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Valvoline 401(k) retirement plan: the investment options

Does your 401(k) vote the way you would? $269m of the $333m in the Valvoline 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

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

Company money in
about $1,190 per active participant
$15m in plan year 2024
Employees saved
about $1,220 each
$15m in plan year 2024
Average balance
$39,700
8,040 people with a balance
In the plan
$319m
at the end of plan year 2024

Company money is the match plus any other employer contributions, averaged over all 12,249 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 VALVOLINE INC. as “VALVOLINE 401(K) PLAN” · EIN 300939371, plan number 002 · search the filings

The Valvoline 401(k) holds $333m. Of the $269m 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.

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

What the plan holdsVehicleVoting recordValue
SS S&P 500 Index Xlisted as “Common Collective Trust” Collective trust or separate account NONE $45m
Valvoline Inc. Common Stocklisted as “Common Stock Fund” Employer stock Voted by the plan trustee $41m
SS TRGT RET 2060 XIlisted as “Collective Investment Fund” Collective trust or separate account NONE $31m
SS TRGT RET 2050 XIlisted as “Collective Investment Fund” Collective trust or separate account NONE $26m
SS TRGT RET 2055 XIlisted as “Collective Investment Fund” Collective trust or separate account NONE $23m
SS TRGT RET 2045 XIlisted as “Collective Investment Fund” Collective trust or separate account NONE $23m
SS TRGT RET 2040 XIlisted as “Collective Investment Fund” Collective trust or separate account NONE $22m
SS TRGT RET 2030 XIlisted as “Collective Investment Fund” Collective trust or separate account NONE $20m
SS TRGT RET 2035 XIlisted as “Collective Investment Fund” Collective trust or separate account NONE $18m
Fidelity BrokerageLinklisted as “Self-Directed Brokerage Accounts” Brokerage window Whatever the saver buys $17m
SS US Ext Market Xlisted as “Common Collective Trust” Collective trust or separate account NONE $15m
SS TRGT RET 2025 XIlisted as “Collective Investment Fund” Collective trust or separate account NONE $14m

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 Valvoline 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 Valvoline; 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.

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 planEveron 401(k)4,316 savers · $398mWeitz 401(k)1,612 savers · $150mSanofi 401(k)$31m in the planCrowe 401(k)7,934 savers · $1.27bnShutterfly 401(k)5,738 savers · $380mBig 5 401(k)2,481 savers · $141m