Alternatives to Pension Assurance 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 Pension Assurance LLP for 401(k) plan audits?

Pension Assurance LLP audited 918 retirement plans in plan year 2024 across 42 states and territories (#11 nationally). Closest comparable practices by footprint and volume: Frank, Rimerman + Co. LLP and Lee CPA Audit Group; the table below lists 10 firms with linked profiles.

Pension Assurance LLP at a glance

Pension Assurance LLP: plan year 2024 Form 5500 audit engagements (for comparison)
Measure	Value
Retirement plan audits (401(k), 403(b), pension)	918
All audited filings (incl. welfare plans)	918
States and territories with clients	42
National rank by retirement plan volume	#11 of 3,956
Average client size (participants)	756
Largest client (participants)	67,469
Largest state concentrations	CA 586 · TX 48 · NY 46

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

Audit firms comparable to Pension Assurance LLP

Peer practices by footprint overlap and engagement volume relative to Pension Assurance LLP, plan year 2024
#	Firm	Retirement plans audited	States served	States shared with Pension Assurance LLP	Footprint overlap	Avg. client size
1	Frank, Rimerman + Co. LLP	199	24	23	89%	399
2	Lee CPA Audit Group	394	36	35	77%	363
3	WithumSmith+Brown, PC	870	39	34	47%	5,491
4	Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt LLP	325	19	16	75%	1,329
5	Miller Kaplan Arase LLP	325	17	17	73%	6,938
6	Crowe LLP	930	40	36	36%	4,730
7	Armanino LLP	462	35	34	62%	1,924
8	RSM US LLP	954	45	36	31%	1,490
9	Grant Thornton LLP	781	40	35	36%	5,006
10	BDO USA, P.C.	1,237	45	37	38%	3,242

Ordered by similarity to Pension Assurance 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 184 and 4,590 retirement plan audits (within 5× of Pension Assurance 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

Pension Assurance LLP’s largest states and the comparable firms most active there, plan year 2024
State	Pension Assurance LLP plans	Comparable firms active in the state (plans audited)
California	586	Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt LLP (280), Miller Kaplan Arase LLP (257), WithumSmith+Brown, PC (197)
Texas	48	Crowe LLP (148), BDO USA, P.C. (102), Armanino LLP (77)
New York	46	BDO USA, P.C. (181), WithumSmith+Brown, PC (127), Grant Thornton LLP (97)
Virginia	23	BDO USA, P.C. (59), Grant Thornton LLP (27), RSM US LLP (22)
Colorado	20	BDO USA, P.C. (63), Crowe LLP (13), RSM US LLP (10)

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