What the numbers on this site mean
Plan counts depend on the definition, which is why we publish ours. 1,016,196 is the number of searchable plans whose latest filing is not a final return, including health and welfare plans. 771,049 of those have enough fee data to receive a grade. 2.1M+ is the number of Form 5500 and 5500-SF filings ingested across all years, and $29T+ is the sum of filed end-of-year assets, which includes pooled investment trusts.
Because every vendor in this market reads the same Department of Labor filings, plan counts across vendors differ mostly by definition. We do not claim to have more plans than anyone. What differs is what is joined to each plan, listed below.
The public sources
401kHunter joins 15+ public sources. None is scraped from a private site and no vendor data is resold as plan data.
- →DOL Form 5500 and Form 5500-SF (EFAST2 bulk files): plan identity, sponsor, assets, participants, contributions, characteristic codes. Published monthly.
- →Schedule A: insurance contracts and commissions. Schedule C: service-provider compensation, including indirect-compensation formula text. Schedule H and I: plan financial statements. Schedule R: pension plan details. Schedule MEP: multiple-employer and pooled-employer plan participation.
- →EFAST2 audited financial statements attached to large-plan filings: read for Roth provisions and plan-design facts the form has no field for.
- →SEC Form 11-K: the same, for plans holding employer stock. SEC Form D: recently funded private companies.
- →IRS list of pre-approved plan documents: matched to the opinion-letter serial number on Form 5500-SF to identify the firm behind a small plan's document.
- →SBA Paycheck Protection Program loan data: businesses with payroll, used to find employers with no ERISA-filed plan.
- →OSHA Injury Tracking Application, IRS Form 990 and FMCSA census: a current employee count where a public observation exists.
- →Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas: radius search by ZIP code. State auto-IRA mandate schedules: which no-plan employers face a deadline.
How the fee grade is computed
The fee grade is the plan's reported administrative expenses divided by the larger of its beginning- and end-of-year plan assets, all from the plan's own filing (Schedule H or I for larger plans, the form itself for small ones). Using the larger figure keeps a plan that paid out money during the year from looking more expensive than it was. The peer percentiles shown next to the grade use the same ratio and rank a plan only against other graded plans of its size. Schedule C provider compensation is shown alongside the grade but is not part of it. On the standard scale (defined contribution plans with $100K or more) the thresholds are fixed: A is 0.5% of assets or less, B is above 0.5% up to 1.0%, C is above 1.0% up to 1.5%, and D is above 1.5%. Smaller plans and pension plans are graded on their own scales, set out in the next section. A plan with no usable fee data is left ungraded rather than guessed at. Grades cover retirement plans with at least $10K in assets ($100K for defined benefit pension plans). Defined contribution plans with $100K or more are graded on the standard scale; smaller plans are graded on a small-plan scale against plans of similar size, and defined benefit pension plans on a pension scale against pension plans of similar size, because a flat fee or PBGC premiums make their ratios incomparable with larger 401(k)s. Welfare and other non-retirement filings, multiemployer plans and pooled investment entities are not graded, and neither is a plan that lost most of its assets during the year or a filing whose ratio is beyond its scale's plausible ceiling (5% on the standard scale), which almost always reflects a reporting error rather than a real fee.
A grade is an estimate of what the filing shows, not an audit of total plan cost: fund expense ratios paid inside investments are not reported on Form 5500 and are not in the grade. As of August 2026, of 771,049 graded plans, 504,261 are A, 181,381 are B, 58,569 are C and 26,838 are D. Because fee data usually comes from an earlier filing than the latest one, the grade carries the year it was computed from.
Grading scales
Every grade is the same A–D letter on the same ratio, but plans are graded on one of three scales so a letter compares like with like. The standard scale covers defined contribution plans with $100K or more and uses fixed cut-offs. Smaller defined contribution plans are graded on a small-plan scale, because a flat recordkeeping fee is most of their ratio, and defined benefit pension plans on a pension scale, because their administrative line includes PBGC premiums and actuarial fees. On those two scales each asset band has its own cut-offs, set so that roughly the same share of plans in every band earns each letter as on the standard scale (roughly 65% A, 24% B, 7.5% C and 3.5% D), measured from the latest filings of active plans and re-measured annually. A grade on the small-plan or pension scale is always labelled with its scale. Plans under $10K (pension plans under $100K) are not graded.
- →Standard scale, $100K+: A up to 0.5%, B up to 1%, C up to 1.5%, D above 1.5%; a ratio above 5% is treated as not comparable.
- →Small-plan scale, $10K–$25K: A up to 0.84%, B up to 3.15%, C up to 8.71%, D above 8.71%; a ratio above 25% is treated as not comparable.
- →Small-plan scale, $25K–$50K: A up to 0.67%, B up to 2.06%, C up to 4.72%, D above 4.72%; a ratio above 13% is treated as not comparable.
- →Small-plan scale, $50K–$100K: A up to 0.62%, B up to 1.62%, C up to 2.94%, D above 2.94%; a ratio above 7% is treated as not comparable.
- →Pension scale, $100K–$1M: A up to 0.29%, B up to 0.85%, C up to 1.22%, D above 1.22%; a ratio above 5% is treated as not comparable.
- →Pension scale, $1M–$5M: A up to 0.49%, B up to 0.89%, C up to 1.22%, D above 1.22%; a ratio above 5% is treated as not comparable.
