Fastenal Company & Subsidiaries 401(k) And Employee Stock Ownership Plan
Fastenal Company & Subsidiaries · Winona, MN · EIN 410948415 · Plan 001 · Form 5500 for plan year 2024
What Fastenal put into the plan, per active participant
$1,106
Fastenal Company put $1,106 into this plan for each of its 17,820 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.
Fastenal put in more per active participant than 74% of plans with 5,000+ participants in retail. The middle plan in that group of 196 reported $700. Retail comes from business code 444130, which Fastenal Company 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 Fastenal 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 June 6, 2025 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
What the plan cost, per participant
$26.59
The plan paid $26.59 per participant in plan-paid administrative expenses in plan year 2024, cheaper than 80% 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
76 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: $1,106. Higher than 74% of plans with 5,000+ participants in retail.
- What the plan cost, per participant: $26.59. Cheaper than 80% 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 Fastenal puts in
Not stated in the filing
The match rate is set at the company's discretion each year, and the filing does not state the rate it used.
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
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.
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
“The Plan's discretionary employer matching contributions are 100% vested when made. Discretionary contributions are reported as an employer contribution receivable on the Statement of Net Assets Available for Benefits and were paid to the Plan subsequent to the respective year end.”
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
20th percentile
$26.59 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, cheaper than 80% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
The match, vesting and eligibility terms above are read from the Form 11-K filed by Fastenal Company, 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 Fastenal Company & Subsidiaries 401(k) and Employee Stock Ownership Plan.
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 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 | $1,058,811,094 |
|---|---|
| Net assets | $1,058,811,094 |
| Participants, beginning of year | 21,059 |
| Of which active | 17,820 |
| 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 $58,374,165. 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. | 25% |
Plan-paid administrative expenses
The plan paid $560,002 in administrative expenses in plan year 2024, across 21,059 participants: $26.59 per participant.
| Contract administrator fees | not reported in filing |
|---|---|
| Professional fees | not reported in filing |
| Investment management fees | $17,401 |
| 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 Minnesota, one of 1,484 plans on file there, at a median of $133.83 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 Minnesota
| Plan | Participants | Cost per participant |
|---|---|---|
| General Mills 401(k) PlanGeneral Mills, Inc. | 23,525 | $195.78 |
| Thomson Reuters 401(k) Savings PlanThomson Reuters Holdings Inc. | 21,385 | $117.06 |
| Essentia Health Retirement PlanEssentia Health | 20,185 | $65.31 |
| Andersen 401(k) PlanAndersen Corporation | 17,900 | $60.51 |
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 | 72, 62, 52, 71, 15 | 557,719 | 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 | 20250606083720NAL0021055088001 |
| 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, "Fastenal Company & Subsidiaries 401(k) And Employee Stock Ownership Plan: Form 5500 facts", from DOL EFAST2 filing 20250606083720NAL0021055088001, plan year ended December 31, 2024. 401(k) Monitor Score 76 out of 100 (exact value 75.6).