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Netflix 401(k): company match and investment options

Does your 401(k) vote the way you would? $1.79bn of the $2.35bn in the Netflix 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

Netflix 401(k) match and balances, from the filing

Company money in
about $9,570 per active participant
$84m in plan year 2024
Employees saved
about $23,940 each
$210m in plan year 2024
Average balance
$206,000
11,401 people with a balance
In the plan
$2.35bn
at the end of plan year 2024

Company money is the match plus any other employer contributions, averaged over all 8,780 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.

11,401 people have a balance in the Netflix 401(k), and it holds $2.35bn. Of the $2.26bn whose vehicle the plan reports, 79.3% sits in funds that publish no record of how they voted your shares — collective trusts and separate accounts, which unlike a mutual fund file no Form N-PX and leave no public trace of a single vote.

SourceThe plan’s own annual report to the Department of Labor — Form 5500, Schedule H, plan year 2024 · filed by NETFLIX, INC. as “NETFLIX 401(K) PLAN” · EIN 770467272, plan number 001 · search the filings

What the plan holdsVoting recordValue
Common/collective trusts NONE $1.79bn
Registered funds (mutual funds and ETFs) PUBLISHED $469m
Directly held common stock Voted by the plan trustee $41m
Participant loans No shares to vote $13m
Government bonds No shares to vote $1m
Directly held preferred stock Voted by the plan trustee $338,386
Corporate bonds (other) No shares to vote $139,392

Every asset class the plan itemised on Schedule H, straight from the filing. These are categories, not fund names: Schedule H asks what KIND of vehicle the money is in, never which one, which is why no fund is named on this page.

Why there is no list of Netflix’s funds anywhere

Some employers file a Form 11-K with the SEC each year, and it contains a schedule naming every investment in the 401(k), fund by fund. Netflix does not file one, and that is not an oversight: a plan only has to file an 11-K when interests in it are registered securities, which in practice means the 401(k) offers a company stock fund. Plans that pay equity as RSUs outside the plan, as most large technology employers do, never trigger the requirement.

So the only public account of this plan is the Form 5500 above, which reports what categories the money sits in and never which funds. That is the whole reason this page can tell you 79.3% of the identified money votes in secret and cannot tell you which manager cast those votes.

Why the secrecy, and what you can do

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.

Check whether your plan offers any registered mutual 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 →

CoverageThe plan reports the vehicle for 98.7% of its assets. The remaining $1m is filed under headings that do not say what kind of vehicle holds it, and is excluded from the percentage above 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.

Microsoft 401(k)$64.92bn in the planBank of America 401(k)248,103 savers · $62.90bnJPMorgan Chase 401(k)297,359 savers · $52.91bnGoogle 401(k)154,637 savers · $48.74bnWells Fargo 401(k)$43.80bn in the planAmazon 401(k)943,213 savers · $34.59bnInternational Business Machines 401(k)$28.25bn in the planIntel 401(k)$26.91bn in the planEvonik 401(k)6,240 savers · $1.49bnUnited Health Centers of The San Joaquin Valley 401(k)1,222 savers · $42mKodak Alaris 401(k)1,080 savers · $168mLmi 401(k)3,543 savers · $449mLockton 401(k)8,620 savers · $1.40bnMei Rigging & Crating 401(k)1,317 savers · $38m