What is the Lockheed Martin 401k match? This may seem like a pretty simple question, but many of my Lockheed clients didn’t know exactly what their company is actually contributing to their retirement plan prior to working together.

The matching portion of a 401k is a nice benefit and one that has become more rare since 2008. Many large companies have done away with a matching program to stabilize their balance sheets. Lockheed – despite making a few changes to the plan, still has a matching benefit for many of its employees.

Lockheed Martin 401k Match: Pension Employees

One of the main reasons for the lack of knowledge is that the plan has changed significantly over the last few years (read more about the changes by clicking HERE) to employees in the Salaried Pension Plan. Most of these employees were hired prior to 2006.

Prior to 2016, the company contributed up to 4% to an employee’s retirement account. It was basically a 50 cents on the dollar up to 8% of employee salary.

For example, if you have a salary of $100,000, Lockheed would add $4000/year to your 401k account if you contributed $8,000. You could contribute more than that during the year, but the company would only put in 4%.

Starting in January of 2016, the company made some changes to the pension plan, so they added an additional 2% contribution to employees’ 401k accounts. This however was not a matching election, but a flat 2% of salary, contributed to your account no matter the percentage you are putting into the plan.

In January of 2020, the pension changes will be complete, the and company will increase the automatic contribution from 2% to 6%. This means if you are contributing at least 8% of your salary to your 401k, the company will be putting in another 10% (4% match + 6% automatic) of your salary into your plan as well.

Lockheed Martin 401k Match: SSP and CAP Employees

If you were hired after December 2005, you probably don’t have a pension and contribute to the CAP or SSP. For these employees, the same 50 cents on the dollar of the first 8% of your salary applies. The company will also contribute an additional 6% as well.

For an employee making $100,000, in order to get the full company contribution of $10,000, they will need to contribute up to $8,000 throughout the year.

How does the Lockheed Martin 401k match compare to other companies?

According to Investopedia.com, the most common employee match program is 50 cents on the dollar up to 6%. You can check out how the Lockheed Martin 401k stacks up against other company plans on the Brightscope website, which ranks 401k plans on a number of different features.

Not sure how much your are contributing or not sure if you’re contributing enough to retire? I can help you. Email me at Brian@TheAeroAdvisor.com or click the button below to schedule a free, 100% no-obligation phone call.