We help businesses lower 401(k) costs, reduce fiduciary liability, and simplify compliance.

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no commitment.

What Is a Pooled Employer Plan (PEP)?

A Pooled Employer Plan (PEP) is a type of retirement plan that enables multiple unrelated employers to participate in a single, professionally managed 401(k) plan, thereby reducing the costs, complexity, and legal liabilities associated with sponsoring individual plans.

Here’s what that means for your business:

Streamlined compliance
Avoid DOL audits, fines, and lawsuits with full administrative support.

Built-in fiduciary protection
We manage the legal risk, so you don’t have to. We manage the legal risk.

Complete 401(k) management
We handle vendors, investment fees, and plan design. All under one roof. one roof.

Better investments at lower cost
PEPs offer access to top-tier funds at a fraction of the usual cost.

Higher employee participation
Make your plan easier to join, understand, and use. understand, and use.

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no commitment.

Why a Pooled Employer Plan (PEP) Is the Best Fit for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses

For years, small and mid-sized businesses struggled to offer competitive 401(k) plans. High fees, complex rules, and heavy fiduciary liability made it difficult to provide the same quality retirement benefits as larger companies.

That’s exactly why Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs) were introduced under the SECURE Act in 2019. They were designed to help small and mid-sized businesses offer competitive retirement benefits without the stress of high costs or complex compliance.

It’s everything you want from a 401(k) without the stress, risk, and at a much lower cost.

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no obligation.

A group of business owners including an electrician, nurse, and office worker standing together after a successful 401(k) plan review
Did you know? Employers switching to PEPs typically reduce plan costs by 30–50% while limiting fiduciary liability.
Woman presenting advanced 401(k) design options to business team in a modern office setting
Did you know? Many plans that look compliant on paper still face DOL fines or class-action lawsuits — often because responsibilities weren’t clearly assigned or followed. If no one’s monitoring the details, mistakes can go unnoticed for years.

Streamlined Compliance and Oversight

With a Pooled Employer Plan, core compliance tasks are centrally managed. That includes 3(16) administration, 5500 filings, testing, and participant notifications—all handled through a unified structure designed to reduce oversight gaps and ensure consistency.

What’s Already Taken Care Of:

  • Full 3(16) administrative oversight
  • Centralized 5500 preparation and filing
  • Ongoing compliance monitoring and testing
  • Automatic distribution of participant notices
  • Built-in audit and legal support for larger plans

Many business owners are surprised by what their provider doesn’t handle. A quick review shows exactly where you’re covered and where you may still be exposed.

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no obligation.

Fiduciary Liability Protection Built Into the PEP Structure

A Pooled Employer Plan significantly reduces your fiduciary responsibilities. It offers built-in legal oversight and professional administration, so you no longer have to manage plan operations or worry about vendors making costly errors. We handle the legal aspects and manage most of the associated risks.

Here’s what your PEP typically covers:

  • 3(16), 3(21), and 3(38) fiduciary role delegation
  • Annual compliance testing (ADP/ACP, top-heavy, 415 limits)
  • DOL/IRS audits filing
  • Plan document updates and ongoing legal maintenance

True compliance means protecting yourself, not just passing audits. A quick review can uncover risks you may still be liable for, even if you believe you are covered.

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no obligation.

Small business owners reviewing 401(k) plan paperwork in their office, smiling
Did you know? In traditional 401(k) plans, you’re personally liable as the plan fiduciary, even if you hire third-party providers. If something goes wrong, you could be held financially and legally responsible.
Two retirement plan advisors reviewing 401(k) benchmarking results on a tablet in a modern office

Did you know? Many business owners spend hours managing their 401(k) plan behind the scenes — chasing vendors, reviewing reports, and troubleshooting compliance issues. That admin work adds risk and distraction, even if you think someone else is handling it.

Complete 401(k) Management

With a Pooled Employer Plan (PEP), you get full-service 401(k) management that lifts the operational weight off your team. No more chasing providers or juggling compliance tasks. Just one team, one point of contact, and complete plan oversight.

What’s Included:

  • Full plan administration and reporting
  • Fiduciary oversight (3(16), 3(38), or 3(21) roles)
  • Payroll integration and data sync
  • Compliance monitoring and vendor coordination
  • Participant communication and notices

PEPs simplify the back office without taking decisions out of your hands. It’s smart delegation, not blind outsourcing. See if PEP is right for your business.

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no obligation.

Retirement plan advisor reviewing 401(k) benchmarking results on a tablet in a modern office
Did you know? Employers are required to monitor plan fees — yet most haven’t done a formal benchmarking review in years. Without benchmarking, you could be overpaying by 30–50% annually.This could expose you to fiduciary risk.

