State retirement profile · Form 5500
According to DOL Form 5500 filings (plan year 2024), employer-sponsored 401(k), pension, and other retirement plans headquartered in Tennessee report the totals below.
Data updated 2026-08-25
$233.1B across 2,384 plans
According to DOL Form 5500 filings (plan year 2024), Tennessee has 2,384 employer-sponsored retirement plans holding $233.1B in total assets for 2,685,433 participants, ranking 18th nationally by plan assets, with 74% structured as 401(k)s and an average of $98M per plan.
The state in one line
Tennessee hosts 2,384 employer-sponsored retirement plans holding $233.1B for 2,685,433 participants, the 18th-largest state by plan assets.
Tennessee: 2,384 employer-sponsored plans (1,755 401(k)), $233.1B aggregate assets, 2,685,433 participants. Average plan: $98M; largest is Fedex Corporation Employees' Pension Plan at $26.9B. Leading sector by assets: Transportation & Warehousing (27%). These figures aggregate the 2,384 Form 5500 filings Tennessee sponsors submitted for plan year 2024, counted by sponsor headquarters rather than participant residence; a plan administered in Tennessee can cover workers across several states, and the methodology page details that HQ-vs-residence distinction. DOL Form 5500 methodology + HQ-vs-residence caveats →
Among plans headquartered here, Transportation & Warehousing accounts for $63.9B across 84 filings, ahead of Healthcare & Social Assistance at $54.6B. 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
Employee Stock Ownership Plans here hold $2.4B. 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
Tennessee ranks in the upper half by plan assets (#18 of 56). Its totals are large enough for industry-mix and largest-plan concentration to matter more than the headline alone.
DOL Form 5500 plan year 2024
Tennessee's place in the national asset distribution
All states with reported Form 5500 plan assets · plan year 2024
$233,113,305,012 Top 30% higher than 70% of 56 states with reported plan assets
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
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, EBSA Form 5500 public disclosure dataset · plan year 2024.
Top sectors by Form 5500 plan assets for sponsors headquartered here (plan year 2024).
| Industry | Plans | Assets |
|---|---|---|
| Transportation & Warehousing | 84 | $63.9B |
| Healthcare & Social Assistance | 367 | $54.6B |
| Manufacturing | 346 | $45.0B |
| Finance & Insurance | 198 | $14.6B |
| Professional & Technical Services | 239 | $11.6B |
States ranked adjacent to Tennessee by total retirement plan assets.
Two DOL Form 5500-derived peer sets for Tennessee, each a different nationwide metric so the neighborhoods are not geographic containment (the asset-ranked nearby list above stays regional).
Nearest other states by reported employer plan filings (2,384 here).
Nearest other states by aggregate plan assets ($233.1B here).
Industry-mix reading
Ways to act on Tennessee's numbers.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, EBSA Form 5500 public disclosure dataset. Shows the top 25 plans by total assets headquartered in Tennessee, 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.