ALLETE INC 401(k): Empower, match 5% max
ALLETE and Affiliated Companies Retirement Savings and Stock Ownership Plan · CIK 66756
Empower is the recordkeeper named on the Form 5500 filed for this plan, the company that keeps the account records. Where to log in, and what the filing says.
Maximum employer match, as a share of pay
5%
ALLETE INC matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 5% of pay.
From the Form 11-K filed June 27, 2025 ↗, covering the plan year ended December 31, 2024. Page data last updated July 28, 2026, when the Form 5500 bulk data was last refreshed. Why filings lag
On this page: what the employer actually paid in · the formula, word for word · when the money becomes yours · who can join · who holds your account · what the plan reports to the DOL · how it compares · what to do next
What ALLETE puts in, and what the plan costs
What ALLETE put into the plan, per active participant
$9,674
ALLETE INC put $9,674 into this plan for each of its 1,633 active participants in plan year 2024. This is the whole employer side of the plan: matching money, profit sharing, non-elective and safe-harbor contributions, and reallocated forfeitures. The Form 5500 does not separate them, so this is what the employer put in and not the match.
ALLETE put in more per active participant than 73% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants at utilities. The middle plan in that group of 80 reported $6,417. Utilities comes from business code 221100, which ALLETE entered on its own Form 5500. Sponsors pick that code themselves, so a code that does not describe what the employer does ranks the plan against the wrong companies.
What this figure cannot separate: how much ALLETE pays, and how much it puts in
This is dollars, not a rate. A Form 5500 carries no payroll, so the figure reflects both how much the employer puts in and how much the employer pays: two plans running the same formula report different amounts when one pays better. Crossing the peer group with industry holds most of that difference still, and none of it disappears.
This is one plan year, not an average. A true-up, a plan merger or a one-off contribution moves a single year on its own.
Source: DOL Form 5500 for the plan year ended December 31, 2024, EIN 410418150, plan 002 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $9,674 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. ALLETE INC also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2024: the card below reads $2,475 a year at a $49,500 salary, and the same filing states employer contributions made outside the match. That second figure is what the formula pays one worker on that salary, and not an amount either filing reports. The two figures measure different things, so neither one is the other one corrected.
What ALLETE puts in
$2,475
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“For a non-union participant hired on or after October 1, 2006, (not including BNI and NEE participants), quarterly matching contributions are made equal to 100 percent of each non-union participant’s 401(k) before-tax contributions and Roth 401(k) contributions, disregarding contributions in excess of 5 percent of the participant’s periodic pay for the period.”
What you contribute to collect all of it
Contribute at least 5% of your pay to collect the full match.
That is $2,475 a year at a $49,500 salary, and it scales with your own.
Vesting score
100 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. Higher than 48% of the 369 schedules we have scored.
It measures vesting speed and nothing else. It says nothing about the size of the match, what the plan charges, or the funds inside it.
Share of the employer's money that is the worker's at hire and at each of the first 6 anniversaries: 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“All contributions to the Plan, plus actual earnings thereon, are fully vested and non-forfeitable, except for BNI Bargaining Unit non-elective contributions, which are 100 percent vested only after three years of service (except if the participant dies or becomes disabled while employed, or terminates employment after age 55).”
The wait before the match starts and the year-end true-up appear above when the filing states them. Neither is part of the score, and a filing that is silent on one of them is not a plan without it.
What the plan costs, against plans of its size
97th percentile
$248.64 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 97% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants.
What is ALLETE's 401(k) match formula?
ALLETE's 401(k) employer match tops out at 5% of pay. The match is deposited quarterly. One rate up to one limit is the commonest of the four shapes a match formula takes.
| Match formula | 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 5% of pay |
|---|---|
| Maximum employer match | 5% of compensation |
| Deposited | Quarterly |
| Conditions | For a non-union participant hired before October 1, 2006, (not including BNI and NEE participants), quarterly matching contributions are made equal to 100 percent of each non-union participant’s 401(k) before-tax contributions and Roth 401(k) contributions, disregarding contributions in excess of 4 percent of the participant’s periodic pay for the period. |
| Other employer contribution | Partnership Account: fixed-percentage partnership contribution to each non-union participant hired before October 1, 2006 ranges from 6 percent to 12 percent depending on age; 6 percent for non-union participants hired on or after October 1, 2006 and for certain bargaining-unit participants. |
| Other employer contribution | Bargaining Unit Account: quarterly non-elective allocations equal to 1 percent of each union participant's eligible compensation (not including Minnesota Power Bargaining Unit Local 1593 and BNI Bargaining Unit union participants). |
| Other employer contribution | BNI Matching Contribution Account: bi-weekly matching contributions equal to 100 percent of each BNI participant's 401(k) contributions up to 5 percent of salary, effective January 1, 2020. |
| Other employer contribution | BNI Non-Elective Contribution Account: bi-weekly non-elective contributions equal to 1.5 percent of salary (bargaining unit) or the greater of $1,400 or 1.5 percent of salary (non-bargaining unit), effective January 1, 2020. |
| Other employer contribution | Additional Company Non-Elective Contribution ranging from 4 percent to 8 percent of salary for certain eligible non-Grandfathered OPEB Eligible Participants. |
| Other employer contribution | NEE Matching Contribution Account: bi-weekly matching contributions equal to 100 percent of each NEE participant's 401(k) contributions up to 4.5 percent of salary, effective April 3, 2023. |
| Other employer contribution | NEE Non-Elective Contribution Account: bi-weekly non-elective contributions equal to 3 percent of salary, effective April 3, 2023. |
At a $45,000 salary, contributing 5% ($2,250) earns the full employer match of $2,250 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“For a non-union participant hired on or after October 1, 2006, (not including BNI and NEE participants), quarterly matching contributions are made equal to 100 percent of each non-union participant’s 401(k) before-tax contributions and Roth 401(k) contributions, disregarding contributions in excess of 5 percent of the participant’s periodic pay for the period.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 27, 2025, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
What is ALLETE's 401(k) vesting schedule?
