This report benchmarks what 401(k) plans pay for plan-level services — the all-in compensation disclosed by a plan's service providers on the U.S. Department of Labor's Form 5500 Schedule C — as a share of plan assets, in basis points (bps; 1 bp = 0.01%), for plan year 2024. It measures the cost of the plan's covered service providers (recordkeeping, administration, advisory, audit and the like), not participants' investment-fund expense ratios, which Schedule C does not capture.
Because Schedule C is filed almost exclusively by large (generally 100+ participant) plans, fee disclosure is concentrated in larger plans: in this corpus the disclosure rate exceeds 90% above $50M in assets but falls below 6% under $10M. Reported medians are therefore limited to plans at or above $10M, where disclosure is representative. Across the 36,089 disclosing U.S. 401(k) plans of $10M or more, the median all-in plan cost is 22 bps (0.21% of assets), with the middle half of plans between 9 bps and 38 bps.
Median total Schedule C compensation as basis points of plan assets, by asset band. Bands under $10M are shown with their disclosure rate but are not benchmarked — too few small plans file Schedule C for the median to be representative.
| Plan size (assets) | 401(k) plans | Disclose Sch C | Median cost | 25th–75th pct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| <$1M | 389,954 | 0.1% (475) | low disclosure | — |
| $1M–$10M | 235,021 | 5.8% (13,656) | low disclosure | — |
| $10M–$50M | 37,368 | 63.7% (23,822) | 29.4 bps | 15.1–45.7 bps |
| $50M–$100M | 5,497 | 94.4% (5,190) | 16.3 bps | 8.0–26.1 bps |
| $100M–$500M | 5,297 | 97.2% (5,149) | 9.9 bps | 5.2–16.3 bps |
| $500M–$1B | 916 | 96.5% (884) | 6.0 bps | 3.4–9.8 bps |
| $1B+ | 1,107 | 94.3% (1,044) | 4.4 bps | 2.5–7.1 bps |
Median all-in cost of the plans on which each brand is the primary recordkeeper (plans ≥ $10M). This is the cost of those plans — including advisory, TPA and other provider compensation — not the recordkeeper’s standalone fee.
| # | Primary recordkeeper | Plans (≥$10M) | Median cost | 25th–75th pct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Merrill (Bank of America) | 482 | 8.0 bps | 2.4–19.7 bps |
| 2 | T. Rowe Price | 586 | 8.7 bps | 4.7–15.3 bps |
| 3 | Vanguard | 1,838 | 9.6 bps | 4.2–22.1 bps |
| 4 | Schwab | 759 | 11.0 bps | 5.3–20.3 bps |
| 5 | Fidelity | 8,951 | 12.4 bps | 4.7–25.1 bps |
| 6 | Capital Group (American Funds) | 471 | 19.8 bps |
Median all-in cost by the sponsor’s NAICS sector, large plans (≥ $10M) only.
| Sponsor industry | Plans (≥$10M) | Median cost | 25th–75th pct |
|---|---|---|---|
| Utilities | 306 | 9.4 bps | 4.2–21.2 bps |
| Management of Companies / Holdings | 491 | 13.7 bps | 5.5–30.2 bps |
| Finance & Insurance | 3,367 | 15.5 bps | 5.4–31.6 bps |
| Mining, Quarrying, Oil & Gas | 363 | 16.0 bps | 5.5–33.6 bps |
| Information / Tech / Media | 1,288 | 16.4 bps | 6.4–32.1 bps |
| Professional & Technical Services | 6,733 | 19.3 bps | 7.3–34.9 bps |
| Manufacturing | 7,647 | 19.6 bps | 8.3–35.1 bps |
| Public Administration | 42 | 20.8 bps | 8.8–40.6 bps |
| Arts, Entertainment, Recreation | 497 | 21.9 bps | 10.1–37.4 bps |
Fee = total Schedule C compensation (direct plus reported indirect) summed across a plan's service providers, divided by the plan's end-of-year total plan assets, in basis points. Scope is 401(k) plans only (pension-benefit code carries the 401(k) feature and is not defined-benefit); pooled investment vehicles (master trusts and other Direct Filing Entities) are excluded. Plans with no reported assets are dropped; negative compensation lines (refunds/adjustments) are clamped to zero before summing; ratios above 1,000 bps (an evident reporting error) are excluded; and every size, industry and recordkeeper figure requires at least 30 disclosing plans. Central tendency is the median (with 25th/75th percentiles), never the mean, because fee ratios are right-skewed. In the recordkeeper comparison, a brand's figure is the median all-in cost of the plans on which it is the primary recordkeeper — it includes advisory, TPA and other provider compensation on those plans and is not the recordkeeper's standalone fee. Schedule C is filed almost exclusively by large (generally 100+ participant) plans, so this is a large-plan 401(k) fee view. See the methodology for full definitions and limitations.
Full definitions and limitations: Methodology.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor EFAST2 public release of Form 5500, Schedule C (service providers) and Schedule H (financials), plan years 2022–2025. Generated July 23, 2026.
| 8.1–31.5 bps |
| 7 | John Hancock | 1,530 | 22.4 bps | 6.8–36.7 bps |
| 8 | Voya | 1,068 | 22.4 bps | 10.6–36.9 bps |
| 9 | Newport Group | 506 | 25.8 bps | 13.0–40.1 bps |
| 10 | ADP | 1,899 | 27.0 bps | 14.1–41.8 bps |
| 11 | Ascensus | 603 | 27.5 bps | 15.2–41.8 bps |
| 12 | OneAmerica | 407 | 27.6 bps | 16.2–46.3 bps |
| 13 | Alerus | 236 | 27.8 bps | 15.7–40.1 bps |
| 14 | Empower | 5,741 | 29.9 bps | 15.9–47.6 bps |
| 15 | EPIC Retirement Plan Services | 179 | 31.0 bps | 12.3–45.0 bps |
| 16 | Principal | 3,796 | 33.1 bps | 17.5–53.4 bps |
| 17 | Lincoln Financial | 302 | 33.2 bps | 16.4–50.9 bps |
| 18 | Transamerica | 1,174 | 33.4 bps | 17.5–53.8 bps |
| 19 | The Standard (StanCorp) | 704 | 36.7 bps | 21.0–51.9 bps |
| 20 | Nationwide | 275 | 41.3 bps | 23.6–65.1 bps |
| Health Care & Social Assistance |
| 3,474 |
| 22.5 bps |
| 9.2–41.5 bps |
| Wholesale Trade | 2,450 | 23.7 bps | 10.5–39.2 bps |
| Educational Services | 392 | 23.7 bps | 7.7–40.4 bps |
| Other Services (ex. Public Admin) | 1,023 | 23.9 bps | 10.4–42.8 bps |
| Transportation & Warehousing | 1,000 | 25.1 bps | 10.7–43.5 bps |
| Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, Hunting | 359 | 25.2 bps | 13.2–41.3 bps |
| Real Estate | 972 | 25.7 bps | 11.3–46.4 bps |
| Construction | 2,121 | 27.4 bps | 14.4–44.9 bps |
| Retail Trade | 2,223 | 30.1 bps | 15.6–46.3 bps |
| Admin Support & Waste Mgmt | 869 | 32.9 bps | 15.0–54.3 bps |
| Accommodation & Food Services | 472 | 33.5 bps | 16.5–52.0 bps |
