What It Is
The Form 5500, officially the Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan, was developed jointly by the Department of Labor, the IRS and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. It shows that a plan is run as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) requires, and it gives regulators, participants and the public a yearly look at the plan's finances and operations.
Each plan is identified by its sponsor's employer identification number (EIN) and a three-digit plan number, such as 001. One company can sponsor several plans, each with its own number.
Who Files
- Most private-sector benefit plans covered by ERISA: 401(k), 403(b) plans of private employers, profit-sharing, pension, cash balance and ESOP plans, and many health and welfare plans.
- Small plans, generally under 100 participants at the start of the year, may file the shorter Form 5500-SF if they meet its conditions. Since 2023, defined contribution plans count only participants who have an account balance.
- Owner-only plans (covering just the owner and spouse) file a separate form, the 5500-EZ, with the IRS.
- Not required: government plans and most church plans.
When It's Due
The filing is due by the last day of the seventh month after the plan year ends: July 31 for a calendar-year plan. Filing Form 5558 extends the deadline by two and a half months, to October 15. So a plan's 2024 report may not appear until late 2025, and amended filings can arrive later still.
The Schedules
The main form covers who the plan is and basic counts. Most of the useful detail is in the schedules attached to it. Which ones a plan files depends on its size and type.
| Schedule | What It Covers |
|---|---|
| Schedule A | Insurance information. Insurance contracts the plan holds, the insurer, and commissions and fees paid to agents and brokers. |
| Schedule C | Service provider information. Large plans list each provider paid $5,000 or more: recordkeepers, advisors, trustees, auditors and others, with service codes and direct and indirect pay. |
| Schedule D | DFE / participating plan information. The pooled vehicles a plan invests through: collective trusts, pooled separate accounts, master trusts and 103-12 investment entities. |
| Schedule G | Financial transaction schedules. Problem items: loans or leases in default and non-exempt transactions with parties in interest. |
| Schedule H | Financial information (large plans). A full balance sheet and income statement: assets by type, contributions, benefits paid, expenses, plus compliance questions such as late employee deposits. |
| Schedule I | Financial information (small plans). A shorter version of Schedule H for small plans that don't file the 5500-SF. |
| Schedule R | Retirement plan information. Distributions, funding and, for multiemployer plans, contributing employers. |
| Schedules SB / MB | Actuarial information. Funding status of single-employer (SB) and multiemployer (MB) defined benefit plans, signed by the plan's actuary. |
For anyone selling to plans, Schedule C is the most valuable: it names the recordkeeper, advisor and other providers, and how much each was paid, directly by the plan or indirectly through fund revenue sharing and commissions. Our Schedule C guide walks through it line by line.
The Audit Report
Large plans must attach a report from an independent accountant, with audited financial statements. This is where the fund lineup lives: the schedule of investments lists each fund the plan holds and its value at year-end. It's filed as a PDF, not as data, which is why fund-level information is hard to get from the Form 5500 directly.
Where to Find Filings
The Department of Labor publishes every filing through its EFAST2 system: a search for individual filings, and bulk data sets of the forms and schedules. The bulk data is large and as filed: the same firm appears under many spellings, plans change numbers, and amended filings sit beside the originals.
What It Can't Tell You
- It's a look back. Each report describes one plan year, filed months after it ended.
- Small plans say little. The 5500-SF has no provider list and no fund-level holdings.
- Only providers paid $5,000 or more appear on Schedule C.
- Filers make mistakes. Numbers are as reported, and some don't add up.
How RetireFax Uses It
RetireFax brings every Form 5500 since 2015 together, merges each firm's spellings, follows plans across renames and new numbers, and reads fund lineups out of the audited statements. The result is one clean record per plan, searchable across all of them. See what's in the data.