Brown-Forman Corporation 401(k): Empower, match 5% max
Brown-Forman Corporation Savings Plan · BF-A · CIK 14693
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%
Brown-Forman Corporation matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 5% of pay.
Brown-Forman's Form 11-K filings for plan year 2026 describe two separate 401(k) plans. The terms on this page are read from the Brown-Forman Corporation Savings Plan. Both state the same maximum match.
From the Form 11-K filed June 24, 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: which plan you are in · 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
Which Brown-Forman 401(k) plan are you in?
Brown-Forman's Form 11-K filings for this plan year describe two plans and all of them state the same maximum employer match. The group each plan covers still differs, and so can the vesting and enrollment terms further down this page, which are read from the Brown-Forman Corporation Savings Plan.
Brown-Forman Corporation Savings Plan (the plan this page answers for)
The filing states no limit on who this plan covers · Form 11-K ↗
5% of pay, at most
Brown-Forman Corporation Savings Plan for Collectively Bargained Employees
Employees covered by a collective-bargaining agreement · Form 11-K ↗
5% of pay, at most
One row per plan, taken from the two Form 11-K reports this site has read for the plan year ended December 31, 2025. Each maximum comes from that plan’s own filing and describes only that plan.
What Brown-Forman puts in, and what the plan costs
What Brown-Forman put into the plan, per active participant
$5,902
Brown-Forman Corporation put $5,902 into this plan for each of its 2,054 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.
Brown-Forman put in more per active participant than 89% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants in food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing. The middle plan in that group of 255 reported $2,235. Food, beverage and tobacco comes from business code 312140, which Brown-Forman 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 Brown-Forman 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 610143150, plan 006 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $5,902 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Brown-Forman Corporation also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $2,475 a year at a $49,500 salary. 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 Brown-Forman puts in
$2,475
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Company contributes matching contributions in an amount equal to 100% of the participant’s elective deferral for up to 5% of compensation that is deferred. Company matching contributions are made with each payroll period in which there are deferrals by the participant. At the end of the year, the Company may make a true-up match contribution for those participants still employed on December 31.”
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
64.29 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. Higher than 29% 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%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are immediately vested in their employee contributions plus actual earnings thereon. Vesting in the Company's contributions and earnings thereon is 25% per year of service with the Company. After four years of service, participants will become 100% vested in the company contributions account. Participants will become 100% vested in their Company contributions account in case of death, normal retirement, or total and permanent disability while employed.”
The plan tops the match up after year end, so contributing unevenly through the year does not cost the worker part of it.
The same match paragraph, word for word
“The Company contributes matching contributions in an amount equal to 100% of the participant’s elective deferral for up to 5% of compensation that is deferred. Company matching contributions are made with each payroll period in which there are deferrals by the participant. At the end of the year, the Company may make a true-up match contribution for those participants still employed on December 31.”
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
36th percentile
$62.74 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, cheaper than 64% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants.
What is Brown-Forman's 401(k) match formula?
Brown-Forman's 401(k) employer match tops out at 5% of pay. The match is deposited each payroll and the plan pays an annual true-up. What an annual true-up repays is the arithmetic behind that line: it matters most in a year when contributions land unevenly.
| Match formula | 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 5% of pay |
|---|---|
| Maximum employer match | 5% of compensation |
| True-upA year-end recalculation that repays match lost to uneven contributions. | Yes, annual true-up |
| Deposited | Each payroll |
At a $60,000 salary, contributing 5% ($3,000) earns the full employer match of $3,000 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company contributes matching contributions in an amount equal to 100% of the participant’s elective deferral for up to 5% of compensation that is deferred. Company matching contributions are made with each payroll period in which there are deferrals by the participant. At the end of the year, the Company may make a true-up match contribution for those participants still employed on December 31.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Brown-Forman's 401(k) vesting schedule?
Brown-Forman vests the employer match on a graded schedule: 25% after one year, rising to 100% after four. Each step is money that leaves with you that year, which is how a graded schedule differs from a cliff.
| Employer match vesting | Graded: 25% at 1 yr, 50% at 2 yr, 75% at 3 yr, 100% at 4 yr |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
| Accelerated vesting | Participants will become 100% vested in their Company contributions account in case of death, normal retirement, or total and permanent disability while employed. |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are immediately vested in their employee contributions plus actual earnings thereon. Vesting in the Company's contributions and earnings thereon is 25% per year of service with the Company. After four years of service, participants will become 100% vested in the company contributions account. Participants will become 100% vested in their Company contributions account in case of death, normal retirement, or total and permanent disability while employed.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Brown-Forman's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Brown-Forman enrolls new hires automatically at 5% of pay, rising 1% a year to 15% of pay.
| Plan entry | An employee becomes eligible to participate in the Plan on their employment commencement date. |
|---|---|
| Excluded groups | The Plan is a defined contribution plan covering substantially all salaried and non-union hourly employees of the Company as well as salaried and non-union hourly employees of the Company’s subsidiaries. |
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 5% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 15% |
Eligibility, word for word
“The Plan is a defined contribution plan covering substantially all salaried and non-union hourly employees of the Company as well as salaried and non-union hourly employees of the Company’s subsidiaries. An employee becomes eligible to participate in the Plan on their employment commencement date.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“Newly eligible employees and employees who have not completed a salary reduction form are automatically enrolled in the Plan at a 5% of compensation deferral rate unless they indicate a desire not to make contributions or elect to enroll at a different percentage.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026, 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 O”. 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 Brown-Forman plan report on Form 5500?
The Brown-Forman plan reported $648.5M in assets and 3,042 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $648,549,973 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 3,042 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $62.74 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $62.74 per participant. The median across plans in food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing is $108.05, from the 1,292 of 1,356 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
Read from the Form 5500 filing of Brown-Forman Corporation Savings Plan, which has no page of its own here.
How does Brown-Forman's 401(k) match compare?
Brown-Forman Corporation'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 in food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Also in food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Also in food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Also in food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Empower.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Empower.
Maximum match 4.5% of pay. Also fully vested after 4 years, like Brown-Forman.
Compare Brown-Forman Corporation with any company, side by side
What do Brown-Forman's other 401(k) plans say?
Brown-Forman Corporation Savings Plan for Collectively Bargained Employees
Employees covered by a collective-bargaining agreement
Brown-Forman Corporation matches 100% of employee contributions up to 5% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
- Employer match vesting
- Graded: 25% at 1 yr, 50% at 2 yr, 75% at 3 yr, 100% at 4 yr
- Automatic enrollment
- Yes: default deferral 5% of pay
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company contributes matching contributions in an amount equal to 100% of the participant’s elective deferral for up to 5% of compensation that is deferred. Company matching contributions are made with each payroll period in which there are deferrals by the participant. At the end of the year, the Company may make a true-up match contribution for those participants still employed on December 31.”
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 24, 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 Brown-Forman Corporation's 401(k) match?
Brown-Forman Corporation matches 100% of employee contributions up to 5% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the Brown-Forman Corporation 401(k) match vest?
Graded: 25% at 1 yr, 50% at 2 yr, 75% at 3 yr, 100% at 4 yr.
Does Brown-Forman Corporation's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 5% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 15%.
Who is the recordkeeper for Brown-Forman Corporation's 401(k)?
Empower is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Brown-Forman Corporation Savings 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 Brown-Forman Corporation 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 | Brown-Forman Corporation |
| SEC CIK | 14693 |
| Accession number | 0000014693-26-000031 |
| Plan | Brown-Forman Corporation Savings Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 24, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Brown-Forman Corporation, 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, “Brown-Forman Corporation 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000014693-26-000031, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
