DOL Form 5500 Search — How the EFAST2 Tool Works
The Department of Labor publishes every accepted Form 5500 and 5500-SF filing through EFAST2, its electronic filing system, and offers an official search at efast.dol.gov. This guide explains how the DOL's 5500 search works, what it does and doesn't show, and how to run the same lookup faster on the deduped copy of the data below.
Last updated June 10, 2026
What is EFAST2, and where is the DOL 5500 search?
EFAST2 (ERISA Filing Acceptance System II) is the all-electronic system through which Form 5500 and Form 5500-SF annual returns/reports have been filed since 2010. It's operated under the DOL's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), together with the IRS and PBGC.
Because ERISA makes these filings public record, the DOL exposes them two ways: the Form 5500 Search tool at efast.dol.gov (look up individual filings and retrieve the filed form) and EBSA's bulk datasets, which publish each year's filings as raw data files.
One scope note: Form 5500-EZ (one-participant plans) is not in the public EFAST2 search, and small welfare plans that are exempt from filing won't appear in any 5500 search.
How to use the official EFAST2 Form 5500 search
The DOL tool is free and requires no account. To run a DOL Form 5500 search:
- Go to efast.dol.gov and open Form 5500 Search.
- Search by plan name, sponsor (employer) name, EIN, or acknowledgment ID; you can narrow by filing year and state.
- Each result is one filing — open it to view the form and schedules as filed.
- Filings appear in the search shortly after EFAST2 accepts them.
What a DOL 5500 lookup shows — and its limits
The official search returns the authoritative record: the exact form the plan filed, including every schedule and attachment. That's its strength. Its limits come from being a filing-retrieval system rather than a research tool:
- One row per filing, not per plan. Amendments and each year's filing list separately, so a single plan can appear many times and you have to work out which record is current.
- Key facts are inside the form. Assets, participant counts, and service providers are on the form image or in schedule data, not summarized in the results list.
- No aggregation. You can't see every plan a recordkeeper serves, compare a plan's fees to peers, or browse by industry or state.
- No parsed holdings. The Schedule of Assets is an attachment; EFAST2 doesn't extract what a plan actually holds.
EFAST2 vs. this free Form 5500 search
Both tools are free and draw on the same public DOL data — EFAST2 is the official source of record, while this tool reorganizes the dataset for research. The practical differences:
| DOL EFAST2 search | This tool | |
|---|---|---|
| Source of record | Yes — the authoritative filed form | Built from the same public dataset |
| Cost / login | Free, no login | Free, no login |
| Results | One row per filing (amendments separate) | One deduped record per plan, latest filing surfaced |
| Assets, participants, providers | Inside the form/schedules | Shown directly in results and plan pages |
| Provider profiles & market share | No | Yes — every plan a firm serves |
| Browse by state / industry / fund | No | Yes |
| Parsed investment holdings | No (attachment only) | Yes, for the largest plans |
Search ~2.9 million EFAST2 filings by company, EIN, or plan name — assets, participants, providers, and holdings surfaced on one plan page. Free, no login.
Search Form 5500 filingsWhen to use which
- Use EFAST2 when you need the authoritative filed document — for an audit, a legal matter, or to verify a specific schedule or attachment exactly as filed.
- Use this tool when you're researching — finding a plan quickly, checking its providers and fees, comparing peers, or building a list across many plans.
- Many people do both: find and qualify the plan here, then pull the official form from EFAST2 if the as-filed document is required.
EBSA 5500 search and the bulk datasets
Searches for an "EBSA 5500 search" usually mean the same EFAST2 tool — EBSA is the DOL agency that administers it. EBSA separately publishes the Form 5500 datasets (complete annual data files) for bulk analysis; that's the raw material this site ingests, normalizes, and dedupes. If you'd rather query than download gigabytes of CSVs, start with a Form 5500 search here.
The largest plans in the public DOL dataset — the same filings EFAST2 serves as raw forms, with assets, participants, and providers already extracted.
Search Form 5500 filingsFrequently asked questions
Yes. The official EFAST2 search at efast.dol.gov is free with no account, and so is the search on this site. The difference is presentation: EFAST2 returns individual filings as filed; this tool returns one deduped record per plan with assets, participants, and providers surfaced.
EFAST2 (ERISA Filing Acceptance System II) is the all-electronic system through which Form 5500 and 5500-SF filings have been submitted and published since 2010. It's administered under the DOL's Employee Benefits Security Administration with the IRS and PBGC.
Go to efast.dol.gov, open Form 5500 Search, and search by plan name, sponsor name, or EIN. Each result is a single filing; open it to view the form and schedules as filed.
No — EBSA is the DOL agency that administers EFAST2, so an "EBSA 5500 search" is the same EFAST2 tool. EBSA also publishes bulk Form 5500 datasets for download.
EFAST2 lists one row per filing, so each plan year and each amendment appears separately. A research tool that dedupes filings into one record per plan avoids this.
Form 5500 and 5500-SF filings accepted through EFAST2 are public. Form 5500-EZ (one-participant plans) is filed with the IRS and is not in the public dataset, and some small welfare plans are exempt from filing entirely.