Alternatives to CliftonLarsonAllen 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 CliftonLarsonAllen LLP for 401(k) plan audits?

CliftonLarsonAllen LLP audited 3,276 retirement plans in plan year 2024 across 51 states and territories (#2 nationally). Closest comparable practices by footprint and volume: Baker Tilly US, LLP and Forvis Mazars, LLP; the table below lists 10 firms with linked profiles.

CliftonLarsonAllen LLP at a glance

CliftonLarsonAllen LLP: plan year 2024 Form 5500 audit engagements (for comparison)
Measure	Value
Retirement plan audits (401(k), 403(b), pension)	3,276
All audited filings (incl. welfare plans)	3,451
States and territories with clients	51
National rank by retirement plan volume	#2 of 3,956
Average client size (participants)	1,502
Largest client (participants)	249,207
Largest state concentrations	MN 444 · WI 347 · CA 303

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

Audit firms comparable to CliftonLarsonAllen LLP

Peer practices by footprint overlap and engagement volume relative to CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, plan year 2024
#	Firm	Retirement plans audited	States served	States shared with CliftonLarsonAllen LLP	Footprint overlap	Avg. client size
1	Baker Tilly US, LLP	3,633	51	49	59%	2,136
2	Forvis Mazars, LLP	2,583	52	51	46%	1,981
3	CBIZ CPAS P.C.	1,616	48	48	59%	2,237
4	RSM US LLP	954	45	44	64%	1,490
5	Grant Thornton LLP	781	40	39	62%	5,006
6	BDO USA, P.C.	1,237	45	44	54%	3,242
7	Wipfli LLP	764	42	41	53%	1,071
8	Crowe LLP	930	40	39	49%	4,730
9	Eide Bailly LLP	1,144	42	42	42%	1,441
10	Caron & Bletzer, PLLC	1,133	41	41	41%	863

Ordered by similarity to CliftonLarsonAllen 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 656 and 16,380 retirement plan audits (within 5× of CliftonLarsonAllen 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

CliftonLarsonAllen LLP’s largest states and the comparable firms most active there, plan year 2024
State	CliftonLarsonAllen LLP plans	Comparable firms active in the state (plans audited)
Minnesota	444	Eide Bailly LLP (125), Baker Tilly US, LLP (99), Wipfli LLP (63)
Wisconsin	347	Wipfli LLP (306), Baker Tilly US, LLP (224), Grant Thornton LLP (52)
California	303	Baker Tilly US, LLP (867), CBIZ CPAS P.C. (170), Eide Bailly LLP (81)
Illinois	221	Crowe LLP (155), RSM US LLP (151), Forvis Mazars, LLP (150)
Pennsylvania	152	Baker Tilly US, LLP (311), BDO USA, P.C. (66), CBIZ CPAS P.C. (61)

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