Arkansas Corporations Usually Offer Choice in Pension

In the past decade, most of the state’s large, publicly traded corporations have included 401(k) pension plans on their roster of benefits, and in the majority of plans, such as the one at Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc., employees have chosen to diversify their investments when given the chance.

“Since the investments are self-directed, theoretically an associate could choose [to put all his money in company stock, but] we do find that most associates diversify,” spokesman Tom Williams said.

Wal-Mart associates still have many opportunities to invest in the company, aside from the retirement plan. Since 1972, the company has contributed to a “profit sharing” plan for associates, which is invested almost entirely in Wal-Mart stock. In addition, the company offers an employee stock option plan (ESOP), whereby employees can buy stock through payroll deduction up to $25,000 a year, Williams said. The company adds 15 percent to the employee stock purchase.

Springdale meat processing giant Tyson Foods Inc. instituted a 401(k) at about the same time as Wal-Mart in the mid-1990s, said spokesman Ed Nicholson. Tyson employees can choose among five funds in which to invest their money, Nicholson said. The company also offers an ESOP.

Little Rock information technology company Acxiom Corp. specifically cautions employees against investing too heavily in one area, including the company’s stock.

“Up until last year, we offered our associates the opportunity to invest in 11 T. Rowe Price funds,” said Greg Gough, an organizational development leader at Acxiom. “We continuously benchmark the plan and investment options and, last year, made enhancements to the fund line-up [by] adding eight non-T. Rowe Price funds as well as a brokerage account feature that enables participants to select from thousands of mutual funds, … stocks and bonds. At that time we also added an Acxiom stock option.

“In the communications to associates that introduced Acxiom stock, we cautioned participants about diversifying their plan accounts.”

Most participants spread their investments among three or more options, he added.

An exception to the diversifying trend is Dillard’s Inc., the Little Rock department store chain. Dillard’s employees’ pension is 100 percent invested in the company’s stock, which has lost two-thirds of its value in recent years.

Dillard’s investor relations spokeswoman Julie Bull did not return a call for comment on the plan.