{"id":11172,"date":"2026-08-26T14:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rixtrema.com\/blog\/?p=11172"},"modified":"2026-08-26T14:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:11:14","slug":"a-new-view-of-the-nonprofit-retirement-plan-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rixtrema.com\/blog\/a-new-view-of-the-nonprofit-retirement-plan-market\/","title":{"rendered":"A New View of the Nonprofit Retirement Plan Market"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-text-color has-background\" style=\"color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-horizontal is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-499968f5 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-luminous-vivid-orange-background-color has-text-color has-background has-medium-font-size has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/rixtrema.com\/ai_advisoraccelerator\/?source=blog260826\" style=\"border-radius:21px;color:#ffffff\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Request a Demo<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The Department of Labor requires most private-sector employee benefit plans to file Form 5500. These filings provide extensive information about retirement plans, including 401(k), 403(b), profit-sharing, and cash-balance plans.<\/p>\n<p>The IRS requires most tax-exempt organizations to file Form 990. These filings provide information about a nonprofit\u2019s finances, operations, investments, grants, governance, compensation, and programs.<\/p>\n<p>But what happens when a nonprofit also sponsors a retirement plan?<\/p>\n<p>Until now, these two views have largely existed separately.<\/p>\n<p>Larkspur Executive now matches Form 5500 retirement plan data with Form 990 nonprofit data. The combined dataset connects plan characteristics with the financial size, industry, and location of the sponsoring nonprofit.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Defining the Market<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The full LE universe includes approximately 55,000 to 60,000 nonprofit defined contribution plans. This broad market includes plans across the size spectrum, including some with little or no reported assets.<\/p>\n<p>For this initial financial analysis, we focused on 7,635 nonprofit sponsors with defined contribution plans holding more than $10 million in assets. The threshold creates a more relevant comparison among established plans and prevents thousands of small, inactive, frozen, or newly formed plans from distorting the results.<\/p>\n<p>The analyzed plans represent:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>$1.13 trillion in retirement plan assets<\/li>\n<li>95 million active participants<\/li>\n<li>96 million participants with account balances<\/li>\n<li>$5.17 trillion in nonprofit assets<\/li>\n<li>163 nonprofit industry classifications<\/li>\n<li>Sponsors across all 50 states and the District of Columbia<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The 10.96 million participants with balances include active employees, former employees, retirees, and other individuals who retained money in the plans.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What Each Filing Contributes<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Form 5500 data provides information about the retirement plan, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Plan assets<\/li>\n<li>Active participants<\/li>\n<li>Participants with account balances<\/li>\n<li>Employer and employee contributions<\/li>\n<li>Benefit payments<\/li>\n<li>Administrative expenses<\/li>\n<li>Participant loans<\/li>\n<li>Automatic enrollment<\/li>\n<li>Qualified default investment alternative status<\/li>\n<li>Fidelity bond coverage<\/li>\n<li>Corrective distributions<\/li>\n<li>Late contribution transmission<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Form 990 data adds information about the sponsoring organization, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Total assets<\/li>\n<li>Revenue and expenses<\/li>\n<li>Investments<\/li>\n<li>Grants and contributions<\/li>\n<li>Organization type<\/li>\n<li>Industry<\/li>\n<li>Geographic location<\/li>\n<li>Names of officers, directors, trustees, and key employees<\/li>\n<li>Reported compensation for organizational leaders and other highly compensated employees<\/li>\n<li>Employee count and compensation expense, when reported<\/li>\n<li>Financial and operational scale<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The officer and compensation data serves a separate purpose from retirement plan analysis. For advisors offering wealth management services, these disclosures help identify executives and other highly compensated individuals who might qualify for high-net-worth services. The data supports more focused research into potential needs such as executive financial planning, tax-aware investing, estate planning, charitable giving, and retirement-income strategies.<\/p>\n<p>Reported compensation serves as a prospecting indicator rather than a complete measure of personal wealth. Form 990 compensation might include compensation from the filing organization and related organizations, while omitting assets, outside income, household wealth, and other relevant financial information.<\/p>\n<p>Combining these sources supports questions neither filing answers independently.<\/p>\n<p>How does retirement plan size relate to the financial size of the nonprofit? Do larger organizations offer different plan features? Which nonprofit sectors report the highest participant balances and employer contributions? Which financially substantial organizations sponsor plans appearing small relative to their workforce or resources?<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Five Findings From the Initial Analysis<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Larger nonprofits tend to sponsor larger plans<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Nonprofit size and retirement plan size have a meaningful relationship.<\/p>\n<p>The largest 25% of nonprofits in the analysis had median plan assets of $99.1 million. The smallest 25% had median plan assets of $15.1 million.