State retirement profile · Form 5500

Retirement Plans in Arkansas

According to DOL Form 5500 filings (plan year 2024), employer-sponsored 401(k), pension, and other retirement plans headquartered in Arkansas report the totals below.

Data updated 2026-08-25

760
Plans
$78.9B
Total assets
#28
By assets

$78.9B across 760 plans

According to DOL Form 5500 filings (plan year 2024), Arkansas has 760 employer-sponsored retirement plans holding $78.9B in total assets for 2,115,460 participants, ranking 28th nationally by plan assets, with 76% structured as 401(k)s and an average of $104M per plan.

  • 28th nationally by plan assets
  • 76% 401(k) plans

The state in one line

Arkansas hosts 760 employer-sponsored retirement plans holding $78.9B for 2,115,460 participants, the 28th-largest state by plan assets.

$78.9B
total plan assets
760
employer plans
$37,310
avg assets per participant
76%
of plans are 401(k)s
401(k) Plans
575
Participants
2,115,460

What the Form 5500 Data Shows for Arkansas

Arkansas: 760 employer-sponsored plans (575 401(k)), $78.9B aggregate assets, 2,115,460 participants. Average plan: $104M; largest is Walmart 401(k) Plan at $50.8B. Leading sector by assets: Retail Trade (70%). These figures aggregate the 760 Form 5500 filings Arkansas sponsors submitted for plan year 2024, counted by sponsor headquarters rather than participant residence; a plan administered in Arkansas can cover workers across several states, and the methodology page details that HQ-vs-residence distinction. DOL Form 5500 methodology + HQ-vs-residence caveats →

Walmart 401(k) Plan accounts for 64.3% of all Arkansas retirement plan assets

That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Arkansas a distant remainder — means Arkansas-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Walmart Inc. sponsors the filing; drill into the plan page for schedules and audit detail. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of participants counted in this state total.

DOL Form 5500 plan year 2024

Retail Trade leads Arkansas plan assets (70%)

Among plans headquartered here, Retail Trade accounts for $55.1B across 65 filings, ahead of Healthcare & Social Assistance at $4.0B. Sector mix is a Form 5500-derived signal: it reflects where sponsors file from, not where every participant lives.

DOL Form 5500 plan year 2024

Arkansas hosts 28 ESOP filings

Employee Stock Ownership Plans here hold $1.3B. ESOP density is uneven across states; when the count clears a meaningful floor, the ESOP ranking and industry pages are the better drill-downs than a 401(k)-only read.

DOL Form 5500 plan year 2024

Where Arkansas sits in the Form 5500 corpus

Arkansas sits mid-pack by plan assets (#28 of 56). Peer states with similar totals are the fairest comparison set; national leaders will dominate any unfiltered ranking.

DOL Form 5500 plan year 2024

Arkansas's place in the national asset distribution

All states with reported Form 5500 plan assets · plan year 2024

$78,928,083,985 Top 48% higher than 52% of 56 states with reported plan assets

Arkansas $0 $1,324,371,844,360 state retirement-plan assets, bucketed by value

Dashed line + filled bar = this entry, among states with reported plan assets.

Source U.S. Department of Labor, EBSA Form 5500 public disclosure dataset · plan year 2024

Arkansas's retirement-plan mix

1. 401(k)5752. Profit Sharing993. Other354. ESOP285. Money Purchase14
The five most common Form 5500 plan types among sponsors headquartered in Arkansas. This count describes filings, not participants or assets.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, EBSA Form 5500 public disclosure dataset · plan year 2024.

Industry mix in Arkansas

Top sectors by Form 5500 plan assets for sponsors headquartered here (plan year 2024).

