Duke Energy Corporation 401(k): Fidelity, match 6% max
Duke Energy Retirement Savings Plan · DUK · CIK 1326160
Fidelity Investments 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
6%
Duke Energy Corporation matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 6% of pay.
From the Form 11-K filed June 25, 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 Duke Energy puts in, and what the plan costs
What Duke Energy put into the plan, per active participant
$9,486
Duke Energy Corporation put $9,486 into this plan for each of its 26,616 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.
Duke Energy put in more per active participant than 87% of plans with 5,000+ participants at utilities. The middle plan in that group of 39 reported $5,837. Utilities comes from business code 221100, which Duke Energy 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 Duke Energy 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 202777218, plan 002 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $9,486 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Duke Energy Corporation 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 Duke Energy puts in
$2,970
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Participating Company generally matches 100% of the first 6% of the employee’s eligible compensation that is contributed to the Plan in the form of pretax and/or Roth 401(k) contributions. A different matching contribution formula may apply to certain groups of employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement. Participant after-tax contributions and matching contributions are intended to satisfy the requirements of Section 401(m) of the IRC. The Participating Company also provides (i) a non-elective employer retirement contribution of 4% of eligible compensation for employees who are not eligible to participate in a defined benefit plan and (ii) discretionary prevailing wage contributions in amounts required to meet prevailing wage/benefit levels for employees subject to prevailing wage requirements.”
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
“A participant is 100% vested in their Plan account balance attributable to employee and company matching contributions (and earnings on those contributions). Employer retirement contributions and associated investment earnings are subject to a three-year vesting requirement and also vest, if, while employed, the employee dies, becomes disabled or attains age 65. Prevailing wage contributions and associated investment earnings are also subject to a three-year vesting requirement and also vest, if, while employed, the employee dies, becomes disabled or attains age 65.”
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
94th percentile
$144.76 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 94% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is Duke Energy's 401(k) match formula?
Duke Energy'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 |
| Conditions | Only pretax and/or Roth 401(k) contributions are matched; catch-up contributions are not matched. A different matching formula may apply to certain groups covered by a collective bargaining agreement, and effective January 1, 2026 the matching formula and eligible earnings change for employees covered by the IBEW Local 1393 agreement. |
| Other employer contribution | Non-elective employer retirement contribution of 4% of eligible compensation for employees not eligible to participate in a defined benefit plan |
| Other employer contribution | Discretionary prevailing wage contributions in amounts required to meet prevailing wage/benefit levels for employees subject to prevailing wage requirements |
At a $45,000 salary, contributing 6% ($2,700) earns the full employer match of $2,700 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“The Participating Company generally matches 100% of the first 6% of the employee’s eligible compensation that is contributed to the Plan in the form of pretax and/or Roth 401(k) contributions. A different matching contribution formula may apply to certain groups of employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement. Participant after-tax contributions and matching contributions are intended to satisfy the requirements of Section 401(m) of the IRC. The Participating Company also provides (i) a non-elective employer retirement contribution of 4% of eligible compensation for employees who are not eligible to participate in a defined benefit plan and (ii) discretionary prevailing wage contributions in amounts required to meet prevailing wage/benefit levels for employees subject to prevailing wage requirements.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 25, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Duke Energy's 401(k) vesting schedule?
Duke Energy 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 | Employer retirement contributions and prevailing wage contributions (and associated earnings) are subject to a three-year vesting requirement, and also vest if, while employed, the employee dies, becomes disabled or attains age 65 |
Vesting, word for word
“A participant is 100% vested in their Plan account balance attributable to employee and company matching contributions (and earnings on those contributions). Employer retirement contributions and associated investment earnings are subject to a three-year vesting requirement and also vest, if, while employed, the employee dies, becomes disabled or attains age 65. Prevailing wage contributions and associated investment earnings are also subject to a three-year vesting requirement and also vest, if, while employed, the employee dies, becomes disabled or attains age 65.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 25, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Duke Energy's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Duke Energy enrolls new hires automatically; the filing does not state the default deferral rate.
| Plan entry | Employees of the Participating Company are eligible if they are paid on the Participating Company's U.S. payroll system and are non-union (unless agreed to in a collective bargaining agreement) |
|---|---|
| Excluded groups | Union employees are excluded unless participation is agreed to in a collective bargaining agreement |
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: |
Eligibility, word for word
“Generally, employees of the Participating Company are eligible to enter and participate in the Plan if they are paid on the Participating Company’s U. S. payroll system and are non-union (unless agreed to in a collective bargaining agreement).”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“Duke Energy automatically enrolls new full or part-time employees eligible for the Plan. The contributions made to the Plan on the employee’s behalf will be invested in one or more funds selected in accordance with procedures established by the Plan Administrator. The Company match is invested in the same manner as the employee contributions. If an employee chooses not to participate, the employee can contact Fidelity, the recordkeeper, to change the deferral rate to 0%.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 25, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports Fidelity Investments, filed as “FIDELITY INVESTMENTS INSTITUTIONAL”. 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.
10,593 plans on file name Fidelity Investments as their recordkeeper. Of those, the 10,022 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $97.71 per participant.
Participants log in at Fidelity NetBenefits ↗. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Fidelity Investments or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Fidelity Investments |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper EIN | 042647786 |
What does the Duke Energy plan report on Form 5500?
The Duke Energy plan reported $11.3B in assets and 35,803 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $11,269,744,000 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 35,803 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $144.76 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $144.76 per participant. The median across plans at utilities is $138.21, from the 387 of 407 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
Duke Energy Retirement Savings Plan on its Form 5500 filing: fees, providers and financials
How does Duke Energy's 401(k) match compare?
Duke Energy Corporation'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 6% of pay. Also at utilities.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Also at utilities.
Maximum match 5.1% of pay. Also at utilities.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Fidelity Investments.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Fidelity Investments.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Vests immediately too, like Duke Energy.
Compare Duke Energy Corporation with any company, side by side
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 25, 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 Duke Energy Corporation's 401(k) match?
Duke Energy Corporation matches 100% of employee contributions up to 6% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the Duke Energy Corporation 401(k) match vest?
Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed.
Does Duke Energy Corporation's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: .
Who is the recordkeeper for Duke Energy Corporation's 401(k)?
Fidelity Investments is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Duke Energy 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 Duke Energy 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 | Duke Energy Corporation |
| SEC CIK | 1326160 |
| Accession number | 0001326160-26-000032 |
| Plan | Duke Energy Retirement Savings Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 25, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Duke Energy 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, “Duke Energy Corporation 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0001326160-26-000032, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