Lower Costs & Better Investments

Pooled Employer Plans are designed to drive down fees and improve investment access—right out of the gate. Because multiple businesses share the structure, you benefit from institutional pricing, streamlined vendor contracts, and lower administrative costs without sacrificing quality.

Here’s what that means for your plan:

  • Built-in fee benchmarking across pooled service providers
  • Access to top-tier investments at a fraction of typical costs
  • Reduced legal, audit, and advisory expenses through shared administration
  • Pre-negotiated pricing on recordkeeping and compliance services

High fees and hidden risks often go unnoticed. PEPs were built to solve both without the usual complexity.

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no obligation.

Higher employee participation

Participation support is integrated into the plan design. Employees receive clear guidance, easy-to-use tools, and personalized education, making it simpler for them to enroll, contribute, and stay engaged. HR teams benefit from reduced administrative effort and improved participation metrics. The plan is easy to understand and manage for both employees and HR.

What’s Included:

  • Auto-enrollment and contribution escalation setup
  • On-demand tools for goal setting and retirement readiness
  • Bilingual education and one-on-one guidance
  • Interactive dashboards and personalized retirement insights

Strong participation starts with consistent, easy-to-understand education. A quick review can uncover small changes that make your plan easier to join and use.

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no obligation.

Blonde woman in beige dress checking retirement plan on iPhone in bright modern office
Did you know? Low participation can raise a red flag; it may suggest the plan isn’t being properly explained, supported, or monitored. And that can expose employers to legal and reputational risk, even if their intentions are good.

FAQs: Questions We Often Hear From Business Owners

That’s a fair question, and it starts with the providers behind the plans we recommend.

We only work with large, nationally recognized firms that specialize in 401(k) compliance, fiduciary oversight, and plan operations. These are the same names trusted by major corporations, now available to smaller businesses through a pooled plan structure. You’re not relying on one advisor; an entire institutional team backs you.

As your advisor, our job is to vet these providers, align them with your goals, and ensure the plan you’re offered is truly in your best interest, not a product being pushed by someone who stands to benefit financially. We’re not tied to any single platform, recordkeeper, or investment menu. Our role is to protect your outcomes, not anyone’s quota.

A Pooled Employer Plan (PEP) enables multiple unrelated businesses to participate in a single, professionally managed and maintained retirement plan structure. Instead of each employer being responsible for their own standalone plan with separate compliance tasks, filings, and oversight, the pooled structure shifts nearly all of that burden to experienced fiduciaries.

You still retain control over key decisions, including eligibility, employer match, and payroll integration. But ongoing plan management, compliance monitoring, testing, and filings are handled centrally by the PEP provider and its fiduciary partners (3(16), 3(38), etc.).

If your current plan is standalone and only offers basic recordkeeping, you may still be responsible for many oversight and compliance tasks, even if you’re not aware of them.

A “low” number on paper doesn’t always reflect a fair or efficient fee structure.

We often uncover hidden costs buried in older contracts, such as revenue-sharing, inflated advisory fees, or unnecessary wrap charges, which can make a plan appear more cost-effective than it actually is.

Our benchmarking process goes well beyond a simple rate check. It includes:

  • Side-by-side comparisons of recordkeepers and platform providers

  • A full breakdown of every fee layer (TPA, advisory, investment, custody, etc.)

  • Negotiating better terms or recommending more cost-effective alternatives

It’s not uncommon for businesses to reduce total plan costs by $25,000–$ 100,000 or more annually through strategic restructuring, even if their current plan was previously considered “low-cost.”

Under a Pooled Employer Plan (PEP), operational responsibilities are handled by designated experts, not left to the business owner or internal HR team.

The Pooled Plan Provider (PPP) assumes primary responsibility for day-to-day plan operations, including compliance testing, 5500 filings, participant notices, and DOL or IRS audits.

That means you’re not personally managing complex deadlines or shouldering liability for administrative errors; experienced fiduciaries handle these functions under the PEP framework.

If your current plan is standalone, you’re likely still responsible for coordinating multiple vendors and staying compliant without this level of built-in oversight.

Not at all.
In fact, many of the businesses we help have 20-300 employees and are exactly the ones most at risk of overpaying or missing compliance steps, because they’re too small for HR to stay on top of everything but too big for simple solutions to work.

We scale with your size and complexity, and Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs) allow small and mid-size businesses to access institutional pricing and fiduciary protections that used to be reserved for large employers.

No, and that’s a key difference in working with us.
PEPs are not always the right fit. In some cases, a customized standalone plan or a prototype structure with the right fiduciary layers makes more sense.

We run the analysis based on your current plan, your employee population, your goals, and what you want to outsource. If a PEP is a better fit, we’ll show you why. If not, we’ll explain the tradeoffs—and help you optimize what you already have.

Many plans appear simple on the surface but are actually very risky underneath.
What feels “easy” often comes from years of default settings, ignored notices, and autopilot renewals.

