Alternatives to Baker Tilly US, 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 Baker Tilly US, LLP for 401(k) plan audits?

Baker Tilly US, LLP audited 3,633 retirement plans in plan year 2024 across 51 states and territories (#1 nationally). Closest comparable practices by footprint and volume: CliftonLarsonAllen LLP and Forvis Mazars, LLP; the table below lists 10 firms with linked profiles.

Baker Tilly US, LLP at a glance

Baker Tilly US, LLP: plan year 2024 Form 5500 audit engagements (for comparison)
Measure	Value
Retirement plan audits (401(k), 403(b), pension)	3,633
All audited filings (incl. welfare plans)	3,776
States and territories with clients	51
National rank by retirement plan volume	#1 of 3,956
Average client size (participants)	2,136
Largest client (participants)	197,749
Largest state concentrations	CA 867 · WA 329 · PA 311

Full profile, including opinion mix and largest audited plans: Baker Tilly US, LLP.

Audit firms comparable to Baker Tilly US, LLP

Peer practices by footprint overlap and engagement volume relative to Baker Tilly US, LLP, plan year 2024
#	Firm	Retirement plans audited	States served	States shared with Baker Tilly US, LLP	Footprint overlap	Avg. client size
1	CliftonLarsonAllen LLP	3,276	51	49	59%	1,502
2	Forvis Mazars, LLP	2,583	52	50	43%	1,981
3	BDO USA, P.C.	1,237	45	45	55%	3,242
4	CBIZ CPAS P.C.	1,616	48	47	50%	2,237
5	WithumSmith+Brown, PC	870	39	39	59%	5,491
6	Grant Thornton LLP	781	40	40	57%	5,006
7	Pension Assurance LLP	918	42	42	54%	756
8	RSM US LLP	954	45	43	46%	1,490
9	Crowe LLP	930	40	39	47%	4,730
10	Caron & Bletzer, PLLC	1,133	41	40	35%	863

Ordered by similarity to Baker Tilly US, 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 727 and 18,165 retirement plan audits (within 5× of Baker Tilly US, 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

Baker Tilly US, LLP’s largest states and the comparable firms most active there, plan year 2024
State	Baker Tilly US, LLP plans	Comparable firms active in the state (plans audited)
California	867	Pension Assurance LLP (586), CliftonLarsonAllen LLP (303), WithumSmith+Brown, PC (197)
Washington	329	CliftonLarsonAllen LLP (131), CBIZ CPAS P.C. (36), BDO USA, P.C. (25)
Pennsylvania	311	CliftonLarsonAllen LLP (152), BDO USA, P.C. (66), WithumSmith+Brown, PC (66)
Texas	308	Forvis Mazars, LLP (217), Crowe LLP (148), BDO USA, P.C. (102)
Wisconsin	224	CliftonLarsonAllen LLP (347), Grant Thornton LLP (52), RSM US LLP (44)

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 Baker Tilly US, LLP on two measures: footprint overlap — how closely its distribution of clients across states matches Baker Tilly US, LLP’s — and volume similarity — how close its engagement count is on a logarithmic scale. Candidates are first limited to a volume band around Baker Tilly US, 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 Baker Tilly US, LLP. Filing data can contain sponsor-entered errors; corrections are welcome via the about page.