- →Pension scale, $5M–$25M: A up to 0.59%, B up to 1.33%, C up to 2.28%, D above 2.28%; a ratio above 5% is treated as not comparable.
- →Pension scale, $25M–$100M: A up to 0.72%, B up to 1.44%, C up to 2.16%, D above 2.16%; a ratio above 5% is treated as not comparable.
- →Pension scale, $100M+: A up to 0.57%, B up to 1.04%, C up to 1.56%, D above 1.56%; a ratio above 5% is treated as not comparable.
Fee grade cut-offs by scale
| Scale | Plan assets | A | B | C | D | Not comparable above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard scale | $100K+ | ≤ 0.5% | ≤ 1% | ≤ 1.5% | > 1.5% | 5% |
| Small-plan scale | $10K–$25K | ≤ 0.84% | ≤ 3.15% | ≤ 8.71% | > 8.71% | 25% |
| Small-plan scale | $25K–$50K | ≤ 0.67% | ≤ 2.06% | ≤ 4.72% | > 4.72% | 13% |
| Small-plan scale | $50K–$100K | ≤ 0.62% | ≤ 1.62% | ≤ 2.94% | > 2.94% | 7% |
| Pension scale | $100K–$1M | ≤ 0.29% | ≤ 0.85% | ≤ 1.22% | > 1.22% | 5% |
| Pension scale | $1M–$5M | ≤ 0.49% | ≤ 0.89% | ≤ 1.22% | > 1.22% | 5% |
| Pension scale | $5M–$25M | ≤ 0.59% | ≤ 1.33% | ≤ 2.28% | > 2.28% | 5% |
| Pension scale | $25M–$100M | ≤ 0.72% | ≤ 1.44% | ≤ 2.16% | > 2.16% | 5% |
| Pension scale | $100M+ | ≤ 0.57% | ≤ 1.04% | ≤ 1.56% | > 1.56% | 5% |
Admin expenses ÷ the larger of beginning- and end-of-year plan assets. Each column is the upper edge of that letter; D is everything above C.
Small-plan and pension cut-offs were measured on 2026-10-03 from the latest filings of active plans and are re-measured annually.
How the plan score is computed
The plan score (1–100) is a weighted blend of up to four dimensions: Fees 35%, Employer generosity 20%, Participation 20%, Return 25%, re-weighted over the dimensions a filing has data for. Fees are scored against the plan's own grading scale and size band, so the fee score always follows the fee grade: A scores 76–100, B 51–75, C 26–50 and D 1–25, placed within the letter by where the ratio sits between that band's cut-offs. A plan that is not graded, or reports $0 administrative expenses with no other fee evidence, is scored on its other dimensions only. Employer generosity (employer contributions per active participant), participation (active share of all participants) and return (net rate of return) are percentiles among plans of the same size, and the same industry where that group holds at least 20 plans.
How providers are identified
For large plans, providers and what they were paid come directly from Schedule C. Small plans file Form 5500-SF, which has no Schedule C, so we use three further signals and label each one for what it is.
Disclosed: the filing names a third-party administrator that is not the sponsor, matched against an allowlist of known firms so that an individual's name is never shown as a provider. Inferred recordkeeper: plans that filed a 5500-SF in one year and a Schedule C in another link an IRS plan document to the recordkeeper those plans paid; where at least three such plans exist and a majority name the same recordkeeper, other plans on that document are labelled "Likely recordkeeper (inferred)" with the sample size and share shown. Plan document: the firm holding the IRS opinion letter for the plan's pre-approved document, from the IRS's published lists, which is on file for about 85% of small plans. When that firm is a document vendor whose document many providers license, it is labelled as document software and is not treated as the plan's provider.
How contacts are found and scored
Contact details are not part of the public record. When you ask for a plan's decision maker, 401kHunter looks for the person responsible for the plan at that sponsor through licensed business-contact providers, checks the person against the sponsor's company domain, and returns the contact with a confidence score. A score is a probability, not a guarantee, and we do not describe contacts as verified. If no usable contact is found, the credits are refunded automatically. The signer named on a filing is often a TPA employee or someone who has since left, which is why the signer is shown separately from the decision maker.
Refresh cadence and freshness
The Department of Labor publishes bulk filing data monthly and 401kHunter refreshes monthly. A plan year's filing is due seven months after the plan year ends, or nine and a half months with an extension, so the latest complete year is always the previous one. Every figure in the product shows the filing year it came from, and the product displays the date of the most recent data load.
Known limits
What this data cannot do, so nobody is surprised.
- →Form 5500 has no field for Roth, auto-enrolment details or the investment lineup of most plans; where we show these, they come from audited statements or 11-K filings and are marked with their source.
- →Plans with fewer than 100 participants generally file no Schedule C, so their provider is disclosed, inferred or unknown — never stated as fact without a source.
- →Filings contain sponsor-entered errors. We show the record as filed rather than silently editing it.
- →One-participant plans that file Form 5500-EZ are not in the public bulk data.
- →A business listed as having no ERISA-filed plan may have a plan that files under another entity, or a plan too new to have filed.
Pricing, for the record
Searching is free and works without an account. Signup includes 50 free credits. Credit packs start at $25; Pro is $100 a month including 1,500 credits. A plan's full financials cost 10 credits, a decision-maker contact 30 and a direct phone 20.