For 401(k)/403(b) plan sponsors — controllers, VPs of HR/Benefits, and Directors of Total Rewards

A signed Correction Certificate for your late-deposit finding — one flat fee.

Send us your payroll withholding-date export and your recordkeeper's contribution-posting-date export. CorrectPath detects every Late Deposit Instance, calculates Lost Earnings using the DOL's own methodology, and drafts the correct SCC Notice or full VCP/VFCP Application, a Form 5330, and an auditor-ready remediation memo — then a Compliance Reviewer verifies it and a partner ERISA attorney or Enrolled Agent reviews and, where a filing is required, executes it. Delivered in 5 business days from complete intake, for a flat fee — never hourly, never a percentage of anything recovered.

No cost, no obligation. A Compliance Reviewer checks every detection and calculation before delivery — AI never files anything, and never signs a DOL or IRS submission. CorrectPath serves plan sponsors and fiduciaries only, never an individual participant's personal account.

836,800
private pension plans on file with DOL EBSA — the addressable sponsor universe
2023 Form 5500 data, ASPPA-Net citing DOL EBSA
#1
most common breach corrected under the DOL's VFCP: delinquent participant contributions
Belfint, employee-benefit-plan-audit advisory
15%
IRC §4975 excise tax on Lost Earnings for every late-deposit prohibited transaction
IRS Instructions for Form 5330
Mar 2025
DOL added the VFCP Self-Correction Component — still new to most sponsors and small TPAs
Benefits Law Advisor
Why this lands on your desk with a deadline attached

Late deposits are a prohibited transaction the moment they happen — there's no grace period.

Payroll withheld money from an employee's paycheck and it didn't reach the plan trust inside the applicable window — 7 business days for small plans, roughly 3 business days by industry norm for large plans, with no bright-line deadline in the regulation itself. The moment that window closes, it's a prohibited transaction under ERISA. Most controllers and HR benefits leads first learn this from an auditor's management letter or a DOL inquiry, under deadline pressure, with no in-house ERISA correction specialist to call.

Deadline-bound

Your Form 5500 filing clock is running

The extended Form 5500 deadline (October 15) doesn't move because a correction is in progress — the finding needs to be resolved and documented before it, not after.

New since March 2025

A faster path most sponsors haven't learned yet

The DOL's Self-Correction Component lets small, timely findings self-correct without a full application — but the eligibility test and documentation bar are exact, and getting them wrong creates a second, avoidable problem.

Independence-barred

Your auditor can flag it, but usually can't fix it

Independence rules generally bar your CPA plan auditor from performing the correction for the plan they audit — they can tell you it's wrong, not close it for you.

Getting this wrong has real consequences: a misclassified SCC-vs-VCP determination, an understated Lost Earnings figure, or a filing that ships without a licensed reviewer's sign-off can each turn one avoidable finding into a bigger fiduciary-liability and excise-tax problem. CorrectPath does not provide legal or tax advice and does not characterize a fiduciary breach on its own authority — the Filing Attorney/EA is the only party of record on that determination.

What you get

One correction engagement, one flat fee, always.

The same terms, every time: Sponsor, Late Deposit Instance, Lost Earnings, Compliance Reviewer, Filing Attorney/EA, Correction Certificate.

Free

Deposit Timing Readiness Scan

The lead diagnostic. Upload one payroll cycle and its matching recordkeeper posting date; CorrectPath returns a pass/fail read, and a rough Lost Earnings estimate if a delay is detected, within 2 business days.

$2,500–$4,000

SCC-Eligible Correction Certificate

Every Late Deposit Instance detected, Lost Earnings calculated, SCC Notice drafted and executed, Form 5330 draft, and an auditor remediation memo. Single plan year, single entity.

$6,000–$15,000

Full VCP/VFCP Application

For multi-instance or multi-plan-year findings that don't qualify for the Self-Correction Component. Scoped quote based on lookback scope.

$150/participant-yr

Per-Participant-Year Calculation

High-volume Lost Earnings calculation at scale, for large plans where a flat per-instance fee doesn't fit.

