DOL Form 5500 Scraper — 401(k) & Employee Benefit Plan Leads

Find employer retirement plans, 401(k)s, pensions, welfare plans, plan administrators, participant counts, assets, contributions, expenses, and fees in official U.S. Department of Labor Form 5500 public data.

The actor scans the selected annual regular Form 5500 bulk file and can join official Schedule H/I financial records by acknowledgement ID. Use it for benefits-broker prospecting, retirement-plan market research, ERISA plan-sponsor discovery, service-provider analysis, employer enrichment, and source-backed diligence. No API key, login, browser, or proxy is required.

Fast start

The default returns Microsoft's substantially complete 2024 filings with linked Schedule H/I data:

{
  "filingYear": 2024,
  "query": "Microsoft",
  "includeFinancials": true,
  "sortBy": "received_desc",
  "maxResults": 25,
  "maxPlansConsidered": 5000
}

Find large 401(k) plan sponsors in Washington:

{
  "filingYear": 2024,
  "query": "",
  "states": ["WA"],
  "planCategory": "401k",
  "minParticipants": 1000,
  "minAssets": 100000000,
  "includeFinancials": true,
  "sortBy": "assets_desc",
  "maxResults": 100,
  "maxPlansConsidered": 20000
}

Inspect one sponsor by exact public EIN:

{
  "filingYear": 2024,
  "query": "",
  "ein": "911144442",
  "includeFinancials": true,
  "maxResults": 25
}

Search and filters

• annual DOL dataset year from 2009 onward
• general sponsor, DBA, plan, administrator, EIN, plan-number, business-code, or city keyword
• dedicated sponsor and plan-name substrings
• exact nine-digit sponsor EIN and three-digit plan number
• sponsor mailing/location states
• business/industry code prefixes
• 401(k), pension/retirement, or welfare plan category
• amended and final-filing status
• minimum total and active participants
• minimum/maximum end-of-year assets
• DOL received-date range
• latest/earliest received, participant, asset, or sponsor sorting
• 1–1,000 output rows and a disclosed candidate limit for broad financial searches

Array filters use OR within the field; separate fields are combined with AND.

Output

Each found filing exposes stable source-linked fields for:

• annual dataset year, acknowledgement ID, plan year, plan number, and effective date
• plan name, sponsor/DBA, public EIN, phone, mailing address, and location address
• filer-reported business code
• plan administrator name, public EIN, phone, and address
• filing status, received date, initial/amended/final/short-year indicators, collective bargaining, and DFVC indicator
• total/active participants, retirees, separated participants, beneficiaries, participant accounts, and contributing employers
• official pension and welfare benefit codes plus a 401(k) flag derived from official code 2J
• attached Schedule H/I/A/C indicators
• Schedule H/I beginning/end assets, liabilities, net assets, employer/participant contributions, income, benefits, expenses, selected fees, and accountant firm when reported
• exact official DOL dataset and ZIP-file URLs
• rows scanned, primary matches, candidates considered, limit status, and required interpretation caveats

No-match runs return an explicit NO_MATCHES evidence item. Temporary official-source failures return SOURCE_UNAVAILABLE, not an ambiguous empty dataset.

Coverage and bounded financial searches

This product searches regular Form 5500 and joins Schedules H/I. It does not currently include Form 5500-SF or Schedules A/C/D/G/MB/R/SB.

The full regular Form 5500 file is streamed for primary filters. maxPlansConsidered then bounds memory and financial joins. For ordinary specific sponsor/EIN/state/category searches, the limit usually does not apply. Very broad asset filters or asset sorting can produce more primary matches than retained candidates; every row exposes primaryMatchesFound, plansConsidered, and considerationLimitApplied. Increase the limit to 20,000 when broader financial coverage matters.

Annual files are updated as filings and amendments arrive. A newer year can be partial; 2024 is the current substantially complete default.

Important interpretation limits

Form 5500 is a public annual disclosure filed by a plan administrator or sponsor. The data is not Department of Labor verification, endorsement, a live plan record, investment advice, or a complete ERISA/compliance determination. Filings can be amended, duplicated, delayed, incomplete, or erroneous. A missing regular Form 5500 does not prove there is no plan; the filer may use Form 5500-SF, fall under another reporting path, or file later.

Participant counts, assets, contributions, expenses, fees, administrators, and benefit codes describe the reported plan year. They do not prove current headcount, current assets, renewal timing, buying intent, vendor dissatisfaction, plan quality, or suitability for outreach. Confirm material sales, fiduciary, compliance, credit, or diligence decisions against current official records and the underlying filing.

Official sources

• DOL Form 5500 datasets
• DOL Form 5500 filing search
• DOL Form 5500 series