401(k) Monitor

CVS Health Future Fund 401(k) Plan

CVS Health Corporation · Woonsocket, RI · EIN 050494040 · Plan 017 · Form 5500 for plan year 2024

What CVS Health put into the plan, per active participant

$1,778

CVS Health Corporation put $1,778 into this plan for each of its 313,966 active participants in plan year 2024. That is the whole employer side, matching money, profit sharing, non-elective and safe-harbor contributions and reallocated forfeitures together, because the Form 5500 reports them on one line, so it is not the match rate.

0 · least per person100 · most per person

CVS Health put in more per active participant than 86% of plans with 5,000+ participants in retail. The middle plan in that group of 196 reported $700. Retail comes from business code 446110, which CVS Health Corporation 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 CVS Health 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: Form 5500 filing for the plan year ended December 31, 2024, received by the DOL October 6, 2025 · DOL EFAST2

The $1,778 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. CVS Health Corporation also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula on its own for plan year 2025: the section below reads $2,475 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 the plan cost, per participant

$142.85

The plan paid $142.85 per participant in plan-paid administrative expenses in plan year 2024, more expensive than 94% of plans with 5,000+ participants. The middle plan of that size paid $54.84.

Why a plan this big pays less per person before anything else

Bigger plans pay less per head by construction, because the same negotiated bill divides across more people. That is why this ranking sits inside the plan's own size cohort and is never taken across all plans.

Schedule H reports only what came out of plan assets. Fees the sponsor pays directly, and fees taken inside fund expense ratios, never appear here, so this is a floor and not the all-in cost.

401(k) Monitor Score

62 out of 100

Where this plan stands against plans of its size and industry on two amounts its Form 5500 reports: employer money in per active person, and plan-paid cost per person. It reads no match formula, no vesting schedule and no fund lineup, because a Form 5500 states none of them.

  • What the employer put in, per active participant: $1,778. Higher than 86% of plans with 5,000+ participants in retail.
  • What the plan cost, per participant: $143. Cheaper than 6% of plans with 5,000+ participants.

How this score is built

On this page: the match and vesting terms · what to check next · every figure on the filing · fees itemised · the plans this one is ranked against · service providers

The match and vesting terms, from a Form 11-K

The match formula and the vesting schedule are stated in a Form 11-K, which is filed only by employers whose plan holds company stock. A Form 5500 reports neither.

What CVS Health puts in

$2,475

a year, at a $49,500 salary.

The match paragraph, word for word
Plan participants making elective deferrals are eligible to receive Company matching contributions with the first administratively feasible payroll date following the completion of one year of service with the Company. One year of service is defined as either: •12 months of service, beginning on the employee's employment date, during which the employee completed at least 1,000 hours of service, or •1,000 hours of service in any plan year following the calendar year in which the employee was hired. The Plan provides a match of 100% up to 5% of an employee’s eligible compensation contributed to the Plan per payroll. The maximum annual match per participant was $17,500 for 2025 and $17,250 for 2024.

What you contribute to collect all of it

Contribute at least 5% of your pay to collect the full match.

That is $2,475 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 253 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.

Vesting scheduleImmediate

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 100% vested at all times in participant and Company matching contributions. Participants are always fully vested in and have a non-forfeitable right to (1) their accounts upon retirement, death or disability, (2) any elective deferrals described in Note 1(c) and (3) any rollover amounts they make to the Plan.
Wait before the match starts1 year

A worker hired today collects no match for 1 year. This is a filed term, and it does not move the score above.

Eligibility, word for word
Eligible employees who have attained age 18 are able to participate in the Plan for purposes of making their own salary deferral contributions as of the first of the month following their employment date. Eligible employees are defined as regular employees of the Company other than: •A nonresident alien receiving no United States (“U.S.”) earned income from the Company; •A resident of Puerto Rico; •An individual covered under a collective bargaining agreement where retirement benefits were the subject of good faith bargaining (unless the agreement provides for membership); •A leased employee (as defined in the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”); or •An independent contractor or consultant (as defined by the Company).

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.

The formula, the six-year window and a worked example

What the plan costs, against plans of its size

94th percentile

$142.85 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 94% of plans with 5,000+ participants.

The match, vesting and eligibility terms above are read from the Form 11-K filed by CVS Health Corporation, whose page states the full formula, the vesting schedule and the sentence behind each one.

What to check next

  • Collecting the whole match

    CVS Health’s Form 11-K pays the whole match at 5% of pay, which is $2,475 a year at a $49,500 salary and scales with your own. Your payslip and your Vanguard account both show the rate you set. A rate below 5% collects less than the whole match.

    That Form 11-K covers plan year 2025. The plan’s Summary Plan Description states the terms in force, and the plan administrator must provide it to participants on request.

  • What to ask about the fees

    This plan paid $142.85 per participant out of plan assets, more than 94% of plans with 5,000+ participants, where the middle plan paid $54.84. The filing does not say what the difference buys. Two questions put that to a benefits or HR team: what the recordkeeping and administration contract costs, and how much of it comes out of participant accounts rather than being paid by CVS Health. The lines this total is made of are further down.

