A 401(k) plan review checks your plan against the wider market on three things: what it costs, how good the funds are, and how well it is run. Done on a schedule, it can reveal fee drift and stale fund lineups long before a participant or a regulator ever raises the question.
Plans rarely go wrong in a single decision. They drift. The recordkeeper you chose years ago kept billing, the fund menu kept paying out the same share classes, and no one ever sat down to ask whether any of it still made sense. A 401(k) plan review is the deliberate act of stopping that drift, and benchmarking is how you measure it.
What a Real Review Measures
A surface check confirms the plan exists and the deposits clear. A real review goes further, comparing your plan against the wider market on the three things that actually move participant outcomes: total cost, fund quality, and service. Benchmarking puts a number on each, so the question stops being a feeling and becomes evidence you can act on or defend.
Each of these threads has its own depth, and several connect to the rest of our 401(k) advisory practice:
- How a large recordkeeper like Empower prices a plan
- How often a plan should be benchmarked
- Whether adding an advisor raises your cost, which often turns on the fees and conflicts already in the plan
How Holland Capital Benchmarks a Plan
Our method is comparative, not anecdotal. We pull your total plan cost apart into its parts, set each against current data for plans of similar size and design, and read the fund lineup for quality and share class rather than brand. We also look at service: response times, error rates, and whether participants can reach real help. The philosophy behind the work, Preserve. Strengthen. Grow.™, means a review is not a sales event. It is a measurement, and sometimes the honest result is that your plan is already competitive. Where it is not, the gaps usually tie back to the oversight duties you carry as the sponsor.
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How Often Should a Plan Be Reviewed?
A documented review on a regular cadence, often annually, supports the duty to monitor and keeps small problems from compounding. Consider a hypothetical: a 60-person firm had not benchmarked in five years and assumed its plan was fine. A review might find total costs well above comparable plans and a menu thick with revenue-sharing funds. It might also find a plan in good standing. The value is not the alarm, it is the knowing, because the duty to monitor does not pause between reviews.
Related Guides
A 401(k) plan review touches every other part of running a plan well. Start with our 401(k) advisory practice, then go deeper on the areas below.
- Reading your plan fees and conflicts
- Your fiduciary oversight duties
- Reviewing a Principal plan
- Reviewing a Fidelity plan
- How often funds should be reviewed
Getting Started with Holland Capital Management
If you’re evaluating financial decisions in today’s market environment, request a Clarity Call to discuss our planning and investment approach.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Does a 401(k) Plan Review Actually Include?
A thorough review covers total plan cost broken into its parts, the quality and share class of every fund, the service the recordkeeper delivers, and whether a documented monitoring process exists. The goal is evidence you can act on, not a single grade.
Is Benchmarking the Same as a Review?
They work together. Benchmarking is the measurement, comparing your plan against the market. The review is the broader judgment that uses those numbers plus fund quality and service to decide what, if anything, should change.
How Often Should We Benchmark Our Plan?
Many sponsors benchmark on a set annual cadence, with a deeper look when the plan grows, changes providers, or adds participants. A regular schedule tends to serve the duty to monitor better than waiting for a complaint.
Will a Review Force Us to Change Providers?
No. A review often confirms the current provider is reasonable. A change is only one possible outcome, considered when the cost or service gap is clear. You can explore that path in our guide on switching providers.
Does a Review Cost Us Anything Out of Pocket?
It depends on the engagement, and the value often offsets the cost. A review that surfaces a lower share class or repriced recordkeeping can return more than it costs.
Who Should See the Review Results?
The named plan fiduciaries, usually the owner or a committee, since they carry the duty to act on what the review finds and to keep the documentation on file.
We Are a Small Plan. Is a Review Worth It?
Often yes. Smaller plans are where stale lineups and bundled pricing most often go unexamined for years, so the room to improve can be larger, not smaller.