We break that cycle by helping you:

  • See how your current plan is performing

  • Understand where risk, cost, or inefficiency is hiding

  • Simplify with structure, not shortcuts

Once the right system is in place, you’ll spend less time managing your plan, not more.

Yes, and that’s part of what sets us apart.
We don’t stop at compliance and cost—we help employees understand and use their plan. Our education programs are modern, concise, and tailored to the real questions employees ask.

Better education means higher participation, more satisfaction, and fewer employee questions landing on your desk.

That’s absolutely fine.
We’re flexible and collaborative—we can either work alongside your current providers or help you transition if that’s the better path.
In many cases, we act as an overlay, bringing in benchmarking, plan optimization, and fiduciary protections while keeping familiar relationships in place.

Our goal is not to blow things up. It’s to upgrade what’s not working and protect what is.

You don’t need to do this yourself or all at once.

We start with a simple conversation and review your plan documents in the background. From there, we handle the research, benchmarking, analysis, and transition roadmap.

Your total time commitment: about 1–2 hours total, across a few short meetings.
And the return? Lower fees. Less liability. Higher confidence.

Employer Feedback on PEPs 

  • ✔“I finally stopped worrying about whether we were compliant.”
  • ✔“Our employees understood their plan for the first time.”
  • ✔“The PEP was a better fit for us, more cost-effective, and easier to manage.
  • ✔“We couldn’t afford full plan management before, but now we can.”

There’s zero risk and a lot to gain.

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no obligation.

Four business owners — a professional, a construction worker, a doctor, and a mechanic — confident after improving their 401(k) plans

Just a quick note.

We know you’re busy. Probably skeptical. Maybe even tired of all the sales noise.

That’s not what this is.

We’re here to be useful, earn your trust, and hopefully win your business.

Direct Support From a Real Advisor. Not a Salesperson.

When you reach out, you’ll connect with Elena Samofalova — one of the lead advisors on a seasoned team of retirement strategists, compliance specialists, plan administrators, and investment professionals with over 30 years of combined experience.

You’re not getting routed to a sales rep or call center. Just professional guidance from someone who understands the challenges business owners face.

📞 Call or Text Elena
+1 (954) 400-3038
(Texting is often easiest — Elena will reply personally.)
📧 Email
elena@palmbeachpwm.com
📍 Office Address
103 SE 3rd Avenue, 10th Floor
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33394

Contact Me Today

Elena Samofalova – Retirement Planning Specialist

Elena Samofalova

Investment Advisor / Retirement Strategist
CEO, Palm Beach Private Wealth Management

Helping small and mid-sized businesses reduce 401(k) risk, simplify compliance, and support their team with real guidance.

Retirement Income News and Articles

Retirement Income News and Articles

🛡 Powered by nationally recognized 401(k) fiduciary partners

Join a Pooled Employer Plan Today

  • Cut 401(k) costs by up to 50% through group pricing and shared services
  • Reduce your personal fiduciary liability with built-in oversight
  • Offload compliance, testing, and audits to a professional team

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no commitment.

Investment advisor smiling while reviewing 401(k) plan on the phone in a modern office

What Is a Pooled Employer Plan (PEP)?

A Pooled Employer Plan (PEP) is a type of retirement plan that enables multiple unrelated employers to participate in a single, professionally managed 401(k) plan, thereby reducing the costs, complexity, and legal liabilities associated with sponsoring individual plans.

Here’s what that means for your business:

Built-in Fiduciary Protection

We manage the legal risk, so you don’t have to.

In traditional standalone 401(k) plans, you’re personally liable as the plan fiduciary, even if you hire third-party providers. If something goes wrong, you could be held financially and legally responsible.

More details   →

 

Streamlined Compliance

Avoid DOL audits, fines, and lawsuits with full administrative support.

Many plans that look compliant on paper still face DOL fines or class-action lawsuits, often because responsibilities weren’t clearly assigned or followed. If no one’s monitoring the details, mistakes can go unnoticed for years.

More details   →

 

Better Investments at Lower Cost

PEPs offer access to top-tier funds at a fraction of the usual cost.

Employers are required to monitor plan fees, yet most haven’t done a formal benchmarking review in years. Without benchmarking, you could be overpaying by 30–50% annually. This could expose you to fiduciary risk.

More details   →

Higher Employee Participation

Make your plan easy to join, easy to understand, and easy to manage for both employees and HR.

Low participation can raise a red flag, suggesting that the plan may not be being properly explained, supported, or monitored. And that can expose employers to legal and reputational risk, even if their intentions are good.

More details   →

Complete 401(k) Management

We restructure your plan to better align with your tax, nondiscrimination testing, and retention goals, so it works for your business, not against you.

