DOL Form 5500 Retirement Plan Scraper

Search and extract retirement plan filing data from the U.S. Department of Labor's EFAST2 system. Look up Form 5500 filings for 401(k) plans, pensions, profit-sharing plans, ESOPs, and more — by company name, EIN, state, plan name, or asset range.

What is Form 5500?

Form 5500 is an annual filing required by the Department of Labor for employee benefit plans (retirement plans, welfare plans) in the United States. The filings are public record and contain plan-level data including assets, participant counts, sponsor information, and filing status.

Features

• 5 search types — company name, EIN, plan name, state, or asset range
• Flexible filters — narrow by plan year, asset size, participant count, and plan type
• Direct PDF links — S3 links to the original filing PDFs from EFAST2
• Plan health scoring — rules-based assessment with risk factors and executive summary
• Up to 10,000 results — automatic pagination through large result sets

How to use

1. Select a Search Type (default: company name)
2. Enter the corresponding search value (e.g., company name, EIN, state code)
3. Optionally set year range, asset filters, participant minimum, or plan type filters
4. Run the actor

Quick examples

Find all Apple retirement plans:

{
  "searchType": "companyName",
  "companyName": "Apple"
}

Find large 401(k) plans in California:

{
  "searchType": "state",
  "state": "CA",
  "minAssets": 100000000,
  "planTypes": ["401K"]
}

Look up a specific company by EIN:

{
  "searchType": "ein",
  "ein": "94-2404110"
}

Input

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
searchType	string	companyName	How to search: companyName, ein, planName, state, or assetRange
companyName	string		Company or sponsor name (partial match supported)
ein	string		9-digit Employer Identification Number (e.g., 12-3456789)
planName	string		Retirement plan name
state	string		Two-letter state code (e.g., CA, NY, TX)
planYearFrom	integer	2020	Start year for filings (2010–2025)
planYearTo	integer	current year	End year for filings
minAssets	integer		Minimum total plan assets ($)
maxAssets	integer		Maximum total plan assets ($)
minParticipants	integer		Minimum participant count
planTypes	array	["401K", "PENSION", "PROFIT_SHARING"]	Plan types to include: 401K, PENSION, PROFIT_SHARING, ESOP, 403B, 457, WELFARE, or ALL
includeAISummary	boolean	true	Generate the rules-based plan health score (healthScore) from available data. Not an LLM/AI assessment.
maxResults	integer	100	Maximum number of plans to retrieve (1–10,000)
proxyConfiguration	object	Apify RESIDENTIAL	Required. DOL EFAST2 blocks datacenter IPs (403). Pre-filled with { useApifyProxy: true, apifyProxyGroups: ["RESIDENTIAL"] }; leave the default unless you supply your own residential proxy.

Output

Each result is a single plan filing with the following structure:

{
  "ackId": "20240115123456",
  "planName": "ACME CORPORATION 401(K) PLAN",
  "planNumber": "001",
  "sponsorName": "ACME CORPORATION",
  "ein": "12-3456789",
  "location": {
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "state": "CA"
  },
  "planType": "401K",
  "planYear": 2023,
  "formType": "Form 5500",
  "filingStatus": "Filed",
  "dateReceived": "2024-07-15",
  "totalAssets": 125000000,
  "totalParticipants": 1250,
  "metrics": {
    "assetsPerParticipant": 100000,
    "planSize": "LARGE"
  },
  "healthScore": {
    "score": 95,
    "rating": "EXCELLENT",
    "factors": [
      { "factor": "Large plan (economies of scale)", "impact": 10 }
    ],
    "insights": [
      "Plan holds $125.0M in total assets",
      "1,250 participants (beginning of year count)",
      "$100,000 per participant (above $120K industry median)"
    ],
    "limitations": "Score based on search index data only (assets + participants). Detailed financials, compliance, and investment data require parsing the full Form 5500 XML filing."
  },
  "pdfUrl": "https://efast2-filings-public.s3.amazonaws.com/prd/2024/...",
  "scrapedAt": "2024-01-15T12:00:00.000Z",
  "dataSource": "DOL EFAST2"
}

healthScore is only present when includeAISummary is true. It is a rules-based score computed from the two figures the search index exposes (end-of-year assets and beginning-of-year participants) — not an LLM/AI assessment and not a compliance opinion.

