401(k) Monitor

Sheppard Bus Service, Inc. Employees Savings Trust

Sheppard Bus Service, Inc. · Millville, NJ · EIN 221734132 · Plan 001 · Form 5500 for plan year 2024

What Sheppard Bus Service put into the plan, per active participant

$427

Sheppard Bus Service, Inc. put $427 into this plan for each of its 521 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

Sheppard Bus Service put in less per active participant than 84% of plans with 500–999 participants in transportation and logistics. The middle plan in that group of 277 reported $1,213. Transportation and logistics comes from business code 485510, which Sheppard Bus Service, 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 Sheppard Bus Service 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 14, 2025 · DOL EFAST2

What the plan cost, per participant

$5.71

The plan paid $5.71 per participant in plan-paid administrative expenses in plan year 2024, cheaper than 97% of plans with 500–999 participants. The middle plan of that size paid $114.97.

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: $427. Lower than 84% of plans with 500–999 participants in transportation and logistics.
  • What the plan cost, per participant: $5.71. Cheaper than 97% of plans with 500–999 participants.

How this score is built

On this page: where the match terms are stated · 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 Sheppard Bus Service puts in

Not in public filings for this employer

We have no SEC Form 11-K for this employer, and the Form 5500 this page is built from does not report match terms.

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 Empower.

What you contribute to collect all of it

Not in public filings for this employer

The rate that collects the full match is part of the match formula, which a Form 5500 does not report.

Vesting score

Not scored

The vesting schedule is stated in a Form 11-K, and we have none for this employer.

A schedule this cannot read at whole-year anniversaries is left without a number rather than given a middle one.

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

What the plan costs, against plans of its size

3rd percentile

$5.71 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, cheaper than 97% of plans with 500–999 participants.

What to check next

  • 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 Empower. 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 20251014102302NAL0002615457001, plan year 2024.
Total plan assets, end of year$5,515,632
Net assets$5,515,632
Participants, beginning of year564
Of which active521
Plan typeSingle employer
Size cohortThe peer group we rank fees against.500–999 participants
Employer share of the money that went in, plan year 2024The rest came from employees, who put in $425,360. 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 $3,219 in administrative expenses in plan year 2024, across 564 participants: $5.71 per participant.

Contract administrator fees$3,219
Professional feesnot reported in filing
Investment management feesnot reported in filing
Other administrative feesnot reported in filing

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 500–999 participant cohort, where the median plan pays $114.97 per participant. The sponsor files from New Jersey, one of 1,799 plans on file there, at a median of $116.34 per participant. Its business code places the plan in transportation and logistics, one of 1,926 on file, which run to a median of $95.71.

Plans of a similar size in New Jersey

The plans nearest this one by participant count, out of 282 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
Fellowshiplife, Inc. 401(k) Employee Savings PlanFellowshiplife, Inc.566$259.07
G&W Laboratories Inc. Retirement PlanG & W Laboratories, Inc.564$77.30
Churchill Opco Holding LLC 401(k) PlanChurchill Opco Holding LLC564$90.16
American Furniture Rentals, Inc. 401(k) Profit Sharing PlanAmerican Furniture Rentals, Inc.563$192.12

Service providers (Schedule C)

Recordkeeper: Empower (as filed: “EMPOWER ANNUITY INSURANCE COMPANY”)

7,876 plans on file name Empower as their recordkeeper, at a median of $165.69 per participant.

Providers from Schedule C, Part 1, Item 2 of filing 20251014102302NAL0002615457001. Direct compensation is paid from plan assets. Amounts in USD.
ProviderService codesDirect comp. ($)Indirect comp. ($)
Ascensus Holdings Inc.131,7852,341
Empower Annuity Insurance Company641,0800
Empower Advisory Group, LLC28314not reported

Source

DatasetDOL EFAST2 Form 5500 bulk data (FOIA)
Form year2024
Filing ACK_ID20251014102302NAL0002615457001
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, "Sheppard Bus Service, Inc. Employees Savings Trust: Form 5500 facts", from DOL EFAST2 filing 20251014102302NAL0002615457001, plan year ended December 31, 2024. 401(k) Monitor Score 40 out of 100 (exact value 40.29).