NORTHWOOD SCHOOL — NORTHWOOD SCHOOL 403(B) TDA PLAN
LAKE PLACID, NY · EIN 14-1401103 · Plan #002 · Latest Form 5500-SF filed for 2025
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Form 5500 filing history
NORTHWOOD SCHOOL has 38 Form 5500 filings for this plan in the 401kHunter database:
- 2025 plan year
- 2024 plan year
- 2023 plan year
- 2022 plan year
- 2021 plan year
- 2020 plan year
- 2019 plan year
- 2018 plan year
- 2017 plan year
- 2016 plan year
- 2015 plan year
- 2014 plan year
- 2013 plan year
- 2012 plan year
- 2011 plan year
- 2010 plan year
- 2009 plan year
- 2008 plan year
- 2007 plan year
- 2006 plan year
- 2005 plan year
- 2004 plan year
- 2003 plan year
- 2002 plan year
- 2001 plan year
- 2000 plan year
- 1999 plan year
- 1998 plan year
- 1997 plan year
- 1996 plan year
- 1995 plan year
- 1994 plan year
- 1993 plan year
- 1992 plan year
- 1991 plan year
- 1990 plan year
- 1989 plan year
- 1988 plan year
Year-over-year asset, participant, and fee trends for every filing are available with a free account.
Plan features
Reported on Form 5500 line 8 (plan characteristic codes) in the 2025 filing:
- §403(b)(1) Annuity (2L)Code §403(b)(1) arrangement (tax-sheltered annuity).
- §404(c) Plan (2F)ERISA §404(c) plan — plan is intended to meet the conditions of 29 CFR 2550.404c-1 (participant control over investments).
- Self-Directed (Full) (2G)Total participant-directed account plan — participants direct the investment of all assets in their accounts.
- Pre-Approved Plan (3D)Pre-approved pension plan — master, prototype, or volume submitter plan with a favorable IRS opinion or advisory letter.
- QDIA Default (2T)Total or partial participant-directed plan that uses a default investment account for participants who fail to direct assets.
See the full picture on NORTHWOOD SCHOOL’s plan.
Full Schedule H financials, Schedule C service-provider fees, year-over-year trends, peer benchmarks, and decision-maker contacts — create a free account and get 50 free credits.
What is Form 5500?
Form 5500 is the annual return that U.S. employee benefit plans must file with the Department of Labor under ERISA. Every 401(k), pension, profit-sharing, and most welfare benefit plans file one each year, disclosing the plan sponsor, administrator, total assets, participant counts, contributions, and expenses. Large plans (generally 100+ participants) file the full Form 5500 with detailed schedules; smaller plans file the condensed Form 5500-SF. NORTHWOOD SCHOOL’s most recent filing for this plan covers the 2025 plan year on Form 5500-SF.
Because Form 5500 filings are public record, anyone can review a plan’s financial health: how much it holds in assets, how many employees participate, what it pays in administrative expenses, and — for large plans via Schedule C — exactly which service providers were paid and how much. 401kHunter ingests the DOL’s complete bulk dataset so this information is searchable across more than one million plans.
How fee grades work
401kHunter’s fee grade is a simple A–D letter score computed from each plan’s own filing: admin expenses ÷ the larger of beginning- and end-of-year plan assets. On the standard scale (defined contribution plans with $100K or more), grade A means expenses are under 0.5% of assets, B is 0.5%–1.0%, C is 1.0%–1.5%, and D is anything above 1.5%. Smaller plans and pension plans are graded on their own scales against similar plans (see the methodology). It’s a screening signal, not a verdict — small plans naturally pay more per dollar of assets than billion-dollar plans, and some filings roll investment costs into the administrative line. 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.
Still, the ratio is the fastest public indicator of whether a plan’s participants are getting a fair deal. Industry studies put the average all-in cost of a mid-size plan near 0.5% of assets, with small plans averaging closer to 1.0%–1.3%. A plan consistently grading C or D across multiple filing years is paying above market, and its sponsor has both a fiduciary reason and negotiating leverage to seek better pricing.