Alternatives to Caron & Bletzer, PLLC 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 Caron & Bletzer, PLLC for 401(k) plan audits?

Caron & Bletzer, PLLC audited 1,133 retirement plans in plan year 2024 across 41 states and territories (#8 nationally). Closest comparable practices by footprint and volume: BDO USA, P.C. and CBIZ CPAS P.C.; the table below lists 10 firms with linked profiles.

Caron & Bletzer, PLLC at a glance

Caron & Bletzer, PLLC: plan year 2024 Form 5500 audit engagements (for comparison)
Measure	Value
Retirement plan audits (401(k), 403(b), pension)	1,133
All audited filings (incl. welfare plans)	1,138
States and territories with clients	41
National rank by retirement plan volume	#8 of 3,956
Average client size (participants)	863
Largest client (participants)	21,906
Largest state concentrations	MA 393 · NY 171 · NH 75

Full profile, including opinion mix and largest audited plans: Caron & Bletzer, PLLC.

Audit firms comparable to Caron & Bletzer, PLLC

Peer practices by footprint overlap and engagement volume relative to Caron & Bletzer, PLLC, plan year 2024
#	Firm	Retirement plans audited	States served	States shared with Caron & Bletzer, PLLC	Footprint overlap	Avg. client size
1	BDO USA, P.C.	1,237	45	36	55%	3,242
2	CBIZ CPAS P.C.	1,616	48	41	60%	2,237
3	WithumSmith+Brown, PC	870	39	32	50%	5,491
4	CohnReznick LLP	703	35	29	56%	1,862
5	Grant Thornton LLP	781	40	33	50%	5,006
6	RSM US LLP	954	45	37	41%	1,490
7	Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP	472	20	20	60%	905
8	Crowe LLP	930	40	33	39%	4,730
9	Ernst & Young LLP	519	42	35	56%	21,834
10	PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP	351	29	25	59%	13,426

Ordered by similarity to Caron & Bletzer, PLLC, not by size. Footprint overlap is the share of the two firms’ state distributions that coincide (100% = identical state mix). Candidates: firms with between 227 and 5,665 retirement plan audits (within 5× of Caron & Bletzer, PLLC’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

Caron & Bletzer, PLLC’s largest states and the comparable firms most active there, plan year 2024
State	Caron & Bletzer, PLLC plans	Comparable firms active in the state (plans audited)
Massachusetts	393	CBIZ CPAS P.C. (155), Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP (64), BDO USA, P.C. (60)
New York	171	CBIZ CPAS P.C. (203), BDO USA, P.C. (181), WithumSmith+Brown, PC (127)
New Hampshire	75	BDO USA, P.C. (6), CBIZ CPAS P.C. (4), Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP (4)
California	56	WithumSmith+Brown, PC (197), CBIZ CPAS P.C. (170), BDO USA, P.C. (76)
Florida	52	CBIZ CPAS P.C. (141), BDO USA, P.C. (66), Crowe LLP (66)

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