Standards · How we work

Editorial & Corrections Policy

PlainRetire turns the U.S. Department of Labor's Form 5500 filings into plan, sponsor, state, and industry pages. This page explains how those pages are produced, the standards we hold them to, and exactly how to flag a number that looks wrong.

Form 5500
Primary dataset
At source
Where we fix errors
/contact
Report a data error

How Pages Are Produced

PlainRetire's plan, sponsor, state, and industry pages are generated from a single documented dataset: the U.S. Department of Labor's annual Form 5500 public-disclosure files, filed by retirement-plan sponsors with the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA). We download each year's published files, load them into a structured database, and render each page from that database. The figures you see — total assets, participant counts, net income, year-over-year changes, and rankings — are read directly from the filings, not hand-typed and not estimated by us.

This is a data-publishing model: the same template renders the pages for every plan in the dataset so that coverage is consistent. We are transparent that these data pages are produced programmatically from the source dataset rather than written one at a time. The editorial work goes into the pipeline (how data is sourced, normalized, and computed), the methodology, and the written guides — not into hand-authoring hundreds of thousands of near-identical plan pages, which would add no accuracy and invite inconsistency.

Sourcing Standards

  • Primary sources only. Plan figures come from the Form 5500 series (including Schedule H/I financials), as published by DOL EBSA and documented in our methodology. IRS contribution-limit and SSA retirement-age references cite the relevant IRS publications and SSA tables.
  • Attribution in context. Each data page names its dataset and plan year near the figures, and links to the methodology that explains how the numbers are defined.
  • Derived values are labeled. Numbers we compute ourselves — averages per participant, year-over-year changes, percentile rankings — are presented as our analysis of Form 5500 data, distinct from the figures as filed.
  • No invented data. Where a value is missing or not reported in a filing, the page says so rather than filling the gap with an estimate.

Update Cadence

Form 5500 filings are due roughly seven months after a plan year ends (with extensions), so a plan year's data continues to arrive for many months after the year closes. We refresh our database as new annual files are released by DOL EBSA and recompute trends. The plan year a page is based on is shown on the page, because a single filing is a one-year snapshot — asset totals and participant counts can change materially year to year with markets, plan mergers, and workforce changes.

Corrections Process

If a figure on PlainRetire looks wrong, please tell us. Because our pages are generated from the Form 5500 dataset, a genuine error almost always traces back to either the source filing or our processing of it — so this is how we handle a report:

  1. Report. Email us through the contact page with the page URL and the number that looks off.
  2. Verify. We compare the figure against the underlying Form 5500 filing in the DOL EFAST2 system for that plan and year.
  3. Fix at the source. If the value is wrong on our side, we correct it in the database and pipeline that generate the page — not just on the single page — so every affected page is fixed at once. If the figure faithfully reflects what was filed, we explain that and, where useful, add context.
  4. Note it. Material corrections that change a published figure are reflected the next time the page rebuilds, with the plan year shown so you can see which filing a page is based on.

We aim to acknowledge data-error reports within a few business days.

Editorial Independence

PlainRetire is an independent publisher and is not affiliated with the Department of Labor, the IRS, the Social Security Administration, the PBGC, or any government agency. Our guides and analysis are not influenced by advertisers; advertising, where present, is clearly distinguishable from editorial content and never determines which plans or rankings we show. Our rankings are computed mechanically from the filed figures, so no plan or sponsor can pay to move up a list.

Appropriate Use

PlainRetire is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute retirement, tax, fiduciary, legal, or financial advice. A Form 5500 filing describes a plan as a whole at a point in time — it is not a statement of your individual account, benefit, or its security. For decisions about your own retirement benefits or any specific plan, consult the plan's Summary Plan Description, the plan administrator, or a qualified financial professional. See our full disclaimer.