Alternatives to Cherry Bekaert 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 Cherry Bekaert LLP for 401(k) plan audits?

Cherry Bekaert LLP audited 493 retirement plans in plan year 2024 across 28 states and territories (#20 nationally). Closest comparable practices by footprint and volume: Smith & Howard, PC and Sikich CPA LLC; the table below lists 10 firms with linked profiles.

Cherry Bekaert LLP at a glance

Cherry Bekaert LLP: plan year 2024 Form 5500 audit engagements (for comparison)
Measure	Value
Retirement plan audits (401(k), 403(b), pension)	493
All audited filings (incl. welfare plans)	508
States and territories with clients	28
National rank by retirement plan volume	#20 of 3,956
Average client size (participants)	1,255
Largest client (participants)	61,860
Largest state concentrations	KY 108 · VA 68 · IL 63

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

Audit firms comparable to Cherry Bekaert LLP

Peer practices by footprint overlap and engagement volume relative to Cherry Bekaert LLP, plan year 2024
#	Firm	Retirement plans audited	States served	States shared with Cherry Bekaert LLP	Footprint overlap	Avg. client size
1	Smith & Howard, PC	434	34	25	41%	736
2	Sikich CPA LLC	510	33	23	35%	822
3	Deloitte & Touche LLP	455	41	27	37%	14,274
4	Ernst & Young LLP	519	42	26	33%	21,834
5	Aprio LLP	361	30	23	42%	885
6	Doeren Mayhew Assurance	418	40	25	33%	892
7	Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP	472	20	16	26%	905
8	Grant Thornton LLP	781	40	26	42%	5,006
9	Crowe LLP	930	40	26	47%	4,730
10	PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP	351	29	21	35%	13,426

Ordered by similarity to Cherry Bekaert 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 99 and 2,465 retirement plan audits (within 5× of Cherry Bekaert 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

Cherry Bekaert LLP’s largest states and the comparable firms most active there, plan year 2024
State	Cherry Bekaert LLP plans	Comparable firms active in the state (plans audited)
Kentucky	108	Crowe LLP (20), Deloitte & Touche LLP (9), PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (6)
Virginia	68	Aprio LLP (73), Deloitte & Touche LLP (29), Grant Thornton LLP (27)
Illinois	63	Sikich CPA LLC (228), Crowe LLP (155), Grant Thornton LLP (112)
North Carolina	41	Crowe LLP (35), Grant Thornton LLP (15), Smith & Howard, PC (12)
Florida	38	Crowe LLP (66), Grant Thornton LLP (43), Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP (26)

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