  • Weighing this employer against another

    CVS Health’s filed match formula is set against another employer’s, term by term, on one page: UnitedHealth.

  • Your own numbers are not on this page

    Every figure here is the whole plan for plan year 2024, taken from one filing and divided by headcounts. Your own contribution rate, your balance and the fees taken from your account are on your recordkeeper’s site, which this filing names as Vanguard. What you may put in during a year is set by the IRS and not by the plan: this year’s limits ↗.

Key figures

From Schedule H of Form 5500 filing 20251006141123NAL0003741777001, plan year 2024.
Total plan assets, end of year$30,087,909,242
Net assets$30,062,340,595
Participants, beginning of year307,068
Of which active313,966
Plan typeSingle employer
Size cohortThe peer group we rank fees against.5,000+ participants
Employer share of the money that went in, plan year 2024The rest came from employees, who put in $1,104,297,150. The share falls when employees save more, so a plan whose staff contribute heavily reads lower here through no act of the employer. It is printed as a fact and it is not part of the score.34%

Plan-paid administrative expenses

The plan paid $43,865,252 in administrative expenses in plan year 2024, across 307,068 participants: $142.85 per participant.

Contract administrator feesnot reported in filing
Professional feesnot reported in filing
Investment management fees$36,770,815
Other administrative fees$30,552

These are plan-paid expenses from Schedule H only. Fees the sponsor pays directly, and fees embedded in fund expense ratios, never appear here. This figure is a floor, not the all-in cost, and a low number is not “free”.

The plans this one is ranked against

Fees on this page are ranked against the 5,000+ participant cohort, where the median plan pays $54.84 per participant. The sponsor files from Rhode Island, one of 191 plans on file there, at a median of $120.98 per participant. Its business code places the plan in retail, one of 2,305 on file, which run to a median of $93.99.

Plans of a similar size in Rhode Island

The plans nearest this one by participant count, out of 7 in its peer group. Cost per participant is each plan’s own Schedule H figure, and a filing that reported no administrative expenses says so instead of showing a zero.
PlanParticipantsCost per participant
UNFI 401(k) PlanUnited Natural Foods, Inc.50,287$27.61
Textron Savings PlanTextron Inc.36,530$46.37
CFG Retirement Savings PlanCitizens Financial Group, Inc.26,647$66.55
Brown Health 401(k) Retirement Savings PlanLifespan Corporation, Dba Brown University Health19,490$42.79

Service providers (Schedule C)

Recordkeeper: Vanguard (as filed: “THE VANGUARD GROUP, INC.”)

2,337 plans on file name Vanguard as their recordkeeper, at a median of $97.87 per participant.

Providers from Schedule C, Part 1, Item 2 of filing 20251006141123NAL0003741777001. Direct compensation is paid from plan assets. Amounts in USD.
ProviderService codesDirect comp. ($)Indirect comp. ($)
Vanguard Advisers Inc.2615,954,978not reported
The Vanguard Group, Inc.37, 16, 99, 155,431,1190
Mfs Institutional Advisors, Inc.51, 50, 283,108,605not reported
Columbia Management Investment Advi71, 51, 50, 63, 282,750,323not reported
T. Rowe Price51, 50, 282,686,542not reported
Wellington Management51, 50, 282,481,639not reported
Barrow Hanley Global Investors51, 50, 68, 281,978,364not reported
The Bank Of New York Mellon31, 62, 99, 50, 25, 211,526,366not reported
Loomis, Sayles & Company, L.P.51, 50, 281,405,760not reported
Snyder Capital Management, L.P.51, 50, 281,209,270not reported
Earnest Partners, LLC51, 50, 281,056,004not reported
Baron Capital Management, Inc.51, 50, 281,053,035not reported
Dodge & Cox51, 50, 281,044,333not reported
Invesco Advisers, Inc.51, 67, 50, 28950,497not reported
D.F. Dent And Company, Inc.51, 50, 28604,455not reported
Buck Global, LLC50, 51, 49, 27, 16575,698not reported
State Street Global Advisors Trust51, 50, 28137,905not reported
Ernst & Young U.S. LLP50, 10106,400not reported
Allen Overy Shearman Sterling US Ll50, 2930,552not reported

Source

DatasetDOL EFAST2 Form 5500 bulk data (FOIA)
Form year2024
Filing ACK_ID20251006141123NAL0003741777001
Dataset last refreshedJuly 28, 2026

Bulk dataset at askebsa.dol.gov ↗ · Look up the filing on EFAST2 ↗

Filings lag by design: a plan can file up to 9½ months after its year ends, so this is the newest data on file. Why filings lag

Cite this page

401(k) Monitor, "CVS Health Future Fund 401(k) Plan: Form 5500 facts", from DOL EFAST2 filing 20251006141123NAL0003741777001, plan year ended December 31, 2024. 401(k) Monitor Score 62 out of 100 (exact value 62.26).