401(k) Plan Administration in Massachusetts
Massachusetts has 7,167 retirement plans with 25 or more participants, covering 1,185,878 people — and in most of them the person legally on the hook is the business owner. The recordkeeper holds the money. The advisor picks the funds. The plan document names the employer as plan administrator, and that is where the personal liability sits. Admin316 takes that role: appointed in writing as your ERISA 3(16) plan administrator and 402(a) named fiduciary, running the compliance calendar and signing and filing the Form 5500.
We are an independent ERISA administrator, working with plan sponsors since 1997. We sell no investment products and take no commissions, so we work alongside whichever recordkeeper, payroll provider and advisor a Massachusetts employer already uses.
Massachusetts retirement plans by the numbers
| Form 5500 data point | Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Retirement plans with 25+ participants | 7,167 |
| Participants covered by those plans | 1,185,878 |
| Health & welfare plans with 25+ participants | 1,368 |
| Plan-year 2023 filings received after the extended deadline | 250 (4.1%) |
| National late-filing rate, same population | 5.8% |
| Massachusetts plans our screen flags for a filing-history issue | 2,136 |
Source: U.S. Department of Labor Form 5500 / 5500-SF public filings processed 2023–2025, filtered to plans reporting 25 or more participants. Plan-year 2023 is the most recent year with a closed extended deadline; later years are still receiving filings. Compiled by Admin316, August 2026.
Where Massachusetts plans concentrate
| Metro / city of record | Retirement plans (25+ participants) |
|---|---|
| Boston | 1,058 |
| Cambridge | 241 |
| Waltham | 175 |
| Worcester | 143 |
| Woburn | 141 |
| Burlington | 113 |
City reflects the plan sponsor address on the Form 5500, so headquarters cities concentrate. Boston alone accounts for about 15% of Massachusetts’s plans in this population.
What the filing record shows about Massachusetts plans
Massachusetts’s late-filing rate runs below the national average
Of the plan-year 2023 filings we can match to Massachusetts sponsors, 250 arrived after the extended October 15 deadline — 4.1%, against 5.8% nationally. A better-than-average rate is worth defending: the filings that go late are almost never the ones a sponsor expects, they are the year a payroll system changed, an entity was added, or the person who quietly owned the calendar left. Penalties for a late Form 5500 run to $2,739 per day under the DOL schedule with no statutory cap, and the DFVC program only helps sponsors who come forward before they are found.
The three findings that cost Massachusetts sponsors the most
Late deferral deposits — the DOL treats employee money not deposited as soon as administratively feasible as a prohibited transaction, and it is the most common finding in small and mid-size plans. Missed deferral opportunities — a newly eligible or long-term part-time employee who was never enrolled gets corrected with employer money, not employee money. A Form 5500 that does not reconcile to the trust statement — the fastest way to draw a second look. All three are correctable through EPCRS, VFCP and DFVCP, and all three are far cheaper to fix voluntarily than to be found with.
What we take over for a Massachusetts plan sponsor
| Responsibility | Typical arrangement | With Admin316 |
|---|---|---|
| Named plan administrator in the document | The business owner or HR director | Admin316, appointed in writing |
| Form 5500 signature and filing | Owner signs whatever the TPA prepares | We prepare, sign and file it |
| Participant notices and disclosures | Scattered between HR, payroll and recordkeeper | Tracked and delivered on the statutory calendar |
| Eligibility, entry dates, vesting | Spreadsheet maintained by whoever is available | Monitored against the plan document each payroll |
| Compliance testing and corrections | Discovered late, corrected under pressure | Run early, corrected through EPCRS/VFCP when needed |
| Distributions, loans, QDROs, force-outs | Owner approves and hopes it matches the document | Reviewed and approved as fiduciary |
How onboarding works
Check your own plan’s filing record first
Before you talk to anyone, look up your own plan. Our free Form 5500 lookup tool covers 284,040 plans and shows filing dates against deadlines, participant counts and the years a plan filed late — including the 7,167 Massachusetts plans in this page’s data. No login, no cost.
Questions Massachusetts plan sponsors ask
4639 Corona Dr #26, Corpus Christi, TX 78411 · serving plan sponsors in Massachusetts and nationwide
Hours: Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Central
Phone: (361) 271-1211 · Independent ERISA fiduciary since 1997
