AVISTA CORP 401(k): Vanguard, match 6% max
The Investment and Employee Stock Ownership Plan of Avista Corporation · AVA · CIK 104918
Vanguard is the recordkeeper named on the Form 5500 filed for Investment & Employee Stock Ownership Plan Of Avista, the company that keeps the account records. Where to log in, and what the filing says.
Maximum employer match, as a share of pay
6%
AVISTA CORP matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 6% of pay.
From the Form 11-K filed June 26, 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 · what it used to be · 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 AVISTA puts in, and what the plan costs
What AVISTA put into the plan, per active participant
$7,981
AVISTA CORP put $7,981 into this plan for each of its 1,994 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.
AVISTA put in more per active participant than 63% 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 AVISTA 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 AVISTA 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 910462470, plan 003 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $7,981 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. AVISTA CORP also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $2,970 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 AVISTA puts in
$2,970
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“All non-collectively bargained employees and Local 659 employees hired on or after January 1, 2006, and Local 77 employees hired on or after January 1, 2011, receive a matching contribution of 100% of employee contributions that does not exceed 6% of the employee’s salary.”
What you contribute to collect all of it
Contribute at least 6% of your pay to collect the full match.
That is $2,970 a year at a $49,500 salary, and it scales with your own.
Vesting score
85.71 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. Higher than 47% 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%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“Participants vest 100% in the Company matching contribution after one year of service or upon death, disability or reaching normal retirement age.”
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
98th percentile
$293.74 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 98% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants.
What is AVISTA's 401(k) match formula?
AVISTA's 401(k) employer match tops out at 6% of pay. 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 6% of pay |
|---|---|
| Maximum employer match | 6% of compensation |
| Paid in company stock | No, paid in cash or per your investment elections |
| Conditions | All non-collectively bargained employees and Local 659 employees hired on or after January 1, 2006, and Local 77 employees hired on or after January 1, 2011, receive a matching contribution of 100% of employee contributions that does not exceed 6% of the employee’s salary. |
| Other employer contribution | Additional non-elective employer contribution based on the employee’s age, for certain employee groups hired on or after specified dates or who waived participation in the Retirement Plan for Employees of Avista Corporation: Younger than 40: 3%; 40-49: 4%; 50 or Older: 5% of eligible pay. Local 77 members hired on or after January 1, 2024, or who waived participation in the Retirement Plan who are not Distribution Operators, Gas Controllers, or non-collectively bargained employees, are also eligible for an additional non-elective contribution equal to 5% of eligible compensation. |
At a $75,000 salary, contributing 6% ($4,500) earns the full employer match of $4,500 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“All non-collectively bargained employees and Local 659 employees hired on or after January 1, 2006, and Local 77 employees hired on or after January 1, 2011, receive a matching contribution of 100% of employee contributions that does not exceed 6% of the employee’s salary.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 26, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What did AVISTA's 401(k) match used to be?
AVISTA changed its 401(k) match. The formula in force now is 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 6% of pay.
| Current | 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 6% of pay |
|---|---|
| Before | All non-collectively bargained employees and Local 659 employees hired prior to January 1, 2006, and Local 77 employees hired prior to January 1, 2011, receive a matching contribution of 75% of employee contributions that does not exceed 6% of the employee’s salary. |
What is AVISTA's 401(k) vesting schedule?
AVISTA vests the employer match on a cliff schedule: nothing is yours until one year of service, then 100% at once. Leave a day early and the employer money goes back to the plan, the edge a one-year cliff creates.
| Employer match vesting | Cliff: 100% vested after 1 years of service |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
| Accelerated vesting | death, disability or reaching normal retirement age |
| Other employer contributions | Participants vest 100% in the non-elective employer contribution after three years of service or upon death, disability or reaching normal retirement age. |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants vest 100% in the Company matching contribution after one year of service or upon death, disability or reaching normal retirement age.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 26, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join AVISTA's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
AVISTA enrolls new hires automatically at 6% of pay, rising 1% a year to 15% of pay.
| Plan entry | after their first pay period following employment |
|---|---|
| Excluded groups | Students, leased employees, and collectively bargained employees (other than collectively bargained employees whose employment is subject to the terms of a collective bargaining agreement which provides for participation in the Plan) are ineligible to participate in the Plan. |
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 15% |
Eligibility, word for word
“All employees of Avista are eligible to participate in the Plan after their first pay period following employment. Students, leased employees, and collectively bargained employees (other than collectively bargained employees whose employment is subject to the terms of a collective bargaining agreement which provides for participation in the Plan) are ineligible to participate in the Plan.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“Plan participants hired on or after April 1, 2022 are automatically enrolled in the Plan upon eligibility at a 6% deferral rate, with an automatic increase of 1% each year up to 15%.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 26, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports Vanguard, filed as “VANGUARD GROUP INC.”. 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.
2,337 plans on file name Vanguard as their recordkeeper. Of those, the 2,333 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $97.87 per participant.
Participants log in at Vanguard ↗. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Vanguard or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Vanguard |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper EIN | 231945930 |
What does the AVISTA plan report on Form 5500?
The AVISTA plan reported $843.5M in assets and 2,670 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $843,466,787 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 2,670 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $293.74 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $293.74 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 Investment & Employee Stock Ownership Plan Of Avista, which has no page of its own here.
How does AVISTA's 401(k) match compare?
AVISTA CORP's maximum 401(k) match of 6% 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 5.1% of pay. Also at utilities.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Also at utilities.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Also at utilities.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Vanguard.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Vanguard.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Same 1-year cliff as AVISTA.
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 26, 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 AVISTA CORP's 401(k) match?
Avista Corp matches 100% of employee contributions up to 6% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the AVISTA CORP 401(k) match vest?
Cliff: 100% vested after 1 years of service.
Does AVISTA CORP's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 15%.
Who is the recordkeeper for AVISTA CORP's 401(k)?
Vanguard is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Investment & Employee Stock Ownership Plan Of Avista 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.
Did AVISTA CORP change its 401(k) match?
Yes. All non-collectively bargained employees and Local 659 employees hired prior to January 1, 2006, and Local 77 employees hired prior to January 1, 2011, receive a matching contribution of 75% of employee contributions that does not exceed 6% of the employee’s salary. The current terms took effect as stated in the filing.
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 AVISTA CORP 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 | AVISTA CORP |
| SEC CIK | 104918 |
| Accession number | 0001193125-26-283163 |
| Plan | The Investment and Employee Stock Ownership Plan of Avista Corporation |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 26, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with AVISTA CORP, 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, “AVISTA CORP 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0001193125-26-283163, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
