation, asset transfers, plan mergers, plan spin offs, annuity buyouts, and ERISA compliance. Corey has led and performed financial statement audits for various industries, with a variety of Employee Benefit Plans including full scope audits and ERISA Section 103(a)(3)(C) audits of 401(k), 403(b), defined benefit plans and health and welfare plans as well as 11k audits.

Jason Eddy

As the Practice Leader for Grant Thornton’s National Employee Benefit Plan Practice, Jason is responsible for providing services to some of Grant Thornton’s most complex employee benefit plan engagements across the U.S.

Jason has extensive experience in dealing with reporting and disclosure issues related to benefit plans. Jason serves as a technical resource for his firm on employee benefit plan auditing, accounting and reporting issues.

Jason is also responsible for delivering training to audit team members to support the overall National Employee Benefit Plan Practice. Jason is actively involved with the ongoing process of updating Grant Thornton’s employee benefit plan audit methodology, innovation tools and practice aids, and serves as a program leader and developer for the firm’s nationally developed employee benefit plan training programs. Prior to joining Grant Thornton in 2019, Jason was a Director within a Big Four accounting firm’s National Employee Benefit Plan and Asset and Wealth Management Practices.

Jason has over 20 years of experience leading large employee benefit plan engagement teams. He also has experience performing both peer reviews and internal inspections for other employee benefit plan engagements.

Amber Kendrick

Amber has focused on helping America’s workforce retire on their own terms since 2007. As a Retirement Plan Consultant, she works closely with plan sponsors designing solutions to promote retirement readiness for their employees.

Amber cofounded the Women Owning their Wealth (WOW) Collaborative which brings together people, perspectives, and tools that women can use to take control of their finances today and realize their dreams in the future.

She graduated from East Carolina University with a B.S. degree in Business Administration and holds the Chartered Retirement Plans Specialist (CRPS®) and Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor (CPFA®) designations.

Amber was recognized by the National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA) as a Top Female Advisor. She was featured in Employee Benefit Adviser as a Rising Star in Advising and by Hartford Business Journal on its Top 40 Under 40 list.

Amber’s southern roots are evident in her love of college football and coaching her niece’s cheerleading squad. She resides in Haddam, CT with her family and fun-loving dog.

David Beck

David has over 20 years of experience in the retirement plan industry. After 6 years in public accounting, including 4 years of auditing employee benefit Plans, David moved into his current field of compliance services for retirement plans. In addition to extensive expertise in 401(k)‘s, David is also the practice lead for 403(b) Plans and all manner of nonqualified deferred compensation plans (457(b)/(f) and 409A). He is a frequent presenter at the Connecticut Society of CPA’s Annual Employee Benefits Conference and is an active member of the Employe Benefits committee that is responsible for Planning the event.

Virginia McGarrity

Virginia E. McGarrity counsels employers, insurance carriers, and service providers on a wide range of complex employee benefits and executive compensation matters. She is a member of our firm’s Employee Benefits + Compensation group and is Co-Chair of our firm’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion + Belonging Committee.