Ameris Bancorp 401(k): Principal, match 4% max
Ameris Bancorp 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan · ABCB · CIK 351569
Principal 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
4%
Ameris Bancorp matches 50% of the first 8% of pay.
From the Form 11-K filed June 23, 2026 ↗, covering the plan year ended December 31, 2025. 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 Ameris Bancorp puts in, and what the plan costs
What Ameris Bancorp put into the plan, per active participant
$2,639
Ameris Bancorp put $2,639 into this plan for each of its 2,689 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.
Ameris Bancorp put in less per active participant than 63% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants at banks and lenders. The middle plan in that group of 245 reported $3,422. Banks and lenders comes from business code 522110, which Ameris Bancorp 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 Ameris Bancorp 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 581456434, plan 002 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $2,639 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Ameris Bancorp also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $1,980 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 cover different plan years and measure different things, so neither one is the other one corrected.
What Ameris Bancorp puts in
$1,980
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Plan provides for a non-elective matching contribution equal to 50% of the employee 401(k) elective deferrals that do not exceed 8% of eligible compensation as defined in the Plan for each payroll period during the year.”
What you contribute to collect all of it
Contribute at least 8% of your pay to collect the full match.
That is $3,960 a year at a $49,500 salary, and it scales with your own.
Vesting score
57.14 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. Higher than 5% 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: 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“Participants become 20% vested after one year of service and the vesting percentage increases 20% for each year of service thereafter until five years of service, at which time the participant is 100% vested.”
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
52nd percentile
$87.75 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 52% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants.
What is Ameris Bancorp's 401(k) match formula?
Ameris Bancorp's 401(k) employer match tops out at 4% of pay. The match is deposited each payroll. One rate up to one limit is the commonest of the four shapes a match formula takes.
| Match formula | 50% of the first 8% of pay |
|---|---|
| Maximum employer match | 4% of compensation |
| Deposited | Each payroll |
| Other employer contribution | The Plan also provides for discretionary contributions; however, no such contributions were made for 2025 or 2024. |
At a $60,000 salary, contributing 8% ($4,800) earns the full employer match of $2,400 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“The Plan provides for a non-elective matching contribution equal to 50% of the employee 401(k) elective deferrals that do not exceed 8% of eligible compensation as defined in the Plan for each payroll period during the year.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 23, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Ameris Bancorp's 401(k) vesting schedule?
Ameris Bancorp vests the employer match on a graded schedule: 20% after one year, rising to 100% after five. Each step is money that leaves with you that year, which is how a graded schedule differs from a cliff.
| Employer match vesting | Graded: 20% at 1 yr, 40% at 2 yr, 60% at 3 yr, 80% at 4 yr, 100% at 5 yr |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
| Accelerated vesting | normal retirement age, total disability or death |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants become 20% vested after one year of service and the vesting percentage increases 20% for each year of service thereafter until five years of service, at which time the participant is 100% vested.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 23, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Ameris Bancorp's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Ameris Bancorp enrolls new hires automatically at 6% of pay, rising 1% a year to 15% of pay.
| Plan entry | An employee will become eligible to participate in the 401(k) arrangement and employer contributions following the completion of 30 days of service with the employer and attaining the age of 18. |
|---|---|
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 15%; default investment: a designated balanced fund |
Eligibility, word for word
“An employee will become eligible to participate in the 401(k) arrangement and employer contributions following the completion of 30 days of service with the employer and attaining the age of 18.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“Automatically enrolled participants have their deferral rate set at 6% of eligible compensation and their contributions invested in a designated balanced fund until changed by the participant. The automatic deferral rate increases 1% per year to a maximum of 15% unless affirmatively changed by the participant.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 23, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports Principal, filed as “PRINCIPAL LIFE 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.
5,239 plans on file name Principal as their recordkeeper. Of those, the 5,230 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $170.05 per participant.
Participants log in at Principal ↗. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Principal or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Principal |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper EIN | 420127290 |
What does the Ameris Bancorp plan report on Form 5500?
The Ameris Bancorp plan reported $294.8M in assets and 3,492 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $294,833,832 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 3,492 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $87.75 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $87.75 per participant. The median across plans at banks and lenders is $152.83, from the 2,143 of 2,264 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
Read from the Form 5500 filing of Ameris Bancorp 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan, which has no page of its own here.
How does Ameris Bancorp's 401(k) match compare?
Ameris Bancorp's maximum 401(k) match of 4% 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 banks and lenders, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 3.5% of pay. Also at banks and lenders.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Also at banks and lenders.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Also at banks and lenders.
Maximum match 3.75% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Principal.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Principal.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Also fully vested after 5 years, like Ameris Bancorp.
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 23, 2026, 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 Ameris Bancorp's 401(k) match?
Ameris Bancorp matches 50% of employee contributions up to 8% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the Ameris Bancorp 401(k) match vest?
Graded: 20% at 1 yr, 40% at 2 yr, 60% at 3 yr, 80% at 4 yr, 100% at 5 yr.
Does Ameris Bancorp's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 15%; default investment: a designated balanced fund.
Who is the recordkeeper for Ameris Bancorp's 401(k)?
Principal is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Ameris Bancorp 401(k) Profit Sharing 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 Ameris Bancorp filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the plan year ended December 31, 2025. 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 | Ameris Bancorp |
| SEC CIK | 351569 |
| Accession number | 0000351569-26-000129 |
| Plan | Ameris Bancorp 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 23, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Ameris Bancorp, 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, “Ameris Bancorp 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000351569-26-000129, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