ALLETE vests the employer match immediately: 100% is yours as soon as it is paid in. Nothing is forfeited when you leave, which is not true of the two schedules that vest over time.
| Employer match vesting | Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
| Other employer contributions | All contributions to the Plan, plus actual earnings thereon, are fully vested and non-forfeitable, except for BNI Bargaining Unit non-elective contributions, which are 100 percent vested only after three years of service (except if the participant dies or becomes disabled while employed, or terminates employment after age 55). |
Vesting, word for word
“All contributions to the Plan, plus actual earnings thereon, are fully vested and non-forfeitable, except for BNI Bargaining Unit non-elective contributions, which are 100 percent vested only after three years of service (except if the participant dies or becomes disabled while employed, or terminates employment after age 55).”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 27, 2025, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join ALLETE's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
ALLETE's filing does not mention automatic enrollment, which is not the same as the plan having none.
| Automatic enrollment | Not mentioned in the filing (not proof of absence) |
|---|
Source: Form 11-K filed June 27, 2025, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports Empower, filed as “EMPOWER ANNUITY INSURANCE COMPANY”. That is the company paid to keep the account records: what is in an account, what went into it, and usually the site a participant signs in to. The trustee that holds the plan’s assets can be a different company, and this filing does not name it.
7,876 plans on file name Empower as their recordkeeper. Of those, the 7,813 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $165.72 per participant.
Participants log in at Empower ↗. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Empower or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Empower |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper EIN | 840467907 |
What does the ALLETE plan report on Form 5500?
The ALLETE plan reported $605.7M in assets and 2,230 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $605,672,357 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 2,230 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $248.64 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $248.64 per participant. The median across plans at utilities is $138.21, from the 387 of 407 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
Read from the Form 5500 filing of Allete And Affiliated Companies Retirement Savings And Stock Ownership Plan, which has no page of its own here.
How does ALLETE's 401(k) match compare?
ALLETE INC's maximum 401(k) match of 5% of pay compares with a median of 4% across the 269 companies in our data with a computable formula.
Employers worth reading next
Of the six employers below, three file at utilities, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 4.5% of pay. Also at utilities.
Maximum match 5.1% of pay. Also at utilities.
Maximum match 4.5% of pay. Also at utilities.
Maximum match 4.5% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Empower.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Empower.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Vests immediately too, like ALLETE.
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 27, 2025, SEC EDGAR. Every match fact on this page comes from it.
- Changed jobs? Find an old 401(k) ↗
The Department of Labor's Retirement Savings Lost & Found, a free government database.
- This year's IRS contribution limits ↗
The official deferral and catch-up limits every formula operates under.
Questions this filing answers
What is ALLETE INC's 401(k) match?
Allete Inc. matches 100% of employee contributions up to 5% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2024).
When does the ALLETE INC 401(k) match vest?
Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed.
Does ALLETE INC's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Not mentioned in the filing (not proof of absence).
Who is the recordkeeper for ALLETE INC's 401(k)?
Empower is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Allete And Affiliated Companies Retirement Savings And Stock Ownership Plan for plan year 2024. That is the company paid to keep the account records: what is in an account, what went into it, and usually the site a participant signs in to.
Source
The match formula, the vesting schedule and the enrollment rules on this page were read from one document: the Form 11-K annual report that ALLETE INC filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the plan year ended December 31, 2024. Each of those fields carries the filing sentence it was read from, expandable where the field appears. Nothing on this page was supplied by the employer to this site.
The plan assets, the participant counts, the plan-paid fees and the recordkeeper come from a different document, the plan’s DOL Form 5500 annual return, and the section that reports them links it. Comparisons with other employers are computed across the filings named in the section they appear in.
Read the filing on SEC EDGAR ↗
| Document | Form 11-K annual report |
|---|---|
| Filed with | US Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) |
| Filed by | ALLETE INC |
| SEC CIK | 66756 |
| Accession number | 0000066756-25-000067 |
| Plan | ALLETE and Affiliated Companies Retirement Savings and Stock Ownership Plan |
| Period of report | June 26, 2025 |
| Filed | June 27, 2025 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with ALLETE INC, with the Securities and Exchange Commission or with this plan’s recordkeeper, and publishes this page without their involvement. It republishes a public filing and says where it came from.
Cite this page
401(k) Monitor, “ALLETE INC 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000066756-25-000067, plan year ended December 31, 2024.
