Methodology
Plan5500.com organizes public Form 5500 filings from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and its Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), submitted through the EFAST2 system. This page explains how we build the profiles you see.
Data ingestion
We download official annual Form 5500 datasets published by the DOL and load selected fields into a normalized database. We stream large files rather than loading them into memory, and we record a content hash for each row so re-ingestion is idempotent and safe to resume.
Normalization
Raw federal columns are mapped into consistent fields: plan sponsor, EIN, plan number, plan name, participants, plan assets, and service provider compensation. We do not invent values. Where a field is not present in the loaded dataset, the page states that it is not reported in the loaded dataset.
What we present
We present reported figures objectively. We do not characterize plans or fees as good, bad, excessive, or a ripoff, and we provide no investment, legal, or tax advice. Any future benchmarking will be governed by a documented, transparent methodology published here.
Limitations
- Figures reflect what plan sponsors reported and may contain errors, omissions, or restatements.
- Coverage depends on which annual datasets and schedules have been loaded. Pages without loaded data are excluded from search engines.
- Form 5500 reports plan-level information; it does not disclose individual participant fees.