Alternatives to Ernst & Young 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 Ernst & Young LLP for 401(k) plan audits?

Ernst & Young LLP audited 519 retirement plans in plan year 2024 across 42 states and territories (#18 nationally). Closest comparable practices by footprint and volume: Deloitte & Touche LLP and Grant Thornton LLP; the table below lists 10 firms with linked profiles.

Ernst & Young LLP at a glance

Ernst & Young LLP: plan year 2024 Form 5500 audit engagements (for comparison)
Measure	Value
Retirement plan audits (401(k), 403(b), pension)	519
All audited filings (incl. welfare plans)	629
States and territories with clients	42
National rank by retirement plan volume	#18 of 3,956
Average client size (participants)	21,834
Largest client (participants)	1,921,006
Largest state concentrations	NY 75 · TX 45 · IL 42

Full profile, including opinion mix and largest audited plans: Ernst & Young LLP.

Audit firms comparable to Ernst & Young LLP

Peer practices by footprint overlap and engagement volume relative to Ernst & Young LLP, plan year 2024
#	Firm	Retirement plans audited	States served	States shared with Ernst & Young LLP	Footprint overlap	Avg. client size
1	Deloitte & Touche LLP	455	41	36	70%	14,274
2	Grant Thornton LLP	781	40	36	72%	5,006
3	PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP	351	29	27	71%	13,426
4	Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP	472	20	18	54%	905
5	RSM US LLP	954	45	37	66%	1,490
6	EisnerAmper LLP	580	31	29	47%	1,439
7	KPMG LLP	208	30	28	71%	20,917
8	CohnReznick LLP	703	35	33	55%	1,862
9	Crowe LLP	930	40	36	63%	4,730
10	PKF O'Connor Davies, LLP	577	27	25	45%	1,070

Ordered by similarity to Ernst & Young 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 104 and 2,595 retirement plan audits (within 5× of Ernst & Young 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

Ernst & Young LLP’s largest states and the comparable firms most active there, plan year 2024
State	Ernst & Young LLP plans	Comparable firms active in the state (plans audited)
New York	75	PKF O'Connor Davies, LLP (328), EisnerAmper LLP (135), Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP (125)
Texas	45	Crowe LLP (148), Grant Thornton LLP (42), RSM US LLP (41)
Illinois	42	Crowe LLP (155), RSM US LLP (151), Grant Thornton LLP (112)
California	31	Crowe LLP (62), CohnReznick LLP (39), Grant Thornton LLP (30)
Massachusetts	31	Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP (64), RSM US LLP (55), CohnReznick LLP (48)

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