<\/p>\n<p>The relationship grew stronger after adjusting for the wide range in organizational and plan size.<\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>Nonprofit size does not fully explain plan size<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>This is not surprising. Not all large nonprofits have a large number of plan participants, and the number of plan participants is a driving factor in plan size.<\/p>\n<p>Among single-employer plans:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>286 nonprofits had at least $250 million in nonprofit assets but less than $25 million in plan assets.<\/li>\n<li>862 nonprofits had at least $100 million in nonprofit assets while plan assets represented less than 10% of nonprofit assets.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These differences do not establish a problem. Nonprofit assets often include endowments, restricted funds, real estate, hospitals, schools, investment pools, and other resources unrelated to employee retirement savings.<\/p>\n<p>The differences do identify organizations deserving closer comparison with similar nonprofits.<\/p>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>Many established plans lack common plan features<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Among the plans with more than $10 million in assets:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>61% lacked automatic enrollment<\/li>\n<li>18% lacked a qualified default investment alternative<\/li>\n<li>18% reported late contribution transmission<\/li>\n<li>16% were marked as not compliant with ERISA Section 404(c)<\/li>\n<li>13% reported corrective distributions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These filing indicators require additional examination for each plan, but their prevalence shows how much plan design and administration differ across the nonprofit market.<\/p>\n<ol start=\"4\">\n<li>Participant outcomes vary sharply by industry<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Average balances, contributions, and expenses differed across nonprofit sectors.<\/p>\n<p>Median participant balances ranged from roughly $35,000 in vocational rehabilitation plans to nearly $235,000 in electric power organizations. Nursing, residential care, and social-service organizations tended to report lower balances and employer contributions. Scientific research and electric power organizations reported some of the highest.<\/p>\n<p>These differences reflect workforce compensation, turnover, tenure, plan design, employer funding, and industry economics.<\/p>\n<ol start=\"5\">\n<li>Plan scale has a strong relationship with administrative efficiency<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Median reported administrative expenses declined as plan assets increased:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Smallest plan quartile: 23.6 basis points<\/li>\n<li>Second quartile: 22.4 basis points<\/li>\n<li>Third quartile: 16.2 basis points<\/li>\n<li>Largest plan quartile: 8.0 basis points<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Scale does not explain every expense difference. Participant count, included services, pricing structure, plan complexity, and reporting practices also matter. Still, the relationship gives advisors a useful basis for peer-group benchmarking.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>A More Complete View of the Sponsor<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Form 5500 data shows the retirement plan. Form 990 data shows the organization behind the plan.<\/p>\n<p>A $25 million plan sponsored by a $30 million community nonprofit presents a different profile from a $25 million plan sponsored by a $2 billion institution. Likewise, a $50,000 average account balance carries different meaning at a high-turnover care provider than at a research organization with a stable, highly compensated workforce.<\/p>\n<p>Matching these filings gives advisors a clearer basis for evaluating plan size, design, participant outcomes, expenses, and organizational capacity.<\/p>\n<p>This series will examine what the combined data reveals about nonprofit plan size, plan design, the 403(b) market, industry differences, and administrative efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rixtrema.com\/ai_advisoraccelerator\/?source=blog260826\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"580\" height=\"183\" data-id=\"11002\" src=\"https:\/\/rixtrema.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/401kagent.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11002\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rixtrema.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/401kagent.jpg 580w, https:\/\/rixtrema.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/401kagent-300x95.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rixtrema.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/401kagent-500x158.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A closer look at the nonprofit retirement market reveals surprising gaps, trends, and opportunities. See what happens when Form 5500 and Form 990 data come together &#8211; and what advisors can learn from the bigger picture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":11170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2396,2350,239,168],"tags":[82,41,7,12,27,2395],"class_list":["post-11172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-401kai","category-ai","category-investing","category-news","tag-401k","tag-401kfiduciaryoptimizer","tag-financial-advisor","tag-financial-advisors","tag-rixtrema","tag-stresstestai"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/rixtrema.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Form-5500-and-form-900.jpg","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v15.9.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A New View of the Nonprofit Retirement Plan Market<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You&#039;ve meticulously crafted an email that you believe is compelling, informative, and perfectly tailored to your audience. 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