Defined Benefit (Pension) · DOL Form 5500 · 2023

Black Hills Corporation Pension Plan

Data updated 2026-07-24

$311M
Total assets
776
Participants
96th
Percentile by assets
$400,466
Avg per participant

Official DOL plan name: Black Hills Retirement Plan · Sponsored by Black Hills Corporation · South Dakota · Utilities

$311M in assets, 776 participants

Black Hills Corporation's Black Hills Retirement Plan reported $311M in total assets and 776 participants in its 2023 DOL Form 5500 filing, ranking in the 96th percentile by assets among filed plans. Figures are as reported by the plan sponsor to the Department of Labor, not audited or endorsed by PlainRetire.

  • 96th percentile by assets (of 126,618 plans)

What the 2023 filing shows

Black Hills Retirement Plan holds $311M for 776 participants - about $400,466 per participant, in the top 5% of all filed plans by assets, down 3.8% over the 2023 plan year.

$311M
total plan assets (2023 EOY)
776
covered participants
96th
percentile by assets (of 126,618 plans)
$400,466
avg assets per participant

The plan reported a net loss of $12M for the year, a single-year figure driven by markets and benefit payments, not a measure of plan health.

State
Industry
Utilities

Defined Benefit (Pension) · DOL Form 5500 · 2023

What the Filing Says About Black Hills Retirement Plan

Black Hills Retirement Plan is a Defined Benefit (Pension) retirement plan sponsored by Black Hills Corporation, headquartered in South Dakota. According to the U.S. Department of Labor's 2023 Form 5500 filing, the plan reports $311M in total end-of-year assets and covers 776 participants across the Utilities industry. The sponsor's EIN on file with the U.S. Department of Labor is 460458824, and the plan has been effective since 2008-07-14. Its filing status is currently FILING RECEIVED.

Year over year, total assets edged down modestly from $323M at the beginning of 2023 to $311M at year-end - down 3.8%. Net assets (after liabilities) closed the year at $311M, with reported net income of -$12M driven by investment returns, contributions received, and benefit payments during the period. These figures reflect what the plan administrator certified on Schedule H or Schedule I of the Form 5500 annual return and can be compared against 2 prior plan-year filings from the same sponsor shown below.

Across the 3 plan years Black Hills Corporation has on file with PlainRetire (2022-2024), sponsor-wide plan assets have moved from $938M to $1.1B, a gain of 15.4%, while reported participants moved from 3,730 to 3,573 (-4.2%). The strongest year on file by total sponsor assets was 2024 at $1.1B; the softest was 2022 at $938M. Year-by-year, sponsor-wide filings show: 2022 - $938M in assets across 2 plans covering 3,730 participants; 2023 - $1.0B in assets across 2 plans covering 3,748 participants; 2024 - $1.1B in assets across 2 plans covering 3,573 participants.

By assets, Black Hills Retirement Plan outranks 96% of the 126,618 plans that filed a Form 5500 for the 2023 plan year, and holds roughly 3.1x the national average plan size of $100M and 730 average participants.

Asset totals and participant counts reflect a single plan year snapshot and can change materially with market conditions, plan mergers, or workforce changes. Fields such as "net income" include both realized investment performance and contribution/distribution flows, a single-year figure does not by itself indicate plan health or participant outcomes. This page summarizes public DOL disclosures for research and educational purposes only and is not retirement, tax, legal, or financial advice. Before making decisions about your own retirement benefits or evaluating an employer's plan, verify the underlying filing directly via the DOL EFAST2 system and consult a qualified professional.

How the percentile is calculated: we count every plan that filed a 2023 Form 5500 with a reported end-of-year asset figure (126,618 plans), rank Black Hills Retirement Plan against all of them by total assets, and report the share of those plans it outranks. A plan reporting no asset figure for the year is excluded from the ranking rather than assumed to be zero.

Financial Summary (2023)

Total Assets (Beginning of Year)$323M
Total Assets (End of Year)$311M
Net Assets (End of Year)$311M
Net Income-$12M
Plan TypeDefined Benefit (Pension)
Employer EIN460458824
Plan Effective Date2008-07-14
Filing StatusFILING RECEIVED

Sponsor Plan History (Black Hills Corporation)

$0.9B$0.95B$1B$1.05B$1.1B 202220232024 $0.94B $1.08B ▲ +14.9%
Total plan assets by year, all Black Hills Corporation 401(k) plans on file
Year Plans Participants Total Assets
2022 2 3,730 $938M
2023 2 3,748 $1.0B
2024 2 3,573 $1.1B

Nearby Defined Benefit (Pension) Plans in South Dakota

Peer Defined Benefit (Pension) plans, same state, same plan type, ranked by total assets.

Black Hills Retirement Plan vs. nearby Defined Benefit (Pension) plans in South Dakota, assets vs. participants

Black Hills Retirement Plan vs. nearby Defined Benefit (Pension) plans in South Dakota, assets vs. participants Scatter plot of 5 data points. -100001000200030004000 0100200300400 Total assets ($M) Participants Black Hills Retireme…Sanford Health Emplo…Bakers Local No 433 …Monument Health, Inc…Gcc Dacotah, Inc. De…
Black Hills Retirement Plan vs. nearby Defined Benefit (Pension) plans in South Dakota, assets vs. participants

Similar-Sized Defined Benefit (Pension) Plans Nationally

Defined Benefit (Pension) plans in other states closest to Black Hills Retirement Plan by total assets, not by location.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much money is in the Black Hills Retirement Plan?
As of the 2023 Form 5500 filing, Black Hills Retirement Plan holds $311M in total assets with 776 participants. It is sponsored by Black Hills Corporation.
What type of plan is Black Hills Retirement Plan?
Black Hills Retirement Plan is a Defined Benefit (Pension) plan. It has been effective since 2008-07-14. The plan is filed with the U.S. Department of Labor under EIN 460458824.
Who sponsors the Black Hills Retirement Plan?
Black Hills Retirement Plan is sponsored by Black Hills Corporation, located in South Dakota. The sponsor's EIN is 460458824 and the plan operates in the Utilities industry.
How did Black Hills Retirement Plan perform in 2023?
Black Hills Retirement Plan edged down modestly - down 3.8% during 2023, moving from $323M to $311M in total assets. Net income was -$12M.

What this filing means

Ways to act on Black Hills Retirement Plan's numbers.

  • By total assets, Black Hills Retirement Plan ranks in the top 5% of all filed plans by assets. See the largest plans
  • Compare it side-by-side against 3 similar Defined Benefit (Pension) plans in South Dakota. Compare plans
  • Black Hills Corporation's sponsor-wide assets have grown 15.4% since 2022 across 3 plan years on file. More Utilities plans
  • A Defined Benefit (Pension) plan works differently from other retirement plan types, understand the structural differences before comparing. Compare plan types

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), Form 5500 public disclosure dataset. Plan year 2023.

Source: DOL EFAST2 filing system (efast.dol.gov) - original filing retrieval by EIN 460458824.

Reference: IRS Publication 560, Retirement Plans for Small Business, contribution-limit rules.

Reference: IRS Publication 590-B, Distributions from IRAs, RMD rules under SECURE Act 2.0.

Data sourced from U.S. Department of Labor Form 5500 filings (EBSA). See our methodology for details.

Every figure on PlainRetire is rendered directly from the Department of Labor's Form 5500 annual return filings, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-07-24.