Northern Trust Corporation 401(k): Fidelity, match 3% max
The Northern Trust Company Thrift-Incentive Plan · NTRS · CIK 73124
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.
Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing.
Maximum employer match, as a share of pay
3%
Northern Trust Corporation matches 50% of the first 6% 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 Northern Trust puts in, and what the plan costs
What Northern Trust put into the plan, per active participant
$3,516
Northern Trust Corporation put $3,516 into this plan for each of its 9,702 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.
Northern Trust put in less per active participant than 72% of plans with 5,000+ participants at banks and lenders. The middle plan in that group of 66 reported $4,881. Banks and lenders comes from business code 522110, which Northern Trust 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.
Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. This record could cover another plan of the same employer.
What this figure cannot separate: how much Northern Trust 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 361561860, plan 002 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $3,516 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Northern Trust Corporation also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $1,485 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 Northern Trust puts in
$1,485
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Company makes a matching contribution of $0.50 on every $1.00 that a participant contributes up to 6% of eligible pay. This is equal to a maximum of 3% of eligible pay and is made to contributing participant accounts each pay period.”
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
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 are always 100% vested in their own contributions and earnings. The Company matching contributions vest 20% annually until the participant is 100% vested at the end of five years.”
A worker hired today collects no match for 6 months. This is a filed term, and it does not move the score above.
Eligibility, word for word
“Employees can make contributions after receipt of their first paycheck. Participating employees are eligible for the Company match on the first day of the month following six months of vesting 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
87th percentile
$113.07 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 87% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is Northern Trust's 401(k) match formula?
Northern Trust's 401(k) employer match tops out at 3% of pay. The match is deposited each payroll. One rate up to one limit is the commonest of the four shapes a match formula takes.
| Match formula | 50% of the first 6% of pay |
|---|---|
| Maximum employer match | 3% of compensation |
| Deposited | Each payroll |
At a $45,000 salary, contributing 6% ($2,700) earns the full employer match of $1,350 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company makes a matching contribution of $0.50 on every $1.00 that a participant contributes up to 6% of eligible pay. This is equal to a maximum of 3% of eligible pay and is made to contributing participant accounts each pay period.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Northern Trust's 401(k) vesting schedule?
Northern Trust 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 | Upon termination for permanent disability, death, or attainment of age 65, a participant or beneficiary is entitled to the entire Plan balance; all accounts fully vest on Plan termination |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are always 100% vested in their own contributions and earnings. The Company matching contributions vest 20% annually until the participant is 100% vested at the end of five years.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Northern Trust's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Northern Trust enrolls new hires automatically at 6% of pay, rising 1% a year to 10% of pay.
| Plan entry | Employees can make contributions after receipt of their first paycheck |
|---|---|
| Match eligibility | Eligible for the Company match on the first day of the month following six months of vesting service |
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 10%; default investment: Target-date BlackRock LifePath Index Fund nearest to the participant's projected retirement age of 65 |
Eligibility, word for word
“Employees can make contributions after receipt of their first paycheck. Participating employees are eligible for the Company match on the first day of the month following six months of vesting service.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“Newly hired employees are automatically enrolled in the Plan by the time they receive their fourth paycheck unless they make an alternative election. The initial contribution rate for participants who are automatically enrolled is 6% on a before-tax basis and increases by 1% annually in April until the participant is contributing 10%. These contributions are 6 THE NORTHERN TRUST COMPANY THRIFT-INCENTIVE PLAN NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS invested in the target-date BlackRock LifePath® Index Fund nearest to the participant’s projected retirement age of 65.”
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 Fidelity Investments, filed as “FID INV INST OPS CO”. 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.
Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. This record could cover another plan of the same employer.
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 Northern Trust plan report on Form 5500?
The Northern Trust plan reported $3.3B in assets and 14,154 participants for plan year 2024.
Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. This record could cover another plan of the same employer.
| Plan named in the DOL record | The Northern Trust Company Thrift-Incentive Plan |
|---|---|
| Total plan assets | $3,335,090,472 |
| Participants | 14,154 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $113.07 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $113.07 per participant. The median across plans at banks and lenders is $152.83, from the 2,143 of 2,264 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
How does Northern Trust's 401(k) match compare?
Northern Trust Corporation's maximum 401(k) match of 3% 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 banks and lenders, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Also at banks and lenders.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Also at banks and lenders.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Also at banks and lenders.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Fidelity Investments.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Fidelity Investments.
Match vests in steps, 100% after 5 years. Also fully vested after 5 years, like Northern Trust.
Compare Northern Trust 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 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 Northern Trust Corporation's 401(k) match?
Northern Trust Corporation matches 50% of employee contributions up to 6% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the Northern Trust Corporation 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 Northern Trust Corporation's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 10%; default investment: Target-date BlackRock LifePath Index Fund nearest to the participant's projected retirement age of 65.
Who is the recordkeeper for Northern Trust Corporation's 401(k)?
Fidelity Investments is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for The Northern Trust Company Thrift-Incentive 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. Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. This record could cover another plan of the same employer.
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 Northern Trust 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 | Northern Trust Corporation |
| SEC CIK | 73124 |
| Accession number | 0000073124-26-000040 |
| Plan | The Northern Trust Company Thrift-Incentive Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 24, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Northern Trust 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, “Northern Trust Corporation 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000073124-26-000040, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