Industry Plans Assets
Retail Trade 65 $55.1B
Healthcare & Social Assistance 141 $4.0B
Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing 16 $3.9B
Finance & Insurance 65 $3.5B
Manufacturing 105 $3.0B

Largest Plans in Arkansas

# Plan Name Type Participants Total Assets
1 Walmart 401(k) Plan 401(k) 1,635,899 $50.8B
2 Tyson Foods, Inc. Retirement Savings Plan 401(k) 118,403 $3.7B
3 Dillard's, Inc. Investment & Employee Stock Ownership Plan 401(k) 30,070 $3.0B
4 J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. Employee Retirement Plan 401(k) 35,023 $1.4B
5 Windstream 401(k) Plan 401(k) 9,409 $1.3B
6 Arvest Bank 401(k) & Profit Sharing Retirement Plan 401(k) 6,430 $926M
7 Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield 401(k) Savings and Plus Plan 401(k) 3,398 $789M
8 Arcbest 401(k) and DC Retirement Plan 401(k) 5,150 $778M
9 Baptist Health 401(a) Plan 401(k) 11,107 $563M
10 Central States, Inc. Employee Stock Ownership Plan ESOP 1,400 $476M
11 Arkansas Children's Retirement Plan Other 5,245 $446M
12 Baptist Health 403(b) Plan Other 11,107 $444M
13 Mountaire Corporation & Subsidiaries Retirement Plan 401(k) 8,434 $440M
14 Windstream Pension Plan Defined Benefit (Pension) 1,443 $438M
15 Stephens Employees' 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan and Trust 401(k) 1,384 $409M
16 Murphy USA Inc. Savings Plan 401(k) 11,354 $358M
17 Riceland Foods, Inc. Employee Benefit Pension Plan Defined Benefit (Pension) 372 $319M
18 Harps Food Stores, Inc. Employee Stock Ownership Plan ESOP 3,196 $317M
19 Arkansas Chapter NECA-IBEW Retirement Plan Money Purchase 1,529 $303M
20 Bank Ozk 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan 401(k) 2,788 $294M
21 Simmons First National Corporation 401(k) Plan 401(k) 3,027 $285M
22 Washington Regional 401(k) Plan 401(k) 3,463 $240M
23 Southwest Power Pool 401(k) Savings Plan 401(k) 743 $225M
24 Harding University Defined Contribution Retirement Plan Other 673 $202M
25 Simmons Foods, Inc. 401(k) Retirement and Trust Plan 401(k) 7,323 $187M

Nearby States by Retirement Plan Footprint

States ranked adjacent to Arkansas by total retirement plan assets.

Compare Arkansas side-by-side with 3 peer states →

Nationwide states with similar retirement plan scale

Two DOL Form 5500-derived peer sets for Arkansas, each a different nationwide metric so the neighborhoods are not geographic containment (the asset-ranked nearby list above stays regional).

Similar plan count

Nearest other states by reported employer plan filings (760 here).

Idaho 760 plans Nebraska 778 plans Nevada 808 plans New Hampshire 708 plans

Similar total assets

Nearest other states by aggregate plan assets ($78.9B here).

Iowa $79.7B Kentucky $77.1B Colorado $88.7B Oregon $91.0B

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the largest retirement plan headquartered in Arkansas? ▼
The largest Form 5500 filing by assets with a headquarters address in Arkansas is Walmart 401(k) Plan ($50.8B, 1,635,899 participants).
How concentrated are Arkansas retirement plan assets? ▼
Walmart 401(k) Plan alone accounts for about 64% of the state's Form 5500 plan assets in plan year 2024. State averages can mask that concentration.
Which industry leads Arkansas retirement plan assets? ▼
Retail Trade leads with $55.1B across 65 plans headquartered here (70% of state plan assets).
How does Arkansas compare to other states for retirement plans? ▼
Arkansas sits mid-pack by plan assets (#28 of 56). Peer states with similar totals are the fairest comparison set; national leaders will dominate any unfiltered ranking.

Next read for Arkansas

Concentration reading

Ways to act on Arkansas's numbers.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, EBSA Form 5500 public disclosure dataset. Shows the top 25 plans by total assets headquartered in Arkansas, out of 130,145 ERISA-covered plans nationally. Plan year 2024.

Source: DOL EFAST2 filing system (efast.dol.gov) - state is the plan sponsor's headquarters state as recorded on the Form 5500 filing.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

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