Franklin Templeton 401(k) Retirement Plan
Franklin Resources, Inc. · San Mateo, CA · EIN 132670991 · Plan 003 · Form 5500 for plan year 2024
What FRANKLIN RESOURCES put into the plan, per active participant
$15,503
FRANKLIN RESOURCES INC put $15,503 into this plan for each of its 4,383 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.
FRANKLIN RESOURCES put in more per active participant than 86% of plans with 5,000+ participants in investment management and securities. The middle plan in that group of 45 reported $6,786. Investment management and securities comes from business code 523900, which FRANKLIN RESOURCES INC 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 FRANKLIN RESOURCES 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 July 3, 2025 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
What the plan cost, per participant
$91.15
The plan paid $91.15 per participant in plan-paid administrative expenses in plan year 2024, more expensive than 79% 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
67 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: $15,503. Higher than 86% of plans with 5,000+ participants in investment management and securities.
- What the plan cost, per participant: $91.15. Cheaper than 21% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
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 FRANKLIN RESOURCES puts in
Not stated in the filing
Only part of the match formula is disclosed in the filing, so the yearly dollars cannot be computed from it.
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 Merrill Benefits OnLine ↗.
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 4% 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.
Share of the employer's money that is the worker's at hire and at each of the first 6 anniversaries: 0%, 0%, 0%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are immediately vested in their deferral and rollover contributions plus actual earnings thereon. Participants with less than three years of service vest gradually in the Company's matching contribution portion of their accounts plus actual earnings thereon based on their years of service. Typically, a participant is 100% vested after completing three years of service, as defined in the Plan.”
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
79th percentile
$91.15 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 79% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
The match, vesting and eligibility terms above are read from the Form 11-K filed by FRANKLIN RESOURCES INC, whose page states the full formula, the vesting schedule and the sentence behind each one.
Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. That Form 11-K covers Franklin Templeton 401(k) Retirement Plan.
What to check next
What to ask about the fees
This plan paid $91.15 per participant out of plan assets, more than 79% 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 FRANKLIN RESOURCES. The lines this total is made of are further down.
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 Merrill Benefits OnLine ↗. What you may put in during a year is set by the IRS and not by the plan: this year’s limits ↗.
Key figures
| Total plan assets, end of year | $2,796,746,897 |
|---|---|
| Net assets | $2,796,746,897 |
| Participants, beginning of year | 6,963 |
| Of which active | 4,383 |
| Plan type | Single 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 $87,773,061. 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. | 44% |
Plan-paid administrative expenses
The plan paid $634,681 in administrative expenses in plan year 2024, across 6,963 participants: $91.15 per participant.
| Contract administrator fees | not reported in filing |
|---|---|
| Professional fees | not reported in filing |
| Investment management fees | $344,094 |
| Other administrative fees | $0 |
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 California, one of 6,801 plans on file there, at a median of $109.24 per participant. Its business code places the plan in investment management and securities, one of 960 on file, which run to a median of $111.34.
Plans of a similar size in California
| Plan | Participants | Cost per participant |
|---|---|---|
| The Wonderful Company LLC 401(k) PlanThe Wonderful Company | 7,003 | $31.38 |
| Medamerica 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan For Employees Of VituityMedamerica, Inc. Dba Vituity | 7,003 | $424.46 |
| Lucid Motors 401(k) PlanLucid USA, Inc. | 6,931 | $33.22 |
| The Rh 401(k) PlanRestoration Hardware, Inc. | 6,837 | $40.31 |
Service providers (Schedule C)
Recordkeeper: Merrill Lynch (as filed: “MERRILL LYNCH, PIERCE, FENNER AND S”)
663 plans on file name Merrill Lynch as their recordkeeper, at a median of $87.18 per participant.
| Provider | Service codes | Direct comp. ($) | Indirect comp. ($) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner And S | 71, 63, 62, 52, 60, 59, 72, 15 | 290,587 | 0 |
| Callan LLC | 70 | 221,250 | not reported |
| Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors, LLC | 70 | 123,819 | not reported |
| Mma | 50 | 18,300 | not reported |
Useful links
- Find a 401(k) you left at an old job ↗
The DOL's Retirement Savings Lost & Found. Free and official.
- Look up this plan's full Form 5500 ↗
The DOL's own filing search. Search by plan or sponsor name.
- Download this plan's data (CSV) ↗
Every field on this page, one row, ready for a spreadsheet.
Source
| Dataset | DOL EFAST2 Form 5500 bulk data (FOIA) |
|---|---|
| Form year | 2024 |
| Filing ACK_ID | 20250703132904NAL0001489042001 |
| Dataset last refreshed | July 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, "Franklin Templeton 401(k) Retirement Plan: Form 5500 facts", from DOL EFAST2 filing 20250703132904NAL0001489042001, plan year ended December 31, 2024. 401(k) Monitor Score 67 out of 100 (exact value 66.87).