NIPA APA study plan

Map the pension administration role end to end: identify who does what across recordkeeping, benefit calculation, and participant servicing

Define the core ERISA fiduciary terms (plan sponsor, named fiduciary, plan administrator, party in interest) in your own words

Build a one-page glossary that links each administration task to the ERISA provision or rule that governs it

Trace a single participant from hire to retirement in a written walkthrough of at least 300 words

Compare defined benefit and defined contribution administration duties and list where the workflows diverge

Explain how plan documents, SPDs, and amendments control the administrator's authority and limits

Calculate a sample accrued benefit and a sample account balance from given assumptions you write yourself

Draft the questions you would ask a plan sponsor before accepting a new engagement

Distinguish eligibility, vesting, and benefit accrual rules and identify the statutory limits on each

Apply coverage and nondiscrimination concepts to a hypothetical plan population you construct

Identify the qualification requirements that most often trigger correction work

Write out the difference between a plan document failure and an operational failure

Summarize the fiduciary duties of loyalty and prudence and give two administration examples of each

Outline the reporting and disclosure obligations that fall on the plan administrator

Explain prohibited transaction rules and list three common administration-adjacent risk areas

Describe how a fiduciary breach claim would be evaluated against a fact pattern you write

Sequence the distribution process from participant request through payment and tax reporting

Identify the required notices and timing rules that attach to a distribution event

Reconcile a sample plan year of contributions and trust activity to a filed return

List the reporting forms and deadlines an administrator must track annually

Compute a benefit payment under two different optional forms and compare the results

Explain how loans, hardship withdrawals, and domestic relations orders are processed and documented

Draft the internal controls an administrator should have over participant data and payments

Identify the records an administrator must retain and for how long

Walk through the correction options available when a qualification failure is discovered

Distinguish a plan document failure from an operational failure and select the right remedy for each

Explain the consequences of a plan losing qualified status and how that risk is mitigated

Build a decision tree for triaging a newly discovered compliance failure

Complete a timed mixed-domain practice set and log every miss by domain and cause

Re-study the two weakest domains using only your own notes and the source material

Recite the key deadlines, limits, and fiduciary duties from memory

Write a one-page exam-day strategy covering pacing and question triage