Dover Corporation 401(k): Merrill Lynch, match 3.5% max
Dover Corporation Retirement Savings Plan · DOV · CIK 29905
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.
Maximum employer match, as a share of pay
3.5%
Dover Corporation matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 1% of pay, then 50% of the next 5% of pay, for a maximum employer match of 3.5% of pay.
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 Dover puts in, and what the plan costs
What Dover put into the plan, per active participant
$4,313
Dover Corporation put $4,313 into this plan for each of its 11,251 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.
Dover put in more per active participant than 62% of plans with 5,000+ participants in industrial and materials manufacturing. The middle plan in that group of 178 reported $3,585. Industrial and materials manufacturing comes from business code 333310, which Dover 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 Dover 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 530257888, plan 030 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $4,313 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Dover Corporation also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $1,733 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 Dover puts in
$1,733
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Plan allows for a fixed per-payroll matching contribution ("Basic Employer Matching Contribution"). The Basic Employer Matching Contribution is generally 100% on the first 1% and 50% on the next 5% of pre-tax deferrals or Roth 401(k) contributions to the Plan. The Basic Employer Matching Contribution formula for employees covered under a collective bargaining agreement may vary between Participating Employers. Basic Employer Matching Contributions may be made in the form of cash or Dover stock.”
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
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 participants are fully vested immediately with respect to their own pre-tax deferrals, Roth 401(k) contributions, catch-up contributions and Basic Employer Matching Contributions. Generally, the automatic non-elective contributions vest immediately for employees of Participating Employers. Except for those Participating Employers whose employees' profit-sharing contribution accounts are immediately vested, a participant's profit-sharing account generally becomes fully vested after five years of service at a rate of 20% per year. A participant's profit-sharing account may also become fully vested upon the participant's attainment of age 65 while he or she is a Dover employee, in the event of his or her death or permanent disability while a Dover employee, or if the Plan is terminated.”
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 Plan allows for a fixed per-payroll matching contribution ("Basic Employer Matching Contribution"). The Basic Employer Matching Contribution is generally 100% on the first 1% and 50% on the next 5% of pre-tax deferrals or Roth 401(k) contributions to the Plan. The Basic Employer Matching Contribution formula for employees covered under a collective bargaining agreement may vary between Participating Employers. Basic Employer Matching Contributions may be made in the form of cash or Dover stock.”
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
67th percentile
$74.29 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 67% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is Dover's 401(k) match formula?
Dover's 401(k) employer match tops out at 3.5% 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 1% of pay |
|---|---|
| then | 50% of the next 5% of pay |
| Maximum employer match | 3.5% of compensation |
| True-upA year-end recalculation that repays match lost to uneven contributions. | Yes, annual true-up |
| Deposited | Each payroll |
| Conditions | The formula is the general one; the Basic Employer Matching Contribution formula for employees covered under a collective bargaining agreement may vary between Participating Employers. Matching contributions may be made in cash or Dover stock. |
| Other employer contribution | Annual automatic non-elective contribution equal to the greater of 1% of pay or 750 dollars for employees actively employed on the last day of the Plan Year |
| Other employer contribution | Discretionary profit sharing contribution that a Participating Employer may elect to make based on a stated formula |
At a $60,000 salary, contributing 6% ($3,600) earns the full employer match of $2,100 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“The Plan allows for a fixed per-payroll matching contribution ("Basic Employer Matching Contribution"). The Basic Employer Matching Contribution is generally 100% on the first 1% and 50% on the next 5% of pre-tax deferrals or Roth 401(k) contributions to the Plan. The Basic Employer Matching Contribution formula for employees covered under a collective bargaining agreement may vary between Participating Employers. Basic Employer Matching Contributions may be made in the form of cash or Dover stock.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Dover's 401(k) vesting schedule?
Dover 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 | Automatic non-elective contributions generally vest immediately. Profit-sharing accounts generally vest at 20% per year, becoming fully vested after five years of service (immediate at some Participating Employers), with full vesting on attainment of age 65 as a Dover employee, death or permanent disability while a Dover employee, or Plan termination |
Vesting, word for word
“All participants are fully vested immediately with respect to their own pre-tax deferrals, Roth 401(k) contributions, catch-up contributions and Basic Employer Matching Contributions. Generally, the automatic non-elective contributions vest immediately for employees of Participating Employers. Except for those Participating Employers whose employees' profit-sharing contribution accounts are immediately vested, a participant's profit-sharing account generally becomes fully vested after five years of service at a rate of 20% per year. A participant's profit-sharing account may also become fully vested upon the participant's attainment of age 65 while he or she is a Dover employee, in the event of his or her death or permanent disability while a Dover employee, or if the Plan is terminated.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Dover's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Dover enrolls new hires automatically at 3% of pay, rising 1% a year to 6% of pay.
| Plan entry | Generally, all employees of participating companies who have reached age 18 are immediately eligible to participate |
|---|---|
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 3% of pay; 30-day opt-out window; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 6%; default investment: Appropriate Vanguard Target Retirement Fund based on the participant's date of birth |
Eligibility, word for word
“Generally, all employees of such participating companies who have reached age 18 are immediately eligible to participate in the Plan.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“The Plan has an automatic enrollment feature for all employees. Eligible employees are enrolled automatically in the Plan at a 3% pre-tax contribution rate unless they formally elect to opt-out of the Plan or affirmatively elect to contribute at an alternative rate within thirty days starting at the date of hire. Participants who are automatically enrolled in the Plan will have their deferral amounts automatically increased by 1% annually (up to a maximum of 6%), unless they otherwise elect to opt-out of the automatic increase feature. Pre-tax contributions of participants who are automatically enrolled in the Plan will be invested in the appropriate Vanguard Target Retirement Fund based on the participant's date of birth unless the participant elects to have contributions invested within any of the other investments permitted under the Plan.”
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 Dover plan report on Form 5500?
The Dover plan reported $1.9B in assets and 19,106 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $1,860,991,105 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 19,106 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $74.29 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $74.29 per participant. The median across plans in industrial and materials manufacturing is $142.19, from the 5,709 of 6,008 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
Dover Corporation Retirement Savings Plan on its Form 5500 filing: fees, providers and financials
How does Dover's 401(k) match compare?
Dover Corporation's maximum 401(k) match of 3.5% 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 industrial and materials manufacturing, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 3.5% of pay. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Maximum match 3.5% of pay. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Maximum match 3.5% of pay. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Merrill Lynch.
Maximum match 3.5% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Merrill Lynch.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Vests immediately too, like Dover.
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 Dover Corporation's 401(k) match?
Dover Corporation matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 1% of pay, then 50% of the next 5% of pay, for a maximum employer match of 3.5% of compensation (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the Dover Corporation 401(k) match vest?
Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed.
Does Dover Corporation's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 3% of pay; 30-day opt-out window; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 6%; default investment: Appropriate Vanguard Target Retirement Fund based on the participant's date of birth.
Who is the recordkeeper for Dover Corporation's 401(k)?
Merrill Lynch is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Dover Corporation Retirement 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 Dover 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 | Dover Corporation |
| SEC CIK | 29905 |
| Accession number | 0000029905-26-000021 |
| Plan | Dover Corporation Retirement Savings Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 24, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Dover 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, “Dover Corporation 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000029905-26-000021, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
