How to read this rating

This scorecard helps plan sponsors, advisors, and committees compare a plan’s reported plan-level fees against peer plans using public Form 5500 filings. It focuses on costs that are typically negotiable with providers, and it aims to avoid participant-specific charges (loan fees, QDRO fees, individual transaction fees). Technical details.

What is the cohort?

The cohort is the peer group we compare against. It is large 401(k) plans (1,000+ active participants) for the same filing year that include the required schedule and report a positive plan-paid expense amount. Plans that report $0 expenses are shown, but they are not ranked because $0 often means fees were paid by participants or netted from returns (not that the plan is free).

Final Score (0-100)

A simple relative score: higher is better (lower cost vs. peers). It is derived from where the plan lands in the cohort distribution of Total Cost (bps).

Cohort Rank

The plan’s position within the cohort sorted by Total Cost (bps), from lowest cost to highest cost. Example: 100 / 2,500 means the plan is among the lowest-cost ~4% of the cohort by this measure.

Confidence (0-1)

A reliability indicator. 1.0 means the key fields needed for this scorecard are present and the filing looks usable for ranking. Lower values mean missing inputs or a filing pattern (like $0 reported plan-paid expenses) that makes the comparison less reliable.

Total Cost (bps)

Plan-level annual expenses expressed as basis points of assets. Roughly: 10 bps = 0.10% = about $10 per $10,000 of plan assets per year.

Investment Mgmt (bps) and Admin Overhead (bps)

Two components of Total Cost. Investment Mgmt is the portion reported as investment management fees. Admin Overhead is the remainder (recordkeeping/TPA/audit/other admin expenses as reported), grouped as a single bucket.

Cost / Participant

Total plan-level cost divided by active participants. This can make it easier to think about per-person administrative pricing.