Chemed Corporation 401(k): Merrill Lynch, match fully vested after 6 years
Chemed/Roto-Rooter Savings & Retirement Plan · CHE · CIK 19584
Merrill Lynch 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.
The 401(k) employer match
Set again each year
Chemed Corporation sets its 401(k) match at its own discretion each year, and this filing does not state the rate.
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: 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 Chemed puts in, and what the plan costs
What Chemed put into the plan, per active participant
$2,529
Chemed Corporation put $2,529 into this plan for each of its 3,782 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.
Chemed put in less per active participant than 53% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants at holding companies. The middle plan in that group of 157 reported $2,643. Holding companies comes from business code 551112, which Chemed 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 Chemed 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 310791746, plan 104 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
What Chemed puts in
Not stated in the filing
The match rate is set at the company's discretion each year, and the filing does not state the rate it used.
The Form 5500 for this plan reports what Chemed actually paid in: the figure and its peer comparison are above. It is the whole employer side of the plan on one line, so it answers what went in rather than what the formula promises.
Two places state the terms in full: your plan’s Summary Plan Description, which your employer must provide on request, and your recordkeeper’s site, which for this plan is Merrill Benefits OnLine ↗.
What you contribute to collect all of it
Not stated in the filing
The filing does not state the contribution rate that collects the full employer contribution.
Vesting score
42.86 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. No schedule among the 369 we have scored is lower.
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%, 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are immediately vested in their Basic Contributions and any earnings or losses thereon. Vesting in the employer’s Matching Contributions occurs in annual 20% increments after two years of service and participants are fully vested after six years of service.”
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
22nd percentile
$40.43 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, cheaper than 78% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants.
What is Chemed's 401(k) match formula?
Chemed sets its 401(k) match at its own discretion each year and does not state the rate in this filing. A discretionary match is set again each year, so the rate in force lives in the plan document rather than the filing. The four shapes a formula takes is what to look for when you read one.
| Match formula | A rate set at the sponsor's discretion on the first 6% of pay |
|---|---|
| Other employer contribution | The Company may also elect to make discretionary contributions ("Qualified Nonelective Contribution"); the Company made discretionary contributions of $4,993,888 and $4,868,290 for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively |
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company, on a participating unit basis, may elect to make contributions (“Qualified Matching Contribution”) to the Plan on the first 6% of employees’ basic contribution.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Chemed's 401(k) vesting schedule?
Chemed vests the employer match on a graded schedule: 20% after two years, rising to 100% after six. 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 2 yr, 40% at 3 yr, 60% at 4 yr, 80% at 5 yr, 100% at 6 yr |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
| Accelerated vesting | All participants of the Plan are fully vested in employer contributions upon normal retirement, death or total permanent disability incurred while employed. |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are immediately vested in their Basic Contributions and any earnings or losses thereon. Vesting in the employer’s Matching Contributions occurs in annual 20% increments after two years of service and participants are fully vested after six years of service.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Chemed's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Chemed's filing does not mention automatic enrollment, which is not the same as the plan having none.
| Plan entry | The Plan is a defined contribution plan available to all full-time employees of participating units of Chemed Corporation (the "Company"), except those covered by collective bargaining agreements, who have completed at least 500 hours of service in any six months of continuous service. |
|---|---|
| Excluded groups | except those covered by collective bargaining agreements |
| Automatic enrollment | Not mentioned in the filing (not proof of absence) |
Eligibility, word for word
“The Plan is a defined contribution plan available to all full-time employees of participating units of Chemed Corporation (the "Company"), except those covered by collective bargaining agreements, who have completed at least 500 hours of service in any six months of continuous service.”
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 Merrill Lynch, filed as “MERRILL LYNCH, PIERCE, FENNER AND S”. 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.
663 plans on file name Merrill Lynch as their recordkeeper. Of those, the 659 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $87.18 per participant.
Participants log in at Merrill Benefits OnLine ↗. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Merrill Lynch or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Merrill Lynch |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper EIN | 135674085 |
What does the Chemed plan report on Form 5500?
The Chemed plan reported $371.1M in assets and 4,836 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $371,072,376 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 4,836 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $40.43 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $40.43 per participant. The median across plans at holding companies is $106.24, from the 612 of 643 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
Read from the Form 5500 filing of Chemed/Roto Rooter Savings & Retirement Plan, which has no page of its own here.
How does Chemed's 401(k) match compare?
Chemed Corporation's filing does not state a maximum 401(k) match as a share of pay. Across the 269 companies in our data that do, the median is 4% of pay.
Employers worth reading next
Of the six employers below, three file at holding companies, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Also at holding companies.
Employer match vests immediately. Also at holding companies.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Also at holding companies.
Maximum match 5.1% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Merrill Lynch.
Employer match vests immediately. Same recordkeeper, Merrill Lynch.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Also fully vested after 6 years, like Chemed.
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 Chemed Corporation's 401(k) match?
Chemed Corporation's employer match rate is set at the sponsor's discretion and is not disclosed in the 11-K for the plan year ended December 31, 2025. Chemed Corporation's Form 5500 for plan year 2024 reports $2,529 of employer money per active participant. 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.
When does the Chemed Corporation 401(k) match vest?
Graded: 20% at 2 yr, 40% at 3 yr, 60% at 4 yr, 80% at 5 yr, 100% at 6 yr.
Does Chemed Corporation's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Not mentioned in the filing (not proof of absence).
Who is the recordkeeper for Chemed Corporation's 401(k)?
Merrill Lynch is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Chemed/Roto Rooter Savings & Retirement 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 Chemed 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 | Chemed Corporation |
| SEC CIK | 19584 |
| Accession number | 0000019584-26-000016 |
| Plan | Chemed/Roto-Rooter Savings & Retirement Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 24, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Chemed 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, “Chemed Corporation 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000019584-26-000016, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
