Southern Company 401(k): Merrill Lynch, match 5.1% of pay
The Southern Company Employee Savings Plan · SO · CIK 92122
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.
Employer match stated in the filing, as a share of pay
5.1%
Southern Company discloses only part of its 401(k) match terms: it matches 85% of the first 6% of pay.
From the Form 11-K filed June 26, 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 Southern puts in, and what the plan costs
What Southern put into the plan, per active participant
$4,817
Southern Company put $4,817 into this plan for each of its 28,079 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.
Southern put in less per active participant than 76% 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 Southern 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 Southern 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 630274273, plan 002 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $4,817 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Southern Company also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $2,524 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 Southern puts in
$2,524
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The filing discloses only part of the formula. The most it states the employer adds is 5.1% of pay, for a worker contributing 6% of pay.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Employing Companies’ contributions (“Employer Matching Contributions”) are discretionary and determined by the Board of Directors of the Plan Sponsor. For the year ended December 31, 2025, the Employing Companies contributed, on behalf of the participants, 85% of the first 6% of eligible compensation contributed by the participant.”
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
“Participants are immediately vested in the total value of their accounts – both employee and Employer Matching Contributions.”
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
42nd percentile
$46.93 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, cheaper than 58% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is Southern's 401(k) match formula?
Southern discloses only part of its 401(k) match terms: it matches 85% of the first 6% of pay. One rate up to one limit is the commonest of the four shapes a match formula takes.
| Match formula | 85% of the first 6% of pay |
|---|---|
| Maximum employer match | 5.1% of compensation |
| Rate actually paid this plan yearAs reported in the filing. | Employer Matching Contributions are discretionary and determined by the Board of Directors of the Plan Sponsor; for the year ended December 31, 2025, the Employing Companies contributed 85% of the first 6% of eligible compensation contributed by the participant |
| Conditions | The Board of Directors of the Plan Sponsor reserves the right to discontinue or change the Employer Matching Contributions at any time |
What the filing says, word for word
“The Employing Companies’ contributions (“Employer Matching Contributions”) are discretionary and determined by the Board of Directors of the Plan Sponsor. For the year ended December 31, 2025, the Employing Companies contributed, on behalf of the participants, 85% of the first 6% of eligible compensation contributed by the participant.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 26, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Southern's 401(k) vesting schedule?
Southern 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 |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are immediately vested in the total value of their accounts – both employee and Employer Matching Contributions.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 26, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Southern's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Southern enrolls new hires automatically at 6% of pay.
| Plan entry | Employees meeting certain criteria may elect to participate as of the first day of any payroll period after the first day of employment or as soon as administratively practicable thereafter; the Plan covers substantially all employees and retirees of the Employing Companies (Southern Company subsidiaries) |
|---|---|
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; 30-day opt-out window |
Eligibility, word for word
“Employees meeting certain criteria, as defined by the Plan, may elect to participate in the Plan as of the first day of any payroll period after the employee’s first day of employment or as soon as administratively practicable thereafter. Employees who do not make an affirmative election will be automatically enrolled after their first 30 days of employment.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“Employees who are automatically enrolled are deemed to have elected a default contribution rate of six percent of compensation, provided that eligible employees may elect at any time to change the default elections as otherwise permitted by the terms of the Plan.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 26, 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 Southern plan report on Form 5500?
The Southern plan reported $9.3B in assets and 35,497 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $9,300,088,498 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 35,497 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $46.93 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $46.93 per participant. The median across plans at utilities is $138.21, from the 387 of 407 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
The Southern Company Employee Savings Plan on its Form 5500 filing: fees, providers and financials
How does Southern's 401(k) match compare?
Southern Company's maximum 401(k) match of 5.1% 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 5% of pay. Also at utilities.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Also at utilities.
Maximum match 4.5% of pay. Also at utilities.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Merrill Lynch.
Match vests in steps, 100% after 6 years. Same recordkeeper, Merrill Lynch.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Vests immediately too, like Southern.
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 26, 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 Southern Company's 401(k) match?
Southern Company discloses only part of its match terms in the 11-K for the plan year ended December 31, 2025; it matches 85% of employee contributions up to 6% of eligible pay.
When does the Southern Company 401(k) match vest?
Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed.
Does Southern Company's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; 30-day opt-out window.
Who is the recordkeeper for Southern Company's 401(k)?
Merrill Lynch is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for The Southern Company Employee 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 Southern Company 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 | Southern Company |
| SEC CIK | 92122 |
| Accession number | 0000092122-26-000050 |
| Plan | The Southern Company Employee Savings Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 26, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Southern Company, 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, “Southern Company 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000092122-26-000050, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
