The Summary Annual Report (SAR) is a synopsis for your employees of the information submitted to the IRS in your Form 5500 and its accompanying Schedules.
You must distribute a completed Summary Annual Report to plan participants and beneficiaries no later than July 31 (the same date your Form 5500 is due to the IRS; obviously, if you don't file your 5500 on July 31, whether due to an extension or because your plan operates off a non Janaury-December plan year, your Summary Annual Report is due on the revised date.)
There is no exact format that your Summary Annual Report must follow, but it must contain the categories of information specified herein.
401k FedForms instructions for your Summary Annual Report differ from other 401k FedForms instructions because there's no IRS Form or Schedule to annotate:
You can access each by clicking on the appropriate link below.
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Information Your Summary Annual Report Must Include and Where to Find That Information
Sample Spreadsheet-style Summary Annual Report (and link to ready-to-complete downloadable PDF)
Sample Paragraph-style Summary Annual Report (and link to ready-to-complete downloadable PDF)
Your Summary Annual Report must convey the following, which can be extracted from the noted section of your completed IRS Form 5500 or related Schedule:
Your SAR's basic financial statement should include, at minimum, the plan's beginning of year and end-of-year assets as well as the amount of money that came into and went out of the plan during the year (i.e., the plan's income versus expenses). Mention of the number of participants in your plan as of the close of the plan year is also recommended. Here's where you can find each:
| Financial Information Item | Pull From IRS Form/Schedule... |
| Beginning of year assets | Schedule I page 1 item 1c(a) |
| End of year assets | Schedule I page 1 item 1c(b) |
Money into the plan (plan income)
|
Schedule I page 1 item 2d |
Money out of the plan (plan expenses)
|
Schedule I page 1 item 2i |
| End of year number of plan participants | Form 5500 page 3 item 7d |
You must inform recipients of your Summary Annual Report that they have certain rights regarding the plan's annual report (Form 5500 and related Schedules, for instance), namely:
Below is a sample Summary Annual Report for Amber Industries, the fictitious company in our demo 401k software. (Note: All dollar amounts used in this sample are completely fabricated and intended for instructional purposes only.)
This sample is done "spreadsheet style," meaning it is more a listing of data and their categories than a textual summary of the same activity. Bold orange items are those that you would replace with your own plan's data.
Choose either this format or the paragraph-style format, whichever is more convenient for you and useful to your plan's participants and beneficiaries.
For a ready-to-complete PDF of the sample SAR at right into which you can plug your plan's relevant information, download the file "sar_sp.pdf."
Employer Identification Number: 12-3456789
Plan Number: 001
Plan Year: January 1, 2001 through December 31, 2001
This is a summary of the annual report for the Amber Industries 401(k) Plan for the period January 1, 2000 through December 31, 2000. The annual report has been filed with the Internal Revenue Service as required under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).
Basic Financial Statement
Benefits under the plan are provided through a trust fund. The following summarizes the year's activity:
End-of-year number of plan participants/beneficiaries..................................42
Total plan assets (less any liabilities) - beginning of year.............................$493,665
Total plan assets (less any liabilities) - end of year......................................$692,888
Change in plan assets (i.e., growth)*............................................................$199,223
Total plan expenses for year.........................................................................$65,042
Benefits paid to participants and beneficiaries................................$58,750
Other expenses (hardship withdrawals, etc.)................................$6,292
Total plan income for year.............................................................................$264,265
Employer contributions.....................................................................$25,595
Employee contributions....................................................................$216,973
Earnings from investments..............................................................$21,697
*The stated growth in plan assets includes unrealized appreciation and depreciation in plan assets, meaning the difference between the value of plan assets at the end of the year versus the beginning of the year, which is the same as saying the cost of assets acquired during the year.
Minimum Funding Standards
Enough money was contributed to the plan to keep it funded in accordance with the minimum funding standards set forth in ERISA.
Your Rights to Additional Information
You have the right to request and receive a copy of the annual report from or to examine said report, either in part or in its entirety at our company or the Department of Labor for copying costs. At our company, call our Plan Administrator, Jonathan Donnell, at (408) 555-1234 or write or go to our offices at 410 City Line Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125; at the DOL, write or go to Public Disclosure Room, N-5638, Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20210.
You also have the right to request and receive from our Plan Administrator, at no charge, a statement of the plan's assets and liabilities and any accompanying notes, or a statement of the plan's income and expenses and any accompanying notes, or both. (Note to participants/beneficiaries that receiving a full copy of the annual report includes such statements and notes.)
Ready-to-Complete Spreadsheet-style Summary Annual Report (PDF for download)
At right is a sample Summary Annual Report for Amber Industries, the fictitious company in our demo 401k software. (Note: All dollar amounts used in this sample are completely fabricated and intended for instructional purposes only.)
This sample is done "paragraph style," meaning it conveys the required information within explanatory paragraphs rather than listing the data as in the spreadsheet-style SAR. Bold orange items are those that you would replace with your own plan's data.
Choose either this format or the spreadsheet-style format, whichever is more convenient for you and useful to your plan's participants and beneficiaries.
For a ready-to-complete PDF of the sample SAR at right into which you can plug your plan's relevant information, download the file "sarpar.pdf."
Employer Identification Number: 12-3456789
Plan Number: 001
Plan Year: January 1, 2001 through December 31, 2001
This is a summary of the annual report for the Amber Industries 401(k) Plan for the period January 1, 2000 through December 31, 2000. The annual report has been filed with the Internal Revenue Service as required under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).
Basic Financial Statement
Benefits under the plan are provided through a trust fund. Plan expenses for the year were $65,042, which included $58,750 in benefits paid to participants and beneficiaries and $6,292 in other expenses (hardship withdrawals, etc.). Forty-two people were participants in or beneficiaries of our plan as of the close of the plan year.
Our plan had total plan assets (less any liabilities) of $493,665 at the beginning of the year. That amount had grown to $692,888 by the close of the year, a growth in plan assets of $199,223. This growth includes unrealized appreciation and depreciation, meaning it accounts for the difference between the value of plan assets at the end of the year versus the beginning of the year, or the cost of assets acquired during the year. Our plan's total income for the year was $264,265, which included $25,595 in employer contributions, $216,973 in employee contributions, and $21,697 in earnings from investments.
Minimum Funding Standards
Enough money was contributed to the plan to keep it funded in accordance with the minimum funding standards set forth in ERISA.
Your Rights to Additional Information
You have the right to request and receive a copy of the annual report from or to examine said report, either in part or in its entirety at our company or the Department of Labor for copying costs. At our company, call our Plan Administrator, Jonathan Donnell, at (408) 555-1234 or write or go to our offices at 410 City Line Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125; at the DOL, write or go to Public Disclosure Room, N-5638, Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20210.
You also have the right to request and receive from our Plan Administrator, at no charge, a statement of the plan's assets and liabilities and any accompanying notes, or a statement of the plan's income and expenses and any accompanying notes, or both. (Note to participants/beneficiaries that receiving a full copy of the annual report includes such statements and notes.)
Ready-to-Complete Paragraph-style Summary Annual Report (PDF for download)