$1,800–$4,800/yr

Deposit Timing Monitoring

Ongoing ingestion of payroll and recordkeeper posting data so the next delay is caught before your next audit, not after.

How it works

AI detects and calculates. A Compliance Reviewer and a Filing Attorney/EA decide. Every time.

Nothing reaches the DOL or the IRS without a Compliance Reviewer's verification, and no filing is ever executed by AI or by CorrectPath staff.

01

Intake

Your payroll withholding-date export, recordkeeper contribution-posting-date export, plan-document deposit-timing provisions, and prior-correction history are collected and checked against the intake checklist — no engagement proceeds with a missing required field.

02

Classify

Your plan's size, deposit-timing safe harbor, and prior correction history are confirmed before detection begins.

03

Extract & normalize

AI extracts and normalizes withholding and posting dates from your payroll and recordkeeper exports into a single tied-out working file.

04

AI detect & calculate

AI flags every candidate Late Deposit Instance; the deterministic rules layer — never the model — computes Lost Earnings and the excise tax using the DOL's own methodology.

05

Human approve — the Compliance Reviewer

An ERISA-credentialed Compliance Reviewer verifies every detected instance and calculation against source data, and confirms SCC-vs-VCP eligibility. Nothing is delivered unverified.

06

Filing Attorney/EA review and execute — the licensing chokepoint

A partner ERISA attorney or Enrolled Agent, engaged independently, reviews and — where a filing is required — executes the SCC Notice, VCP/VFCP Application, or Form 5330. This is the one step neither AI nor CorrectPath staff may perform.

07

Deliver

Your Correction Certificate — detected instances, Lost Earnings figures, the filed SCC Notice or VCP/VFCP Application, the Form 5330 draft, and the remediation memo — is delivered via the client portal.

08

Track & renew

Corrective-remittance posting is confirmed within 30 days, and Deposit Timing Monitoring is offered so the next delay is caught before it becomes a finding.

Pricing

Flat fee, per plan year. Never hourly, never a percentage.

Pricing is deliberately flat or scoped as a fixed quote — never a percentage of any recovered or corrected amount. There is no "recovery" in a compliance correction, so a contingency structure would be inapplicable here.

SCC-Eligible Correction Certificate $2,500–$4,000 Flat, per plan per plan year

Detection, Lost Earnings calculation, SCC Notice, Form 5330 draft, Compliance Reviewer verification.

Flat fee — quoted before you engage.
Full VCP/VFCP Application $6,000–$15,000 Scoped quote, per lookback

Multi-instance or multi-plan-year correction, scaled to the number of instances and plan years involved.

Fixed quote — confirmed before you engage.
Per-Participant-Year Calculation $150 Per participant, per plan year

High-volume Lost Earnings calculation for large plans, at scale.

Flat per-unit rate — no hourly billing.
Deposit Timing Monitoring $1,800–$4,800 Flat, per year

Recurring Readiness Scans and early-warning alerts, so the next delay is caught before your next audit.

Annual flat fee — no surprise invoices.

Pricing evidence: the IRS's own $1,500–$3,500 VCP compliance-fee benchmark, and specialist-TPA correction-service pricing, are named as the existing budget this offer is priced against — see the full evidence table in the underlying blueprint. All figures above are current pricing ranges, not a guarantee of your plan's exact quote — final pricing is confirmed after your free Deposit Timing Readiness Scan, before you engage.

[PLACEHOLDER] First engagement outcome — Correction Certificate accepted by the plan's auditor with no further findings — published here once the first pilot engagement completes. No claim is made until it is real.

[PLACEHOLDER] First sponsor testimonial — added only with written permission from a real, named pilot plan sponsor. CorrectPath never fabricates a quote or a logo.

[PLACEHOLDER] Number of plans corrected, SCC vs. full VCP — a live, auditable count once real engagements complete. Until then this stays blank rather than invented.

Proof

What we can show you honestly, right now.

CorrectPath is entering its pilot cohort. We're not going to invent a case study to fill this space.

