401(k) Plan Ratings
RetireFax scores about 400,000 defined contribution plans from 0 to 100 on six parts, then ranks each one against plans of the same type, size and industry. Every score shows the numbers behind it.
Example 401(k) Plan
401(k) · 1,000–5,000 participants · Manufacturing
78/100
How a Plan Is Scored
Six parts, weighted into 100 points. Large plans, which file full financial statements and an audit, get a Plan score. Small plans that file the short form get a Short-form plan score: the short form rarely reports fees, so it has no cost part and the other parts share its weight.
Savings25%
What employees put in, per eligible employee.
Employer25%
What the employer puts in, per eligible employee and per dollar employees save, plus the match formula where the plan document was read.
Cost15%
Plan-paid administrative costs plus revenue sharing to providers, as a share of assets. Lower is better.
Governance15%
The filing's own answers: late deposits of employees' money, fidelity bond, the auditor's opinion, prohibited transactions, late filing, loans in default.
Design10%
Automatic enrollment and increases, a default investment, guaranteed employer money, vesting, how soon employees can join, and Roth.
Outcomes10%
Average balance, and how little participants borrow from their accounts.
Figures are taken over the last three years, so one unusual year doesn't swing the score. A part that can't be measured is left out and the rest are re-weighted. Missing data never counts against a plan. Plans without employee contributions are weighted on employer (45%), cost (20%), governance (20%) and outcomes (15%), again with no cost part on the short form.
Peer Groups
A 200-person manufacturer shouldn't be graded against a tech giant. Each plan is ranked against plans of the same type, size and industry wherever at least 50 such plans exist; otherwise the same type and size, or the same type. Large and small plans are never mixed: each score is compared only with its own kind. A rank against all industries is shown too.
Rank labels go by fifths of the peer group.
Recordkeeper Switch Likelihood
A statistical model estimates each defined contribution plan's chance of changing recordkeeper the next year, from facts in its filings: how long it has stayed, its size and growth, fees against peers, changes of advisor, auditor or ownership, and how its current recordkeeper is doing. Each plan shows the reasons that raise its chance the most.
Even among High plans, most don't switch in a given year (about 13% do). The value is in where to look first.
Opportunity Signals
Signals are facts with their numbers, not opinions. Use them to build prospect lists.
From the Fund Lineup
- Target-date funds from the recordkeeper's own fund family
- Mostly retail-style share classes
- No collective trusts in a plan of $250 million or more
- One manager with 60%+ of a menu of eight or more options
- No index fund, or no target-date fund
- A high chance of a recordkeeper change, and fast growth
From 2024 audited fund lineups.
From the Plan Document
- No automatic enrollment
- A low default rate with no automatic increase
- Slow vesting or a year's wait to join
- A discretionary match, or a formula below similar plans
- Testing refunds without safe harbor
- No Roth option
Read from the plan description in each large plan's audited statements, every answer checked against the text.
How the Ratings Are Tested
- ±0.6 pt
- Matches Independent Research
- Our automatic-enrollment rates by plan size match the Investment Company Institute's own tabulation of the same filings to within 0.6 points in every size band.
- 0.92
- Stable Year to Year
- Scores from 2019–2021 and from 2022–2024, windows with no year in common, correlate at 0.92. A rating that jumped around would be measuring noise.
- 2.9×
- Tested on Years It Never Saw
- The switch model learned from 2016–2021 and was tested on 2023 to 2024. Plans it ranked in its top tenth switched at 2.9 times the usual rate.
Not rated: defined benefit plans, plans under 10 participants, short or final plan years, and filings whose figures don't add up. Ratings describe what plans reported in their filings. They aren't a judgment of anyone's conduct as a fiduciary, and they aren't investment advice.
See How Your Prospects Rate
Ratings, switch likelihood and signals for the plans in your market.