Data · plan year 2025 · DOL data through Sep 24, 2026
Plans approaching their first Form 5500 audit, plan year 2025, by state
The Form 5500-SF filings for plan year 2025 show 2,057 retirement plans that ended the year with 121 or more participants with account balances. 2,002 of them show no audited return for an earlier plan year, so plan year 2026 is generally their first audited year. This page counts them by state, size and industry. No plan, sponsor or EIN is named here.
2,057plans flagged from plan year 2025 short forms (121+ participants with balances)
2,002with no audited return for an earlier year: likely first audit (2026, or overdue for 2025 in 12 cases)
32%of the flagged plans have 150 or more participants with balances (662)
5,617more plans at 100-120 participants on the watch list
The rules, as the DOL states them
Why these plans are expected to need an audit
The Instructions for Form 5500 (plan year 2025, General Instructions, Section 4 "What To File") set the dividing line: a return filed for a plan "that covered fewer than 100 participants as of the beginning of the plan year should be completed following the requirements below for a 'small plan,' and a return/report filed for a plan that covered 100 or more participants as of the beginning of the plan year should be completed following the requirements below for a 'large plan.'" For a defined contribution plan such as a 401(k) plan the count is the number of participants with account balances at the beginning of the plan year (line 6g(1)). A large pension plan attaches Schedule H and the report of an independent qualified public accountant (IQPA).
The same section contains the exception that matters most for growing plans, the 80-120 Participant Rule: "If the number of participants is between 80 and 120, and a Form 5500 Annual Return/Report was filed for the prior plan year, you may elect to complete the return/report in the same category ('large plan' or 'small plan') as was filed for the prior return/report." The underlying regulation is 29 CFR 2520.103-1(d).
How we apply it: a plan that filed the short form for 2025 and reported 121 or more participants with account balances at the end of the year starts plan year 2026 above 120, because the count at the start of one year is the count at the end of the year before. It can then no longer stay in the small-plan category and generally needs its first audit for 2026. The instructions list further exceptions, for example the short plan year rule, which public data does not always show. Source: DOL, Instructions for Form 5500 (2025), PDF. This is a summary for orientation, not legal, tax or audit advice. More detail: the 100-participant and 80-120 rules.
By state
Flagged plans in every state and territory
Sponsor state from the plan's Form 5500-SF. "Flagged" counts every plan with 121 or more participants with balances at the end of 2025; "likely first audit" leaves out the 55 plans that already had an audited return for an earlier year (returning to audit) and keeps the 12 that started 2025 above 120 and are probably overdue. The watch list counts plans at 100 to 120 participants with balances, the candidates for the following year. States with at least five likely first audits link to their own page with industries, cities and the local auditor market.
| State | Flagged | Likely first audit | 150+ participants | Watch list 100-120 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 337 | 328 | 127 (38%) | 765 |
| Texas | 161 | 155 | 52 (32%) | 357 |
| New York | 137 | 135 | 55 (40%) | 370 |
| Florida | 136 | 133 | 40 (29%) | 257 |
| Pennsylvania | 91 | 90 | 40 (44%) | 220 |
| Illinois | 84 | 84 | 23 (27%) | 280 |
| New Jersey | 72 | 70 | 27 (38%) | 187 |
| Massachusetts | 67 | 66 | 23 (34%) | 197 |
| Georgia | 61 | 61 | 25 (41%) | 132 |
| Minnesota | 55 | 53 | 6 (11%) | 148 |
| Virginia | 53 | 53 | 15 (28%) | 183 |
| Ohio | 53 | 49 | 11 (21%) | 181 |
| Colorado | 53 | 52 | 15 (28%) | 114 |
| Michigan | 51 | 48 | 18 (35%) | 156 |
| North Carolina | 44 | 44 | 10 (23%) | 135 |
| Arizona | 42 | 38 | 19 (45%) | 85 |
| Missouri | 39 | 39 | 7 (18%) | 88 |
| Utah | 38 | 36 | 14 (37%) | 71 |
| Maryland | 36 | 36 | 15 (42%) | 124 |
| Indiana | 33 | 32 | 10 (30%) | 110 |
| Washington | 32 | 32 | 12 (38%) | 134 |
| Oregon | 31 | 29 | 7 (23%) | 90 |
| South Carolina | 28 | 26 | 4 (14%) | 65 |
| Wisconsin | 27 | 25 | 4 (15%) | 130 |
| Tennessee | 27 | 26 | 8 (30%) | 98 |
| Iowa | 23 | 23 | 1 (4%) | 61 |
| Louisiana | 20 | 18 | 4 (20%) | 69 |
| District of Columbia | 18 | 17 | 6 (33%) | 55 |
| Nevada | 16 | 16 | 10 (62%) | 39 |
| Alabama | 15 | 15 | 3 (20%) | 59 |
| Delaware | 15 | 15 | 5 (33%) | 22 |
| Kentucky | 14 | 14 | 5 (36%) | 53 |
| Kansas | 13 | 12 | 1 (8%) | 45 |
| New Hampshire | 12 | 12 | 3 (25%) | 31 |
| Connecticut | 11 | 11 | 4 (36%) | 82 |
| Maine | 11 | 11 | 2 (18%) | 47 |
| Oklahoma | 11 | 11 | 4 (36%) | 42 |
| Idaho | 10 | 10 | 4 (40%) | 25 |
| Mississippi | 10 | 10 | 3 (30%) | 21 |
| Arkansas | 9 | 9 | 2 (22%) | 33 |
| North Dakota | 9 | 8 | 1 (11%) | 24 |
| Nebraska | 8 | 8 | 3 (38%) | 47 |
| New Mexico | 8 | 8 | 1 (12%) | 27 |
| Rhode Island | 8 | 8 | 3 (38%) | 27 |
| South Dakota | 7 | 5 | 1 (14%) | 18 |
| Vermont | 7 | 7 | 1 (14%) | 13 |
| Montana | 5 | 5 | 3 (60%) | 18 |
| West Virginia | 2 | 2 | 1 (50%) | 18 |
| Hawaii | 2 | 2 | 0 (0%) | 13 |
| Wyoming | 2 | 2 | 1 (50%) | 7 |
| Puerto Rico | 1 | 1 | 1 (100%) | 15 |
| Alaska | 1 | 1 | 1 (100%) | 14 |
| U.S. Virgin Islands | 1 | 1 | 1 (100%) | 0 |
| Guam | 0 | 0 | - | 9 |
| No U.S. state on the filing | 0 | 0 | - | 5 |
| Northern Mariana Islands | 0 | 0 | - | 1 |
| All states and territories | 2,057 | 2,002 | 662 (32%) | 5,617 |
53 states and territories have at least one flagged plan; 47 have their own state page. Data: DOL Form 5500 datasets (EFAST2), filings received through Sep 24, 2026, monthly run of Oct 24, 2026.