Available fields

Field	Source	Description
ackId	API	DOL acknowledgement ID for the filing
planName	API	Official plan name from the filing
planNumber	API	Three-digit plan number assigned by the sponsor
sponsorName	API	Plan sponsor (employer) name
ein	API	Employer Identification Number (XX-XXXXXXX)
location.city, location.state	API	Sponsor city and state (the only address fields the search API returns)
planType	Derived	Classified from the plan name (401K, PENSION, PROFIT_SHARING, ESOP, 403B, 457, WELFARE, OTHER)
planYear	API	Filing plan year
formType	Inferred	Form 5500, Form 5500-SF, or Form 5500-EZ (inferred from size/participants)
filingStatus	API	Filing status (typically Filed)
dateReceived	API	Date the filing was received by DOL
totalAssets	API	Total assets at end of year — the only financial figure the search API provides
totalParticipants	API	Participants at beginning of year — the only participant count the search API provides
metrics.assetsPerParticipant, metrics.planSize	Calculated	Per-participant balance and size class (LARGE/MID/SMALL)
healthScore	Calculated	Rules-based score, rating, factors, insights, limitations (only when includeAISummary=true)
pdfUrl	API	Direct S3 link to the original filing PDF
scrapedAt	Metadata	Timestamp of when the data was retrieved
dataSource	Metadata	Always DOL EFAST2

Note: The DOL CloudSearch API returns summary-level data only. Detailed financials (contributions, expenses, income), service providers (Schedule C), investment allocations (Schedule H/I), and compliance flags are not available from the search index — they are not returned by this actor. There is no aiSummary, sponsor{}, financials{}, or participants{} object in the output; use the flat fields above (and pdfUrl for the full filing).

Use cases

• 401(k) advisors — find plans by company name, state, or asset size for prospecting
• Recordkeepers and TPAs — identify potential clients by filtering on assets and participants
• Financial researchers — analyze filing trends by year, state, or plan size
• Due diligence — look up retirement plan filings during M&A transactions
• Compliance professionals — review plan health scores and risk factors

Limitations

• Summary-level data only. Output is limited to what the EFAST2 CloudSearch index returns: plan name, sponsor, EIN, city/state, plan year, end-of-year assets, beginning-of-year participants, and a PDF link. Contributions, expenses, income, service providers, investment allocations, and compliance flags are not in the search index and are not scraped. Use pdfUrl for the full filing.
• Residential proxy required. DOL EFAST2 returns 403 Forbidden to datacenter IPs. The input pre-fills Apify RESIDENTIAL proxy; without a residential proxy the run cannot fetch data.
• healthScore is rules-based. It is computed from assets + participants only (baseline 70, adjusted for per-participant balance, plan size, and participant availability). It is not an AI/LLM analysis, not investment advice, and not a compliance determination.
• Derived/inferred fields. planType is classified from the plan name and formType is inferred from size/participants — both can be wrong for unusually named or edge-case plans.
• filingStatus and dateReceived reflect only what the index exposes and may be missing for some records.
• No results ≠ error. A valid search that matches nothing emits a single no_results record (with type: "no_results") rather than filing rows. A DOL/proxy/network failure emits a single error_summary record and the run still completes — it does not hard-fail.

Data source

This actor queries the Department of Labor's EFAST2 CloudSearch API, which contains Form 5500 filings for employee benefit plans in the United States.

Legal

Form 5500 data is public information filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. This actor provides programmatic access to publicly available government data.