Darden Savings Plan
Darden Restaurants, Inc. · Orlando, FL · EIN 593305930 · Plan 044 · Form 5500 for plan year 2024
What Darden Restaurants put into the plan, per active participant
$222
Darden Restaurants, Inc. put $222 into this plan for each of its 197,946 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.
Darden Restaurants put in less per active participant than 57% of plans with 5,000+ participants at hotels and restaurants. The middle plan in that group of 89 reported $323. Hotels and restaurants comes from business code 722511, which Darden Restaurants, 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 Darden Restaurants 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 April 30, 2025, received by the DOL October 16, 2025 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
What the plan cost, per participant
$8.05
The plan paid $8.05 per participant in plan-paid administrative expenses in plan year 2024, cheaper than 95% 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
59 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: $222. Lower than 57% of plans with 5,000+ participants at hotels and restaurants.
- What the plan cost, per participant: $8.05. Cheaper than 95% 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 Darden Restaurants 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 Principal ↗.
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
Not scored
The filing states the vesting schedule in quarters, and this score reads a schedule at whole-year anniversaries.
A schedule this cannot read at whole-year anniversaries is left without a number rather than given a middle one.
The filing states the vesting schedule in quarters, and this score reads a schedule at whole-year anniversaries.
Vesting, word for word
“Each participant is 100% vested in all employee contributions to the Plan and DSP Advantage Allocations, including earnings on all such amounts. Company Matching Contributions and RPC allocations are vested at a rate of 5% for each fiscal quarter beginning with the participant’s fifth quarter of service. An employee is fully vested after completion of 24 fiscal quarters of vesting service (except in the event of retirement, severance, divestiture or death where full vesting may apply as prescribed by the Plan) based on a participant’s years of service and is forfeited if a participant leaves prior to completing such vesting service requirements.”
A worker hired today collects no match for 1 year. This is a filed term, and it does not move the score above.
Eligibility, word for word
“Qualified employees in the Plan are salaried or hourly employees who receive earnable compensation from Darden. A qualified employee does not include any individual who is a highly compensated employee as defined under the Code. Employee Contributions Qualified employees who are at least 18 years of age may immediately begin making before-tax and after-tax contributions to the Plan upon commencement of employment. Generally, qualified employees may contribute 1% to 75% of eligible compensation to the Plan. Plan participants age 50 or older, who make maximum before-tax contributions to the Plan, may generally make an additional catch-up contribution, up to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) limits. Employer Contributions During the 2023 calendar year, the Plan was amended to lower match eligibility to age 18 effective May 1, 2022. There were also clarification provisions in the amendment which have no material impact to participant accounts. Generally, qualified employees who are at least age 18 and complete a year of service are eligible for Company Matching Contributions. Salaried qualified employees who are at least age 21 and complete a year of service are also generally eligible for DSP Retirement Plus Contributions.”
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
5th percentile
$8.05 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, cheaper than 95% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
The match, vesting and eligibility terms above are read from the Form 11-K filed by Darden Restaurants, Inc., whose page states the full formula, the vesting schedule and the sentence behind each one.
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 Principal ↗. 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 | $1,585,175,658 |
|---|---|
| Net assets | $1,585,175,658 |
| Participants, beginning of year | 201,534 |
| Of which active | 197,946 |
| 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 $90,674,837. 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. | 33% |
Plan-paid administrative expenses
The plan paid $1,621,511 in administrative expenses in plan year 2024, across 201,534 participants: $8.05 per participant.
| Contract administrator fees | $1,279,765 |
|---|---|
| Professional fees | not reported in filing |
| Investment management fees | $316,496 |
| Other administrative fees | not 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 5,000+ participant cohort, where the median plan pays $54.84 per participant. The sponsor files from Florida, one of 2,637 plans on file there, at a median of $112.18 per participant. Its business code places the plan at hotels and restaurants, one of 1,305 on file, which run to a median of $54.65.
Plans of a similar size in Florida
| Plan | Participants | Cost per participant |
|---|---|---|
| Publix Super Markets, Inc. 401(k) Smart PlanPublix Super Markets, Inc. | 225,961 | $10.97 |
| Savings Plan For Employees And Partners Of PwCPwC US Group LLP | 74,670 | $10.65 |
| L3Harris Retirement Savings PlanL3Harris Technologies, Inc. | 74,165 | $48.96 |
| The Adecco Group 401(k) PlanAdecco, Inc. | 59,922 | $19.75 |
Service providers (Schedule C)
Recordkeeper: Principal (as filed: “PRINCIPAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY”)
5,239 plans on file name Principal as their recordkeeper, at a median of $170.05 per participant.
| Provider | Service codes | Direct comp. ($) | Indirect comp. ($) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Principal Life Insurance Company | 64, 50, 37, 13 | 1,723,890 | 0 |
| Rehmann | 50, 10 | 25,250 | not reported |
| Thomson Reuters - West | 50, 49, 27, 13 | 34,314 | 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 | 20251016123456NAL0003362835001 |
| 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, "Darden Savings Plan: Form 5500 facts", from DOL EFAST2 filing 20251016123456NAL0003362835001, plan year ended April 30, 2025. 401(k) Monitor Score 59 out of 100 (exact value 58.62).