Plan sponsors have 210 days after the close of the plan year to file their form 5500s.
That means that a plan whose fiscal year began Dec. 1, 2010 would have concluded their 2010 plan year on Nov. 30, 2011. Their 2010 form 5500 would have been due June 30, 2012, which means not all 2010s have been filed yet.
Luckily, most plans don't run on a bizarrely late fiscal year–so it's time to start looking back at 2010. This isn't just about filings, it's about getting a census of just what is out there.
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There were just over 40,000 qualified defined benefit plans in the United States last year, which incidentally is relatively the same as the number of Bonobo chimps living in the wild. Both are considering endangered, possibly due to habitat loss and illegal hunting.
401(k)s remain king. There were almost half a million (and likely will be more than that once all is said and done). 403(b)s nearly passed the 20,000 mark, and other defined contribution plans are holding in there (mostly profit sharing and ESOPs).
Unlike qualified retirement plans, qualified welfare plans only need to file if they covered more than 100 participants during the plan year. A whopping 10 percent of 5500s are welfare.
So here's where we stand, America. Three quarters of a million form 5500s filed, representing trillions of dollars and hundreds of millions of people. But who's going to file for the Bonobos? That's the real question.
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