Vanguard 401(k) plans and fees
Source: Schedule C of Form 5500 filings, form year 2024, DOL EFAST2 bulk data · DOL 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
Vanguard recordkeeps 2,337 of the 50,598 large 401(k) plans with an identified recordkeeper in form-year-2024 Form 5500 filings, a 4.6% plan share covering 4,616,960 participants.
$97.87
Median plan-paid administrative cost per participant across the 2,333 published plans recordkept by Vanguard with computable fee data, form-year-2024 filings.
$24.30 below the $122.17 median across all 54,783 published plans with fee data.
How many 401(k) plans does Vanguard recordkeep?
| Plans recordkept, full universeOf 50,598 form-year-2024 filings with an identified recordkeeper. | 2,337 |
|---|---|
| Plan share | 4.6% |
| Participants in those plans | 4,616,960 |
| Participant share | 5.6% |
| Plans published on 401(k) MonitorOf 57,824 plans published so far from the 57,824 in the form-year-2024 data. | 2,337 |
| Participants in published plans | 4,616,960 |
| Assets in published plans | $621.2B |
The published subset skews toward the largest plans, so its totals and medians do not describe the whole Vanguard book. The universe counts do.
What do 401(k) plans recordkept by Vanguard pay in fees?
The median plan-paid administrative cost across the 2,333 published plans recordkept by Vanguard is $97.87 per participant, against $122.17 across all 54,783 published plans with fee data. 1,425 of the 2,333 (61%) pay less than that all-plans median.
These are plan-paid expenses from Schedule H only. Fees the sponsor pays directly, and fees embedded in fund expense ratios, never appear here, so every figure is a floor, not the all-in cost. The recordkeeper is one of several providers a plan pays. 4 of the 2,337 published plans report no computable plan-paid cost and are excluded from the median. How to read your own plan’s number: are your 401(k) fees high?
Which are the biggest 401(k) plans Vanguard administers?
| # | Plan | Active participants | Assets | Plan-paid cost / participant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CVS Health Future Fund 401(k) Plan | 313,966 | $30.1B | $142.85 |
| 2 | FedEx Corporation Retirement Savings Plan II | 217,166 | $3.5B | $18.30 |
| 3 | Kaiser Permanente 401(k) Retirement Plan | 155,687 | $22.5B | $56.16 |
| 4 | Google LLC 401(k) Savings Plan | 114,321 | $48.7B | $17.58 |
| 5 | FedEx Corporation Retirement Savings Plan | 102,265 | $25.4B | $43.48 |
| 6 | Kaiser Permanente Tax Sheltered Annuity Plan | 80,148 | $13.8B | $44.89 |
| 7 | State Farm 401(k) Savings Plan | 67,476 | $19.0B | $5.69 |
| 8 | Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. Smart Savings 401(k) Plan | 53,323 | $883.7M | $11.54 |
| 9 | Cox Enterprises, Inc. 401(k) Plan | 42,495 | $8.1B | $87.46 |
| 10 | Ochsner Clinic Foundation 401(k) Plan | 34,054 | $2.7B | $68.63 |
Each linked page shows the plan’s full fee breakdown and its percentile among plans of the same size.
Where do Vanguard 401(k) participants log in?
Participants in a plan recordkept by Vanguard manage their account at Vanguard ↗.
If your employer has since changed recordkeepers, an old balance may not be there. The DOL’s Retirement Savings Lost & Found ↗ tracks accounts left behind.
Useful links
- Vanguard participant login ↗
Where participants in a plan recordkept by Vanguard check their own balance.
- Find a 401(k) you left at an old job ↗
The DOL's Retirement Savings Lost & Found. Free and official.
- Look up any plan's full Form 5500 ↗
The DOL's own filing search. Search by plan or sponsor name.
- Median 401(k) fees by plan size
The peer medians every plan page ranks against.
- The largest 401(k) plans in the US
The whole-universe ranking, published or not.
Source
| Dataset | DOL EFAST2 Form 5500 bulk data (FOIA) |
|---|---|
| Form year | 2024 |
| Recordkeeper identificationService code 15 or 64; the mapping from raw filing names to brands is ours. | Schedule C, Part I, Item 2 |
| Dataset last refreshed | July 28, 2026 |
Bulk dataset at askebsa.dol.gov ↗ · How the recordkeeper is identified
Cite this page
401(k) Monitor, "Vanguard 401(k) plans and fees", computed from DOL EFAST2 Form 5500 bulk data, form year 2024.