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International Paper 401(k) retirement plan: the investment options

Does your 401(k) vote the way you would? $4.70bn of the $4.91bn in the International Paper plan votes in secret. Fidelity 500 Index Fund, the most common fund in the plans we track, publishes every vote: answer 3 of its ballots, then see your result.

The question on the ballot

As filed

International Paper 401(k) match and balances, from the filing

Company money in
about $9,350 per active participant
$114m in plan year 2024
Employees saved
about $10,380 each
$127m in plan year 2024
Average balance
$250,600
19,924 people with a balance
In the plan
$4.99bn
at the end of plan year 2024

Company money is the match plus any other employer contributions, averaged over all 12,229 active participants, including anyone who did not contribute. The filing reports dollars, not the match formula; the plan’s summary plan description states the formula.

SourceThe plan’s annual report to the Department of Labor — Form 5500, Schedule H, plan year 2024 · filed by INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY as “INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY SALARIED SAVINGS PLAN” · EIN 130872805, plan number 007 · search the filings

The International Paper 401(k) holds $4.91bn. Of the $4.70bn we could identify from the plan’s own filing, every dollar sits in a fund that publishes no record of how it voted your shares — collective trusts, which unlike a mutual fund file no Form N-PX and leave no public trace of a single vote.

SourceInternational Paper’s own annual retirement-plan filing with the SEC (Form 11-K, Schedule of Assets) · open the filing

What the plan holdsVehicleVoting recordValue
International Paper Company Defined Contribution Plans Master Trustlisted as “International Paper Company Defined Contribution Plans Master Trust **” Collective trust or separate account NONE $4.70bn
Pershing, LLClisted as “Self-directed brokerage accounts - other securities **” Brokerage window Whatever the saver buys $157m
Various participantslisted as “Participant loans at interest rates of 4.25 % to 9.75 %, maturing through May 2043 **” Participant loans No shares to vote $58m
Pershing, LLClisted as “Self-directed brokerage accounts - International Paper Company Common stock **” Brokerage window Whatever the saver buys $14,000

The 4 largest holdings in the plan. “Vehicle” is the description the filing itself gives each investment.

Why there is nothing to show

A mutual fund has to file Form N-PX every year listing every vote it cast on your behalf. A collective investment trust does not. It is a bank-run vehicle sold only inside retirement plans, it is cheaper, and it is now where most 401(k) default money sits — including most target-date funds, which is where savers who never chose anything are put.

So the shares bought with International Paper employees’ retirement savings are voted every proxy season — on executive pay, on board seats, on climate and workforce proposals — and there is no public document anywhere recording how. This is not an oversight by International Paper; it is what the disclosure rules currently require, which is to say: nothing.

What you can do

Check whether your plan offers any registered fund as an alternative — those publish their records, and you can read them here. If it does not, the menu itself is the thing that has to change, and that is a decision made by the plan’s fiduciary committee, not by you alone.

See how funds that do publish voted →

CoverageWe classified 100% of this plan’s assets from the filing. The figure above is the share of the money we could classify; anything we could not identify is excluded from it rather than assumed either way.

Other employer plans

The largest employer plans on the site, and a few more. Each page shows what the plan’s funds did with the shares its savers paid for.

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