Retirement investments of Amazon employees brought to us by their annual Department of Labor (DoL) filings. Form 5500 lists which investments Amazon 401(k) plan participants have selected for their retirement funds—giving us insight into how Amazon.com employees choose to invest for retirement.
So what do Amazon employees invest in?
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Company Stock Fund (i.e., shares of AMZN) is the largest investment across Amazon plan participants, with 13% of total plan assets (down from 28% back in 2015). This investment choice is only available for the company’s matching contributions, and not for employee contributions.
Coming in third place (I’ll come back to second place below)—at 11% of plan assets—is the low-cost Vanguard Institutional 500 Index Trust. This fund tracks the performance of the S&P 500 Index, representing around 500 of the largest companies in the United States—a great choice for a core investment holding.
Second place, and most of the remaining 10 ten holdings, are Vanguard Target funds.
These funds are designed to shift their holdings as the target retirement year approaches. They gradually shift to more bonds and fewer equities. In other words, they become more conservative as time passes.
The largest of these holdings is the Vanguard Target 2050 Trust, designed for people planning to retire around the year 2050.
Plan assets as of 12/31/2021
(from Amazon’s October 2022 filing of Form 5500)
| Investment | % |
| Amazon.com (Company Stock Fund) | 13% |
| Vanguard Target 2050 Trust | 11% |
| Vanguard Institutional 500 Index Trust | 11% |
| Vanguard Target 2055 Trust | 10% |
| Vanguard Target 2045 Trust | 9% |
| Vanguard Target 2040 Trust | 7% |
| SSGA Large Cap Growth Trust | 5% |
| Vanguard Target 2035 Trust | 5% |
| Vanguard Target 2060 Trust | 5% |
| Vanguard Target 2030 Trust | 3% |
| Vanguard FTSE Social Index Fund | 2% |
| All other | 18% |
| Total Assets (excluding participant loans) | 100% |
See the Amazon 401(k) page for additional plan details and value of holdings.
Retirement Distribution
The distribution of assets in target retirement funds–which represent nearly half of total plan assets–provide a rough view of participating employee ages.
The largest holdings are in the 2045, 2050, and 2055 target funds. These investment should represent employees who plan to retire in the next 25 to 35 years.
Source: 2020-21 Form 5500 for Amazon’s 401k plan
