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

Crowe LLP audited 930 retirement plans in plan year 2024 across 40 states and territories (#10 nationally). Closest comparable practices by footprint and volume: RSM US LLP and Grant Thornton LLP; the table below lists 10 firms with linked profiles.

Crowe LLP at a glance

Crowe LLP: plan year 2024 Form 5500 audit engagements (for comparison)
Measure	Value
Retirement plan audits (401(k), 403(b), pension)	930
All audited filings (incl. welfare plans)	975
States and territories with clients	40
National rank by retirement plan volume	#10 of 3,956
Average client size (participants)	4,730
Largest client (participants)	346,164
Largest state concentrations	IL 155 · TX 148 · IN 70

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

Audit firms comparable to Crowe LLP

Peer practices by footprint overlap and engagement volume relative to Crowe LLP, plan year 2024
#	Firm	Retirement plans audited	States served	States shared with Crowe LLP	Footprint overlap	Avg. client size
1	RSM US LLP	954	45	37	62%	1,490
2	Grant Thornton LLP	781	40	35	64%	5,006
3	BDO USA, P.C.	1,237	45	35	59%	3,242
4	Ernst & Young LLP	519	42	36	63%	21,834
5	WithumSmith+Brown, PC	870	39	35	42%	5,491
6	Pension Assurance LLP	918	42	36	36%	756
7	CBIZ CPAS P.C.	1,616	48	38	57%	2,237
8	Plante & Moran, PLLC	1,182	45	37	46%	1,896
9	Caron & Bletzer, PLLC	1,133	41	33	39%	863
10	Forvis Mazars, LLP	2,583	52	40	62%	1,981

Ordered by similarity to Crowe 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 186 and 4,650 retirement plan audits (within 5× of Crowe 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

Crowe LLP’s largest states and the comparable firms most active there, plan year 2024
State	Crowe LLP plans	Comparable firms active in the state (plans audited)
Illinois	155	Plante & Moran, PLLC (206), RSM US LLP (151), Forvis Mazars, LLP (150)
Texas	148	Forvis Mazars, LLP (217), BDO USA, P.C. (102), WithumSmith+Brown, PC (67)
Indiana	70	Forvis Mazars, LLP (195), CBIZ CPAS P.C. (66), RSM US LLP (51)
Florida	66	Forvis Mazars, LLP (152), CBIZ CPAS P.C. (141), BDO USA, P.C. (66)
New York	64	CBIZ CPAS P.C. (203), BDO USA, P.C. (181), Caron & Bletzer, PLLC (171)

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