State retirement profile · Form 5500

Retirement Plans in Wisconsin

Employer-sponsored 401(k), pension, and other retirement plans headquartered in Wisconsin, drawn from DOL Form 5500 filings (plan year 2024).

Data updated 2026-05-15

2,767
Plans
$212.9B
Total assets
#18
By assets

The state in one line

Wisconsin hosts 2,767 employer-sponsored retirement plans holding $212.9B for 1,563,647 participants, the 18th-largest state by plan assets.

$212.9B
total plan assets
2,767
employer plans
$136,182
avg assets per participant
84%
of plans are 401(k)s
Total Plans
2,767
401(k) Plans
2,330
Participants
1,563,647
Total Assets
$212.9B

What the Form 5500 Data Shows for Wisconsin

Wisconsin: 2,767 employer-sponsored plans (2,330 401(k)), $212.9B aggregate assets, 1,563,647 participants. Average plan: $77M; largest is Advocate Aurora Health 401(k) Plan at $10.5B. DOL Form 5500 methodology + HQ-vs-residence caveats →

A state total like this counts every plan whose sponsor lists a headquarters address in the state on its Form 5500 filing, so the figure reflects where employers are based rather than where their workers live or where the money is ultimately invested. A handful of very large sponsors, a national retailer, a bank, a multi-employer union fund, can dominate a single state's asset total, which is why the average plan size and the largest-plan name matter as much as the headline number. Smaller plans, those with fewer than one hundred participants, file a simplified schedule and are exempt from independent audit, so part of any state total rests on sponsor attestation rather than auditor confirmation. Treat these aggregates as a structural picture of the state's private retirement economy, not as a measure of any single worker's benefit or account.

Largest Plans in Wisconsin

# Plan Name Type Participants Total Assets
1 Advocate Aurora Health 401(k) Plan 401(k) 80,015 $10.5B
2 Johnson Controls Retirement Savings and Investment Plan 401(k) 28,489 $7.2B
3 Fiserv 401(k) Savings Plan 401(k) 26,372 $5.1B
4 Kimberly-Clark Corporation 401(k) & Profit Sharing Plan 401(k) 11,661 $5.0B
5 Rockwell Automation Retirement Savings Plan 401(k) 9,217 $3.8B
6 Building Trades United Pension Trust Fund Milwaukee and Vicinity Defined Benefit (Pension) 10,236 $3.5B
7 The Northwestern Mutual Employee Retirement Plan Defined Benefit (Pension) 8,254 $3.3B
8 Epic Systems Corporation 401(k) Plan 401(k) 13,955 $2.9B
9 The Northwestern Mutual Employee Savings Plan 401(k) 8,232 $2.9B
10 Gundersen Lutheran Employees' Retirement Plan 401(k) 9,492 $2.9B
11 The Medical College of Wisconsin, Inc. Retirement Plan Profit Sharing 6,796 $2.6B
12 Kohl's Inc. Savings Plan 401(k) 57,844 $2.3B
13 Cnh Industrial U.S. Retirement Savings Plan Profit Sharing 10,601 $2.3B
14 American Family 401(k) Plan Profit Sharing 12,720 $2.2B
15 Baird Profit Sharing & Savings Plan 401(k) 5,148 $2.2B
16 Froedtert Health, Inc. 403(b) Plan Profit Sharing 15,736 $2.2B
17 Molson Coors Employees' Retirement and Savings Plan 401(k) 5,499 $2.1B
18 Credit Union Retirement Plan Association 401(k) Plan 401(k) 19,717 $2.1B
19 Quad/Graphics Diversified Plan 401(k) 9,601 $2.1B
20 The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Agents Retirement Plan Defined Benefit (Pension) 7,653 $2.1B
21 Oshkosh Corporation and Affiliates Tax-Deferred Investment Plan 401(k) 12,511 $2.0B
22 Wec Energy Group Employee Retirement Savings Plan 401(k) 3,645 $2.0B
23 Sentry 401(k) Plan 401(k) 4,565 $1.9B
24 Harley-Davidson Retirement Plan Defined Benefit (Pension) 1,414 $1.9B
25 North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters Pension Fund Other 5,105 $1.8B