Pending first engagements

The first filed-correction case study will appear here once the initial 8-plan pilot cohort completes and outcomes are logged. The 5-business-day delivery figure cited above is a launch target built into the engagement design, not a guarantee, and is labeled Unverified against real-engagement data until measured.

FAQ

The questions every sponsor asks before engaging.

Do you replace our ERISA attorney or our auditor?
No. CorrectPath does not provide legal or tax advice and does not represent itself as a law firm. We detect Late Deposit Instances, calculate Lost Earnings, and draft the correction paperwork from the payroll and recordkeeper data you supply; your own counsel and plan auditor remain the right parties for legal review and audit assurance.
Who actually files the SCC Notice, VCP Application, or Form 5330?
A partner ERISA attorney (for fiduciary/DOL matters) or an Enrolled Agent/CPA under Circular 230 (for the IRS/tax-practice side) — engaged independently through CorrectPath but reviewing and executing on their own authority. Neither AI nor CorrectPath staff may execute a filing; that is the one licensing chokepoint in this engagement.
What data do you need from us?
Your payroll withholding-date export, your recordkeeper's contribution-posting-date export for the plan year under review, the relevant plan-document deposit-timing excerpt, and your prior correction history, if any. The intake checklist confirms every required field before the engagement proceeds.
Is my finding eligible for the fast Self-Correction Component, or do I need a full VCP Application?
The deterministic eligibility test checks whether total Lost Earnings across the correction is $1,000 or less and the correction is completed within 180 days of the withholding. If both are true, the SCC Notice applies; if not, the engagement scopes to a full VCP/VFCP Application. A Compliance Reviewer confirms the determination, and the Filing Attorney/EA resolves any genuinely ambiguous case.
How fast is delivery?
The engagement is designed for 5 business days from complete intake for an SCC-eligible, single-plan-year Correction Certificate. A full VCP/VFCP Application is scoped and timelined separately at intake, and filing-execution timing depends on the independently engaged Filing Attorney/EA's own schedule.
Do you work with individual plan participants on their own retirement account?
No. CorrectPath serves plan sponsors and fiduciaries only — this is an employer/fiduciary compliance matter under ERISA. We do not take on individual participants' personal retirement accounts, personal debt, or personal finances under any circumstance, and that scope is never widened.
Compliance

The licensing boundary, stated plainly.

"CorrectPath does not provide legal or tax advice, does not represent itself as a law firm, and does not collect consumer/personal debt under any circumstance. CorrectPath serves 401(k)/403(b) plan sponsors and fiduciaries only — never an individual participant's personal retirement account or personal finances."

This exact sentence is used, unmodified, on this page, in every engagement letter, and in any public content that discusses licensing or legal scope. What AI may do: ingest and normalize payroll/recordkeeper data, detect candidate Late Deposit Instances, run the deterministic Lost Earnings and excise-tax calculation, pre-populate the SCC Notice and Form 5330 draft, and draft the auditor-facing remediation memo. What a Compliance Reviewer may do: verify every detected instance and calculation against source data, confirm non-ambiguous SCC-vs-VCP eligibility, and approve a Correction Certificate before it proceeds to filing or delivery. What only a partner ERISA attorney or Enrolled Agent/CPA under Circular 230 may do: characterize a fiduciary breach, resolve an ambiguous eligibility case, and review, approve, and execute an SCC Notice, VCP/VFCP Application, or Form 5330 — never AI, never CorrectPath staff. This page is not legal or tax advice and not a law-firm-disclaimer substitute for review by counsel; DOL/IRS correction rules vary and change; consult qualified counsel and your engaged Filing Attorney/EA before relying on any of it operationally.

Start here

Get your free Deposit Timing Readiness Scan.

Tell us roughly what triggered your question — an auditor's finding, a DOL inquiry, or your own suspicion — and your plan's rough size. We'll follow up to arrange intake and return a pass/fail read within 2 business days — no cost, no obligation.

Free, no obligation. A Compliance Reviewer reviews every submission personally — this form does not commit you to any engagement. Plan sponsors and fiduciaries only.