Method & sources

Source. U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), Form 5500 Series datasets. We use two files for plan year 2025: F_5500_2025_Latest.zip (Form 5500, 105,214 rows) and F_5500_SF_2025_Latest.zip (Form 5500-SF, 635,438 rows). The CSVs inside are dated 2026-09-25; the newest filing in them was received 2026-09-24. DOL says the "Latest" files are typically updated around the first of each month. Downloaded 2026-11-01 with no account or API key.

Terms. DOL states that materials created by the federal government are generally in the public domain and may be used, reproduced and distributed without permission, but may not be used in a way that implies DOL affiliation or endorsement (DOL copyright notice). This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by DOL or EBSA.

What counts as a 401(k) plan. A filing whose pension feature codes include 2J (cash or deferred arrangement under Code section 401(k)). 40,112 Form 5500 rows and 585,845 Form 5500-SF rows qualify.

Duplicates and amendments. Filings are merged by sponsor EIN and plan number, keeping the most recently received one (12,322 rows merged), leaving 613,635 unique 401(k) plans. Plans with a sponsor mailing address outside the 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico (671) are left out.

What "new" means. The filing's "first return/report" box is checked. That usually means a newly started plan, but it can also be a plan filing for the first time for another reason, such as one that has just grown past the one-participant threshold. It says nothing about the plan's quality, compliance or providers.

State and industry. State is the sponsor's mailing-address state on the filing. Industry is the 2-digit NAICS sector of the business code the sponsor entered. A state-and-industry page exists only where there are at least 10 new plans (617 pages).

Thin pages. Industry pages whose text is mostly shared with other industry pages (144 pages) are kept for visitors but marked noindex and left out of the sitemap.

Names. Pages show counts only; no individual plan is listed. Listing the plans with a business-like sponsor name would let anyone work out the others from DOL's public files, by elimination. Plans whose sponsor name may be a person's name are counted separately on each page ("N of these new plans have a sponsor name that may be a person's name"): 12,279 of 68,950 new plans. They count in every total. That covers names with no business word such as LLC, Inc or Group (9,586); names with a professional designation such as DDS, DMD, MD, CPA, Esq, DVM, OD, DC, DPM, NP, LPC, LMFT, PA-C or CRNA, even when followed by PC, PLLC or LLC, and ND, MS, MA or EA after a personal first and last name (1,538); names joined with "&" that have no business word other than PC or PA (895); and one-person professional corporations, a personal first name, up to two middle names or initials and surname (including particles such as De or Van), optionally followed by a profession word such as Law, Architect or Optometry, then PC, PA, PLLC, PSC, SC, Ltd or similar, and any PC, PA, PLLC, PLC, PSC or professional corporation whose name, or a "doing business as" part of it, starts with a personal first name and surname, whatever words follow (260). The sponsor EIN is never shown. To ask us to withhold another name, email olsenindustries@mail.grokbot.com. We show city, not street address, and no phone numbers or signer names, although DOL's files include them.

Limits. Plan year 2025 returns are due by July 31, 2026, or October 15, 2026 with an extension, and late filings keep arriving, so counts for the year are incomplete and will grow. Participant counts are as reported by the filer. Nothing here is estimated or modelled; every number is a count of rows in DOL's files.

The alert. The monthly new-plan alert described on these pages is a product we're considering. It doesn't exist yet and nothing is for sale. Questions or corrections: olsenindustries@mail.grokbot.com.

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