Alternatives to Armanino LLP for 401(k) Audits

Peer audit practices selected by overlapping state footprint and similar engagement volume, from plan year 2024 Form 5500 filings. A neutral comparison: no firm pays to appear, and listing is not a recommendation.

Last updated September 6, 2026 · Source data: plan year 2024 Form 5500 filings

Which firms are comparable to Armanino LLP for 401(k) plan audits?

Armanino LLP audited 462 retirement plans in plan year 2024 across 35 states and territories (#22 nationally). Closest comparable practices by footprint and volume: Lee CPA Audit Group and Pension Assurance LLP; the table below lists 10 firms with linked profiles.

Armanino LLP at a glance

Armanino LLP: plan year 2024 Form 5500 audit engagements (for comparison)
Measure	Value
Retirement plan audits (401(k), 403(b), pension)	462
All audited filings (incl. welfare plans)	480
States and territories with clients	35
National rank by retirement plan volume	#22 of 3,956
Average client size (participants)	1,924
Largest client (participants)	128,248
Largest state concentrations	CA 182 · MO 98 · TX 77

Full profile, including opinion mix and largest audited plans: Armanino LLP.

Audit firms comparable to Armanino LLP

Peer practices by footprint overlap and engagement volume relative to Armanino LLP, plan year 2024
#	Firm	Retirement plans audited	States served	States shared with Armanino LLP	Footprint overlap	Avg. client size
1	Lee CPA Audit Group	394	36	32	66%	363
2	Pension Assurance LLP	918	42	34	62%	756
3	PriceKubecka, PLLC	349	36	29	48%	359
4	UHY LLP	459	31	27	33%	1,245
5	Weaver and Tidwell, LLP	423	28	27	36%	3,578
6	Ernst & Young LLP	519	42	32	37%	21,834
7	Miller Kaplan Arase LLP	325	17	15	47%	6,938
8	Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt LLP	325	19	16	47%	1,329
9	Deloitte & Touche LLP	455	41	32	29%	14,274
10	Frank, Rimerman + Co. LLP	199	24	21	58%	399

Ordered by similarity to Armanino LLP, not by size. Footprint overlap is the share of the two firms’ state distributions that coincide (100% = identical state mix). Candidates: firms with between 93 and 2,310 retirement plan audits (within 5× of Armanino LLP’s volume). Average client size is the mean beginning-of-year participant count of the firm’s audited retirement plans.

Rankings derived from U.S. Department of Labor Form 5500 filings, plan year 2024. Read the full methodology.

Where the footprints overlap

Armanino LLP’s largest states and the comparable firms most active there, plan year 2024
State	Armanino LLP plans	Comparable firms active in the state (plans audited)
California	182	Pension Assurance LLP (586), Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt LLP (280), Miller Kaplan Arase LLP (257)
Missouri	98	UHY LLP (80), Ernst & Young LLP (13), Pension Assurance LLP (3)
Texas	77	Weaver and Tidwell, LLP (273), PriceKubecka, PLLC (121), Pension Assurance LLP (48)
New York	14	Ernst & Young LLP (75), UHY LLP (56), Deloitte & Touche LLP (54)
Florida	12	PriceKubecka, PLLC (20), Pension Assurance LLP (18), Weaver and Tidwell, LLP (16)

State reflects the plan sponsor’s address on Form 5500. Each state link opens the full ranked directory for that state.

How these alternatives were selected

Every firm in the dataset with at least 25 retirement plan audits in plan year 2024 was scored against Armanino LLP on two measures: footprint overlap — how closely its distribution of clients across states matches Armanino LLP’s — and volume similarity — how close its engagement count is on a logarithmic scale. Candidates are first limited to a volume band around Armanino LLP’s count (widened only when fewer than 8 firms qualify), then ranked by a weighted score (60% footprint, 40% volume). Ties resolve by volume, then name. The result is deterministic and rebuilds identically from the same filings.

What the score does not measure: audit quality, fees, staffing, industry focus, or fit for your plan. Volume and footprint indicate which firms do this work at comparable scale in the same places; they are a shortlist, not a verdict. Use each profile’s opinion mix and client-size figures, then the questions in how to switch 401(k) auditors to compare on what matters — EBPAQC membership, peer review results, team continuity, and a like-for-like fee.

Comparable-firm tables for other leading practices

Alternatives pages exist for the 25 largest employee benefit plan audit practices by retirement plan volume in plan year 2024.

About this page

Generated from public U.S. Department of Labor Form 5500 filings in which each firm is named as the plan’s independent qualified public accountant. None of the firms shown supplied, reviewed, or endorsed this comparison, and inclusion is neither a recommendation nor a criticism of any firm, including Armanino LLP. Filing data can contain sponsor-entered errors; corrections are welcome via the about page.