Size
Most first-audit plans are small
Participants with account balances at the end of 2025, all 2,057 flagged plans. The median is 136; 227 plans have 200 or more.
| Participants with balances | Plans | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 121-129 | 709 | 34% |
| 130-149 | 686 | 33% |
| 150-199 | 435 | 21% |
| 200-499 | 202 | 10% |
| 500 or more | 25 | 1% |
| All flagged plans | 2,057 | 100% |
709 plans (34%) sit just above the line at 121 to 129. For them a corrected count on an amended filing decides whether they stay on the list, so they are the least certain part of it.
Industries and plan types
Who sponsors these plans
Industry sector of the sponsor (NAICS code on the filing). The two largest are professional services (20%) and health care (17%). By plan type: 1,995 401(k) plans, 61 other defined contribution plans, 1 other.
| Industry | Plans | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Professional services | 410 | 20% |
| Health care | 354 | 17% |
| Manufacturing | 205 | 10% |
| Transportation | 151 | 7% |
| Construction | 131 | 6% |
| Other services | 112 | 5% |
| Retail | 106 | 5% |
| Admin & support services | 99 | 5% |
| Accommodation & food | 88 | 4% |
| Finance & insurance | 83 | 4% |
| 9 other sectors | 318 | 15% |
| All flagged plans | 2,057 | 100% |
For audit firms
What an audit firm can read from these tables
- The market is national but uneven. California, Texas, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania and Illinois together hold 946 of the flagged plans (46%). In smaller states a handful of plans is the whole year's supply of first audits, so each one counts.
- These are small engagements that recur. Most plans have between 121 and 200 participants with balances. As long as a plan stays a large plan it files an audited return every year. For what plans of this size report paying their auditor, see plan audit fees by size and state (Schedule H, with the limits explained there).
- The watch list is next year's pipeline. The 5,617 plans at 100 to 120 participants are not due an audit yet; the ones that keep growing appear on a later list.
- Not every flagged plan will be audited. In our back-test, 81% of the 2,134 plans flagged for plan year 2023 filed an audited Form 5500 for 2024, 5% filed the short form again and the rest were terminated, merged, renumbered or late. Those audited returns were signed by 620 different audit firms.
What First Audit Radar gives you, and what it does not
It gives you the full list behind these counts for your state, region or the whole country, every month: sponsor, EIN and plan number, city, industry, participant trend, net assets, the filing deadlines, a priority, the typical fee range for plans of the same type and size, the employer's company phone and business address, plus the watch list, as an online list with a team tracker, PDF and CSV.
It does not tell you whether a sponsor has already engaged an auditor, it contains no personal contact data, and it can only be as current as the DOL datasets: amended or late filings reach the list with the next monthly release. The rules above are applied to public data; a plan's own circumstances can differ.
See the plans in your state: free state sample with named plans · all state pages · first-audit deadlines · how firms win first-year audits · prices
Questions
Questions about these counts
How many plans need their first audit for plan year 2026?
Our monthly run of Oct 24, 2026 counts 2,002 plans that filed the 2025 short form with 121 or more participants with account balances at year-end and show no audited return for an earlier year, out of 2,057 flagged plans. For 1,990 of them plan year 2026 is likely the first audited year; the other 12 already started 2025 above 120, so their first audit was probably due for 2025 and is overdue. DOL data through Sep 24, 2026.
Why 121 participants and not 100?
Because of the 80-120 Participant Rule in the Form 5500 instructions: a plan with between 80 and 120 participants at the beginning of the year that filed in the small-plan category for the prior year may elect to stay in that category. Only from 121 does that option end.
Do the counts include plans that were audited before?
The flagged total does; the likely-first-audit column does not. 55 flagged plans already filed an audited return for an earlier plan year and are shown as returning to audit.
Written by Christoph (Chris) Ploner, near Vienna, Austria. Data: U.S. Department of Labor, Form 5500 public datasets (EFAST2), filings received through Sep 24, 2026; counts update with every monthly run. Not legal, tax or audit advice.
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