Frequently Asked Questions

Form 5500 is the annual report that nearly every private retirement plan in the United States must file with the U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), with parallel filings to the IRS and (for defined-benefit plans) the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. It discloses the plan sponsor, participant counts, plan assets, financial activity, fee schedules, and operational compliance. Form 5500 is the foundational data source for understanding the scale and health of America's ~700K ERISA-covered retirement plans, covering approximately 150 million participants.

PlainRetire covers all employer-sponsored retirement plans that file Form 5500: 401(k) plans, defined benefit (traditional pension) plans, profit-sharing plans, ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plans), money purchase plans, target benefit plans, 403(b) tax-sheltered annuity plans, and 457(b) deferred compensation plans. Government plans (federal, state, and local pensions) are exempt from ERISA reporting and are not included. One-participant Solo 401(k) plans file Form 5500-EZ directly with the IRS and are not in DOL's public-disclosure dataset.

A defined-benefit (DB) plan, the traditional pension, promises a specific monthly benefit at retirement, typically calculated from a formula based on years of service, final average salary, and a benefit accrual rate. The employer bears the investment risk and must contribute enough to fund the promised benefit. A defined-contribution (DC) plan, like a 401(k), 403(b), profit-sharing, or ESOP, promises only that contributions will be made to an individual account; the participant bears the investment risk and the eventual benefit depends on contributions plus investment performance. Form 5500 covers both, but the disclosed data differs (DB plans file Schedule SB or MB with actuarial information; DC plans file Schedule R with distribution data).

For plan year 2026, the IRS-set elective deferral limit (employee contribution to a 401(k), 403(b), or most 457(b) plans) is $24,500. Participants age 50 and older may contribute an additional $8,000 catch-up. Participants ages 60–63 receive an enhanced catch-up of $11,250 under the SECURE Act 2.0. The combined employee-plus-employer total annual addition limit under IRC §415(c) is $72,000 (or $80,000 with the standard catch-up). All limits are indexed annually; see IRS Publication 560 and IRS Notice 2025-67.

The Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) starting age depends on your year of birth. Under the SECURE Act 2.0 (enacted December 2022), the RMD age is 73 for participants born between 1951 and 1959, and 75 for those born in 1960 or later. The Required Beginning Date (RBD) is generally April 1 of the year following the year you reach RMD age. Annual RMDs are calculated by dividing the prior year-end account balance by the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table life-expectancy factor for your age. See IRS Publication 590-B for full distribution rules.

SEP-IRA (Simplified Employee Pension): employer-only contributions up to 25% of compensation, $72,000 limit (2026), no employee elective deferrals, easy to administer. Best for self-employed and very small businesses. SIMPLE-IRA (Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees): both employer and employee contributions, $17,000 employee deferral (2026) plus mandatory 2% nonelective or 3% matching employer contribution. Designed for businesses with ≤100 employees. Solo 401(k): for one-participant businesses (owner + spouse), allows both elective deferral ($24,500) and employer profit-sharing (25% of self-employment income), with the same $72,000 combined limit. Solo 401(k) files Form 5500-EZ once assets exceed $250,000. See IRS Publication 560 for full plan-type comparison.

PlainRetire displays data from the 2024 plan year, the most recent year with complete asset-reporting coverage. Filings are due seven months after the plan year ends, with many sponsors filing extensions that push final data availability into the following year. DOL EBSA publishes each annual plan-year dataset on a rolling basis, and PlainRetire refreshes when each new annual abstract is released. Earlier plan-year sponsor history records are also retained for year-over-year comparison views.

PlainRetire covers all 122,942 ERISA-covered plans that filed a Form 5500 for the 2024 plan year. Government plans (federal Thrift Savings Plan, state/local pension systems like CalPERS, NY Common Retirement Fund) are exempt from ERISA Form 5500 reporting and are not present in DOL's dataset. One-participant Solo 401(k) plans file Form 5500-EZ directly with the IRS and are not in DOL's public-disclosure feed. Newly established plans whose first filing was due after our last refresh are included once the data is published.

ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) is the federal statute that establishes minimum standards for private retirement and welfare benefit plans. ERISA requires plan sponsors to act as fiduciaries (managing plan assets in the sole interest of participants), file annual Form 5500 disclosures, provide participants with Summary Plan Descriptions, and follow rules around vesting, funding, participation, and benefit accrual. Defined-benefit plans are also insured by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). ERISA does NOT cover government, church (unless they elect coverage), or international plans. PlainRetire data is the universe of ERISA-covered private plans.

If your employer is a private business with 100+ employees, they almost certainly file Form 5500 and the plan is in the dataset. Search by employer name on the homepage or browse by state. Smaller employers (<100 participants) may file Form 5500-SF, which is also included. Solo / one-participant plans (Form 5500-EZ) are NOT in DOL's public dataset. For your specific plan, the most authoritative reference is the Summary Plan Description (SPD) provided by your plan administrator, Form 5500 is a financial filing, not a participant-facing benefits summary.

No. PlainRetire is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Labor, the IRS, the Social Security Administration, the PBGC, or any other government agency. The site is operated by its editorial team. Plan-level facts shown here are drawn from public Form 5500 filings published by DOL EBSA. PlainRetire does not provide retirement, tax, fiduciary, or financial advice. For decisions about your own retirement benefits, consult your plan administrator or a qualified financial professional.