GREIF, INC 401(k): Principal, match fully vested after 5 years
Greif 401(k) Retirement Plan · GEF · CIK 43920
Principal 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
GREIF, INC 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 22, 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 GREIF puts in, and what the plan costs
What GREIF put into the plan, per active participant
$4,502
GREIF, INC put $4,502 into this plan for each of its 6,763 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.
GREIF put in more per active participant than 64% 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 331200, which GREIF 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 GREIF 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 363268123, plan 001 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
What GREIF 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 GREIF 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 Principal ↗.
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
57.14 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. Higher than 5% 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%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“Participants have full and immediate vesting in all participant contributions and related income credited to their accounts. Employer contributions and actual earnings thereon vest ratably over a five-year period unless otherwise provided by collective bargaining agreements.”
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
63rd percentile
$69.54 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 63% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is GREIF's 401(k) match formula?
GREIF 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.
| Other employer contribution | Additionally, the Sponsor contributes three percent of compensation earned for all participants not eligible to participate in the Greif Pension Plan. |
|---|
What the filing says, word for word
“At its discretion, the Sponsor may make matching and/or profit sharing contributions as set forth in the Plan document. Additionally, the Sponsor contributes three percent of compensation earned for all participants not eligible to participate in the Greif Pension Plan. Certain employer matching contributions are paid pursuant to collective bargaining agreements.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 22, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is GREIF's 401(k) vesting schedule?
GREIF vests the employer match on a graded schedule: 20% after one year, rising to 100% after five. 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 1 yr, 40% at 2 yr, 60% at 3 yr, 80% at 4 yr, 100% at 5 yr |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
| Accelerated vesting | In the event of Plan termination, participants will become 100% vested in their accounts. |
| Other employer contributions | Employer contributions and actual earnings thereon vest ratably over a five-year period unless otherwise provided by collective bargaining agreements. |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants have full and immediate vesting in all participant contributions and related income credited to their accounts. Employer contributions and actual earnings thereon vest ratably over a five-year period unless otherwise provided by collective bargaining agreements.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 22, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join GREIF's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
GREIF enrolls new hires automatically at 3% of pay.
| Plan entry | Eligible employees participate as soon as administratively feasible following their date of hire and upon 18 years of age. |
|---|---|
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 3% of pay; default investment: invested in a target fund investment option that corresponds to the participant’s projected retirement date, which is based on the participant’s current age and a retirement age of 65 |
Eligibility, word for word
“Eligible employees participate as soon as administratively feasible following their date of hire and upon 18 years of age.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“As soon as eligibility criteria are satisfied, participants are automatically enrolled with payroll deductions of 3 percent but are permitted to opt out or change the payroll deduction percentage.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 22, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports Principal, filed as “PRINCIPAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY”. 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.
5,239 plans on file name Principal as their recordkeeper. Of those, the 5,230 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $170.05 per participant.
Participants log in at Principal ↗. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Principal or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Principal |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper EIN | 420127290 |
What does the GREIF plan report on Form 5500?
The GREIF plan reported $863.4M in assets and 9,611 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $863,403,788 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 9,611 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $69.54 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $69.54 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.
Greif 401(k) Retirement Plan on its Form 5500 filing: fees, providers and financials
How does GREIF's 401(k) match compare?
GREIF, INC'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 in industrial and materials manufacturing, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Employer match vests immediately. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Match vests in steps, 100% after 5 years. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Match vests in steps, 100% after 5 years. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
No employer match in the filing. Same recordkeeper, Principal.
Employer match vests in full after 3 years. Same recordkeeper, Principal.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Also fully vested after 5 years, like GREIF.
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 22, 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 GREIF, INC's 401(k) match?
Greif, Inc'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. GREIF, INC's Form 5500 for plan year 2024 reports $4,502 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 GREIF, INC 401(k) match vest?
Graded: 20% at 1 yr, 40% at 2 yr, 60% at 3 yr, 80% at 4 yr, 100% at 5 yr.
Does GREIF, INC's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 3% of pay; default investment: invested in a target fund investment option that corresponds to the participant’s projected retirement date, which is based on the participant’s current age and a retirement age of 65.
Who is the recordkeeper for GREIF, INC's 401(k)?
Principal is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Greif 401(k) 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 GREIF, INC 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 | GREIF, INC |
| SEC CIK | 43920 |
| Accession number | 0001628280-26-044704 |
| Plan | Greif 401(k) Retirement Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 22, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with GREIF, INC, 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, “GREIF, INC 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0001628280-26-044704, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
