Morgan Stanley 401(k) Plan
Morgan Stanley Domestic Holdings, LLC · New York, NY · EIN 208764829 · Plan 003 · Form 5500 for plan year 2024
What Morgan Stanley put into the plan, per active participant
$7,353
Morgan Stanley put $7,353 into this plan for each of its 54,084 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.
Morgan Stanley put in more per active participant than 57% 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 Morgan Stanley 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 Morgan Stanley 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 10, 2025 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $7,353 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Morgan Stanley 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, and the same filing states employer contributions made outside the match. 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
$210.50
The plan paid $210.50 per participant in plan-paid administrative expenses in plan year 2024, more expensive than 98% 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
40 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: $7,353. Higher than 57% of plans with 5,000+ participants in investment management and securities.
- What the plan cost, per participant: $211. Cheaper than 2% 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 Morgan Stanley puts in
$2,475
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“Company Match: For employees (except Senior Advisors and Advisory Directors (or equivalent titles) each as defined in the Plan) with eligible pay of $275,001 or less and who are not eligible to receive a Fixed Contribution (as described below), the Plan-provided Company Match for the year ended December 31, 2025 (“2025 Company Match”) was one dollar for each dollar of before-tax and/or Roth after-tax contributions that eligible participants contributed to the Plan, up to a maximum of 5% of eligible pay. For these employees, the maximum 2025 Company Match was $13,750. For employees with eligible pay of $100,001 or less who are eligible to receive a Fixed Contribution or employees with eligible pay over $275,001, the Plan-provided 2025 Company Match was one dollar for each dollar of before-tax or Roth after-tax contributions that eligible participants contributed to the Plan, up to a maximum of 4% of eligible pay, up to the Code limit of $350,000. For these employees, the maximum 2025 Company Match was $14,000. The Company Match is made at the discretion of the Plan Sponsor.”
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
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
“Vesting — Participants are vested immediately in their Employee Contributions plus earnings thereon. Generally, participants are vested in any Company Contributions upon the earlier of: (i) completion of 3 years of service, or (ii) termination of employment due to death, Retirement, Release or Total and Permanent Disability, each as defined by the Plan. There is no partial vesting.”
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
98th percentile
$210.50 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 98% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
The match, vesting and eligibility terms above are read from the Form 11-K filed by Morgan Stanley, whose page states the full formula, the vesting schedule and the sentence behind each one.
What to check next
Collecting the whole match
Morgan Stanley’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 Alight ↗ 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 $210.50 per participant out of plan assets, more than 98% 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 Morgan Stanley. The lines this total is made of are further down.
Weighing this employer against another
Morgan Stanley’s filed match formula is set against another employer’s, term by term, on 4 pages: Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp.
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 Alight ↗. 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 | $22,180,692,974 |
|---|---|
| Net assets | $22,018,408,364 |
| Participants, beginning of year | 81,090 |
| Of which active | 54,084 |
| 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 $833,466,954. 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. | 32% |
Plan-paid administrative expenses
The plan paid $17,069,708 in administrative expenses in plan year 2024, across 81,090 participants: $210.50 per participant.
| Contract administrator fees | not reported in filing |
|---|---|
| Professional fees | not reported in filing |
| Investment management fees | $16,700,742 |
| Other administrative fees | $61,961 |
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 New York, one of 3,878 plans on file there, at a median of $108.03 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 New York
| Plan | Participants | Cost per participant |
|---|---|---|
| I.A.T.S.E. Annuity FundBoard Of Trustees I.A.T.S.E. Annuity Fund | 97,354 | $75.46 |
| ABM 401(k) Employee Savings PlanABM Industries Incorporated | 89,480 | $11.44 |
| Pfizer Savings PlanPfizer Inc. | 59,490 | $158.34 |
| The Wegmans Retirement PlansWegmans Food Markets Inc. | 52,123 | $6.92 |
Service providers (Schedule C)
Recordkeeper: Alight (as filed: “ALIGHT SOLUTIONS LLC”)
46 plans on file name Alight as their recordkeeper, at a median of $87.90 per participant.
| Provider | Service codes | Direct comp. ($) | Indirect comp. ($) |
|---|---|---|---|
| T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. | 71, 51, 50, 68, 28 | 3,773,377 | 0 |
| Westfield Capital Management Co, Lp | 51, 68, 28 | 1,724,662 | 0 |
| State Street Global Advisrs Trst Co | 51, 19, 28, 18 | 1,639,301 | 0 |
| Pacific Investment Mgmt Co LLC | 51, 28 | 1,451,401 | 0 |
| Artisan Partners | 68, 51 | 1,448,835 | 0 |
| Blackrock Institutional Trust Co | 51, 50, 24, 28, 21 | 1,267,210 | 0 |
| Fred Alger Management LLC | 51, 68, 28 | 1,099,930 | 70,251 |
| Westwood Management Corporation | 51, 68, 28, 27 | 1,161,879 | 0 |
| Fidelity Institutional Asset Mgmt | 99, 51, 49, 68, 28 | 913,515 | 0 |
| Thompson, Siegel & Walmsley LLC | 51, 68, 28 | 811,667 | 0 |
| Shenkman Capital Management, Inc. | 51, 28 | 598,961 | not reported |
| Principal Global Investors, LLC | 51, 68, 28 | 563,822 | 0 |
| Mercer Investments LLC | 51, 27 | 246,182 | not reported |
| Deloitte & Touche LLP | 50, 10 | 115,000 | not reported |
| Alight Solutions LLC | 50, 59, 15 | 80,750 | 0 |
| The Northern Trust Company | 68, 62, 51, 50, 28, 21 | 111,255 | 0 |
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 | 20251010150034NAL0004732579001 |
| 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, "Morgan Stanley 401(k) Plan: Form 5500 facts", from DOL EFAST2 filing 20251010150034NAL0004732579001, plan year ended December 31, 2024. 401(k) Monitor Score 40 out of 100 (exact value 40.45).