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Nisource 401(k) retirement plan: the investment options

Does your 401(k) vote the way you would? $1.59bn of the $2.35bn in the Nisource 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

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

Company money in
about $7,190 per active participant
$57m in plan year 2024
Employees saved
about $10,170 each
$81m in plan year 2024
Average balance
$205,100
9,913 people with a balance
In the plan
$2.03bn
at the end of plan year 2024

Company money is the match plus any other employer contributions, averaged over all 7,982 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 NISOURCE INC as “NISOURCE INC RETIREMENT SAVINGS PLAN” · EIN 352108964, plan number 005 · search the filings

The Nisource 401(k) holds $2.35bn. Of the $1.59bn 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.

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

What the plan holdsVehicleVoting recordValue
Fidelitylisted as “Growth Company Commingled Pool” Collective trust or separate account NONE $327m
NiSource Inc.listed as “NiSource Inc. Common Stock” Employer stock Voted by the plan trustee $238m
Geode Capitallisted as “Spartan Total Market Index Pool” Not identified from the filing Not counted either way $235m
Fidelitylisted as “Freedom Blend Target Date 2050 Commingled Pool” Collective trust or separate account NONE $174m
Fidelitylisted as “Freedom Blend Target Date 2040 Commingled Pool” Collective trust or separate account NONE $173m
Fidelitylisted as “Contrafund Commingled Pool” Collective trust or separate account NONE $161m
Fidelitylisted as “Freedom Blend Target Date 2030 Commingled Pool” Collective trust or separate account NONE $142m
Fidelitylisted as “Freedom Blend Target Date 2045 Commingled Pool” Collective trust or separate account NONE $137m
Fidelitylisted as “Freedom Blend Target Date 2035 Commingled Pool” Collective trust or separate account NONE $124m
Fidelitylisted as “Freedom Blend Target Date 2055 Commingled Pool” Collective trust or separate account NONE $122m
Vanguardlisted as “Cash Reserves Federal Money Market” Money-market fund PUBLISHED $70m
Fidelitylisted as “Balanced Fund” Not identified from the filing Not counted either way $63m

The 12 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 Nisource 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 Nisource; 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 84.8% 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.

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 planMayer Brown 401(k)3,301 savers · $1.23bnAvalonbay Communities 401(k)4,048 savers · $385mNice-Pak Products 401(k)1,813 savers · $143mCadence Education 401(k)1,227 savers · $21mLincoln Electric Holdings 401(k)$1.28bn in the planAxis Specialty U.s. Services 401(k)1,453 savers · $402m