Essential Utilities, Inc. 401(k) Plan
Essential Utilities, Inc. · Bryn Mawr, PA · EIN 231702594 · Plan 005 · Form 5500 for plan year 2024
What Essential Utilities put into the plan, per active participant
$7,404
Essential Utilities, Inc. put $7,404 into this plan for each of its 3,448 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.
Essential Utilities put in more per active participant than 57% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants at utilities. The middle plan in that group of 80 reported $6,417. Utilities comes from business code 221300, which Essential Utilities, 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 Essential Utilities 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 8, 2025 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
What the plan cost, per participant
$215.83
The plan paid $215.83 per participant in plan-paid administrative expenses in plan year 2024, more expensive than 95% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants. The middle plan of that size paid $84.96.
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
42 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: $7,404. Higher than 57% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants at utilities.
- What the plan cost, per participant: $216. Cheaper than 5% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants.
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 Essential Utilities 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 Fidelity NetBenefits ↗.
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.
What the plan costs, against plans of its size
95th percentile
$215.83 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 95% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants.
What to check next
What to ask about the fees
This plan paid $215.83 per participant out of plan assets, more than 95% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants, where the middle plan paid $84.96. 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 Essential Utilities. 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 Fidelity NetBenefits ↗. 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 | $623,786,494 |
|---|---|
| Net assets | $623,490,178 |
| Participants, beginning of year | 4,138 |
| Of which active | 3,448 |
| Plan type | Single employer |
| Size cohortThe peer group we rank fees against. | 1,000–4,999 participants |
| Employer share of the money that went in, plan year 2024The rest came from employees, who put in $27,413,375. 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. | 48% |
Plan-paid administrative expenses
The plan paid $893,098 in administrative expenses in plan year 2024, across 4,138 participants: $215.83 per participant.
| Contract administrator fees | $0 |
|---|---|
| Professional fees | not reported in filing |
| Investment management fees | $525,745 |
| Other administrative fees | $146,565 |
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 1,000–4,999 participant cohort, where the median plan pays $84.96 per participant. The sponsor files from Pennsylvania, one of 2,692 plans on file there, at a median of $127.89 per participant. Its business code places the plan at utilities, one of 407 on file, which run to a median of $138.21.
Plans of a similar size in Pennsylvania
| Plan | Participants | Cost per participant |
|---|---|---|
| Starr Restaurants 401(k) PlanStarr Restaurant Organization, L.P. | 4,383 | $16.53 |
| Iue-Cwa 401(k) Retirement Savings And Security PlanTrustees Of The Iue-Cwa Afl-Cio Pension Fund | 4,166 | $134.42 |
| Golden Retirement PlanAmericantcs Fiduciary Services, LLC | 4,155 | $49.64 |
| Veolia Wts 401(k) PlanVeolia Wts USA, Inc. | 4,111 | $64.76 |
| Axalta Coating Systems, LLC Retirement Savings PlanAxalta Coating Systems, LLC | 4,058 | $127.91 |
Service providers (Schedule C)
Recordkeeper: Fidelity Investments (as filed: “FIDELITY INVESTMENTS INSTITUTIONAL”)
10,593 plans on file name Fidelity Investments as their recordkeeper, at a median of $97.71 per participant.
| Provider | Service codes | Direct comp. ($) | Indirect comp. ($) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newport Capital Group, LLC | 27 | 263,813 | not reported |
| Fidelity Investments Institutional | 65, 71, 64, 60, 37 | 222,216 | 0 |
| Strategic Advisors, Inc. | 27 | 96,120 | not reported |
| Global Retirement Parners | 16 | 86,770 | not reported |
| Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP | 29 | 19,347 | not reported |
| Holland & Knight LLP | 29 | 15,842 | 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 | 20251008144354NAL0009627328001 |
| 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, "Essential Utilities, Inc. 401(k) Plan: Form 5500 facts", from DOL EFAST2 filing 20251008144354NAL0009627328001, plan year ended December 31, 2024. 401(k) Monitor Score 42 out of 100 (exact value 41.52).