Research a Company's 401(k) Plan Health#

Look up Form 5500-derived data on a specific company's retirement plan(s) using planprovider.pro. Use this to evaluate plan health, benchmark against peers, surface red flags, or prepare for a sales / consulting conversation.

When to use this skill#

Use when the user asks to:

• Look up a company's 401(k), 403(b), or retirement plan
• Evaluate plan health (fees, participation, investment menu, compliance signals)
• See which TPA / recordkeeper / advisor / auditor a company currently uses
• Benchmark a plan against industry / size peers
• Prepare for a meeting with a plan sponsor

Data source#

planprovider.pro maintains a company directory built from DOL Form 5500 filings. Each company page lists current providers, plan stats, and historical filings. Markdown is available via content negotiation:

text

GET https://planprovider.pro/<path>
Accept: text/markdown

Useful URLs#

• https://planprovider.pro/companies — company index
• https://planprovider.pro/companies/{state-slug} — companies by state
• https://planprovider.pro/companies/{slug} — individual company plan profile (plan name, EIN, participants, total assets, current TPA / recordkeeper / advisor / auditor, recent filings, plan type)

Recommended workflow#

1. Identify the company. Get the company name and (if possible) state or EIN. Fetch /companies or /companies/{state} and search by name, or guess the slug pattern ( /companies/{kebab-case-name}) and try fetching directly.

2. Pull the plan profile. Fetch /companies/{slug} as markdown. Extract: plan name(s), participants, total assets, plan type, current providers (TPA, recordkeeper, advisor, auditor), and any historical changes.

3. Surface health signals. From the markdown, comment on:

   • Scale fit — are the current providers' typical client sizes a match?
   • Audit status — is the plan large enough to require an audit, and is an auditor listed?
   • Provider tenure / changes — recent provider switches can indicate dissatisfaction or a recent RFP.
   • Plan type complexity — DB, cash balance, ESOP, or MEP add specialist requirements.

4. Optional benchmarking. Cross-reference with /benchmarks/... skill (research-401k-benchmarks) to compare the plan's stats to industry averages.

5. Hand off. Return a structured summary: company name, plan size, current providers (with profile links), notable signals, and the source URL.

Important constraints#

• Only report data that appears in the planprovider.pro markdown response. Do not invent EINs, balances, or provider relationships.
• Form 5500 data lags by ~12–18 months; flag the filing year shown on the page as the "as-of" date.
• This is public DOL data — using it for research is appropriate; respect any usage notes in the page footer.
• If a company is not found, do not fabricate a profile — report "not currently in the planprovider.pro directory" and offer to search by EIN or alternate name.

Output format#

A markdown summary with: Company, plan name, EIN (if shown), participants, total assets, plan type, list of current providers (each linked to its /provider/{slug} page), notable health signals, and the source company URL.