Nearby States by Retirement Plan Footprint

States ranked adjacent to Wisconsin by total retirement plan assets.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

How many retirement plans are in Wisconsin? ▼
Wisconsin has 2,767 employer-sponsored retirement plans as reported in 2024 DOL Form 5500 filings, including 2,330 401(k) plans.
What are the total retirement plan assets in Wisconsin? ▼
Retirement plans in Wisconsin hold $212.9B in total assets, covering 1,563,647 participants. The average plan holds $77M in assets.
What is the largest retirement plan in Wisconsin? ▼
The largest retirement plan in Wisconsin is Advocate Aurora Health 401(k) Plan with $10.5B in total assets and 80,015 participants.
How does Wisconsin compare to other states for retirement plans? ▼
You can compare Wisconsin's retirement plan statistics against all 50 states on the States page. Rankings are based on total assets, plan count, and participant coverage from DOL Form 5500 data.

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Understanding Form 5500

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, EBSA Form 5500 public disclosure dataset. Shows the top 25 plans by total assets headquartered in Wisconsin, out of 122,942 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.

Why Form 5500 Data Matters for Retirement Planning

Form 5500 is the annual return that virtually every private-sector retirement plan in the United States files with the Department of Labor. The filing covers funding, participant counts, plan investments, fees, service providers, and corrective contributions. Because the data is collected for regulatory oversight rather than marketing, it is one of the most consistent windows into the retirement economy: the same questions are asked of plans across all industries and all states, year after year. That consistency makes it possible to compare plans, sponsors, and markets on equal footing, a kind of comparability that voluntary survey data and vendor brochures cannot provide.

PlainRetire reorganizes the Form 5500 universe so a participant, employer, or analyst can ask everyday questions of the dataset without reading thousands of pages of agency documentation. Browsing by state surfaces concentration patterns: where pension assets sit, which states host the largest 401(k) sponsors, where retirement coverage trails the national average. Browsing by industry reveals the structural difference between sectors that historically relied on defined-benefit pensions and sectors that adopted defined-contribution plans early. Browsing by plan size highlights both the largest sponsors, typically Fortune 500 employers and multi-employer Taft–Hartley funds, and the long tail of small plans that collectively cover millions of workers.

What This Hub Page Aggregates

Each hub page on PlainRetire is a navigable index into the underlying database. The page shows summary counts, the most recent Form 5500 vintage, and direct links to individual plan detail pages. Detail pages carry the canonical filings, schedules where applicable, and audit trail back to the DOL's EFAST2 disclosure portal. Where the underlying dataset supports it, hub pages also expose key aggregates: total participant counts, aggregate assets, plan-type breakdowns (401(k), pension, profit-sharing, ESOP), and changes over the most recent reporting period.

Plan data is updated as DOL releases new annual Form 5500 datasets. Filings have a roughly seven-month lag from plan year end, so the most recent vintage typically reflects the previous full calendar year. This lag is inherent to the disclosure regime, plans are given time to gather audit reports and service-provider statements, and PlainRetire reflects the timing transparently rather than backfilling estimates.

Reading the Data With Appropriate Caveats

Aggregate numbers are useful for trend-spotting and structural comparison; they are less useful for decisions about a specific plan. The participant count for a state, for instance, includes both very large plans (which dominate the total) and very small plans (which influence median but not mean). When evaluating a specific employer's plan, drill into the plan detail page and consider plan-type, asset-mix, fee structure, and audit history, these details are flattened in any hub-level aggregate. Where regulatory updates change the categorization of a plan, PlainRetire preserves the historical filing alongside the most recent one so longitudinal analyses remain valid.