The PWBA (1997) report found a number of characteristics which were associated with a lower likelihood of GAAS and/or ERISA violations. Among these characteristics are an awareness of the unique nature of pension plan auditing and the number of plan audits performed by the auditing firm (PWBA 1997,13). These factors are likely to be interrelated because of an auditing firm audits a larger number of pension plans, the firm will probably be more aware of the unique nature of pension plan audits. Therefore, expertise can be measured by the number of the auditing firm’s pension plan audit clients. Given the incentives to hire expert auditors, pension plan administrators may be willing to pay a higher audit fee for the greater assurance an industry expert can provide that the plan is in compliance with ERISA reporting requirements. This is the main hypothesis of this study and is stated as follows (in the alternative form):