Many business owners spend hours managing their 401(k) plan behind the scenes, chasing vendors, reviewing reports, and troubleshooting compliance issues. That admin work adds risk and distraction, even if you think someone else is handling it.

More details   →

A group of business owners including an electrician, nurse, and office worker standing together after a successful 401(k) plan review

Why a Pooled Employer Plan (PEP) Is the Best Fit for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses

For years, small and mid-sized businesses struggled to offer competitive 401(k) plans. High fees, complex rules, and heavy fiduciary liability made it difficult to provide the same quality retirement benefits as larger companies.

That’s exactly why Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs) were introduced under the SECURE Act in 2019. They were designed to help small and mid-sized businesses offer competitive retirement benefits without the stress of high costs or complex compliance.

It’s everything you want from a 401(k) without the stress, risk, and at a much lower cost.

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no commitment.

Business owner reviewing 401(k) plan results after receiving a personalized fiduciary analysis

Better Investments at Lower Cost

Pooled Employer Plans are designed to drive down fees and improve investment access—right out of the gate. Because multiple businesses share the structure, you benefit from institutional pricing, streamlined vendor contracts, and lower administrative costs without sacrificing quality.

Here’s what that means for your plan:

  • Built-in fee benchmarking across pooled service providers
  • Access to top-tier investments at a fraction of typical costs
  • Reduced legal, audit, and advisory expenses through shared administration
  • Pre-negotiated pricing on recordkeeping and compliance services

High fees and hidden risks often go unnoticed. PEPs were built to solve both without the usual complexity.

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no commitment.

Business professional reviewing 401(k) plan dashboards with participant data, investment charts, and compliance indicators

Complete 401(k) Management

With a Pooled Employer Plan (PEP), you get full-service 401(k) management that lifts the operational weight off your team. No more chasing providers or juggling compliance tasks. Just one team, one point of contact, and complete plan oversight.

What’s Included:

  • Full plan administration and reporting
  • Fiduciary oversight (3(16), 3(38), or 3(21) roles)
  • Payroll integration and data sync
  • Compliance monitoring and vendor coordination
  • Participant communication and notices

PEPs simplify the back office without taking decisions out of your hands. It’s smart delegation, not blind outsourcing. See if PEP is right for your business.

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no commitment.

A small business owner reviewing 401(k) plan paperwork in their office, looking concerned

Fiduciary Liability Protection Built Into the PEP Structure

A Pooled Employer Plan significantly reduces your fiduciary responsibilities. It offers built-in legal oversight and professional administration, so you no longer have to manage plan operations or worry about vendors making costly errors. We handle the legal aspects and manage most of the associated risks.

Here’s what your PEP typically covers:

  • 3(16), 3(21), and 3(38) fiduciary role delegation
  • Annual compliance testing (ADP/ACP, top-heavy, 415 limits)
  • DOL/IRS audits filing
  • Plan document updates and ongoing legal maintenance

True compliance means protecting yourself, not just passing audits. A quick review can uncover risks you may still be liable for, even if you believe you are covered.

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no commitment.

Blonde woman in beige dress checking retirement 401(k) plan on iPhone in bright modern office

Higher employee participation

Participation support is integrated into the plan design. Employees receive clear guidance, easy-to-use tools, and personalized education, making it simpler for them to enroll, contribute, and stay engaged. HR teams benefit from reduced administrative effort and improved participation metrics. The plan is easy to understand and manage for both employees and HR.

What’s Included:

  • Auto-enrollment and contribution escalation setup
  • On-demand tools for goal setting and retirement readiness
  • Bilingual education and one-on-one guidance
  • Interactive dashboards and personalized retirement insights

Strong participation starts with consistent, easy-to-understand education. A quick review can uncover small changes that make your plan easier to join and use.

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no commitment.

Investment advisor presenting advanced 401(k) design options to business team in a modern office setting

Streamlined Compliance and Oversight

With a Pooled Employer Plan, core compliance tasks are centrally managed. That includes 3(16) administration, 5500 filings, testing, and participant notifications—all handled through a unified structure designed to reduce oversight gaps and ensure consistency.

What’s Already Taken Care Of:

  • Full 3(16) administrative oversight
  • Centralized 5500 preparation and filing
  • Ongoing compliance monitoring and testing
  • Automatic distribution of participant notices
  • Built-in audit and legal support for larger plans

Many business owners are surprised by what their provider doesn’t handle. A quick review shows exactly where you’re covered and where you may still be exposed.

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no commitment.

FAQs: Questions We Often Hear From Business Owners

That’s a fair question, and it starts with the providers behind the plans we recommend.

We only work with large, nationally recognized firms that specialize in 401(k) compliance, fiduciary oversight, and plan operations. These are the same names trusted by major corporations, now available to smaller businesses through a pooled plan structure. You’re not relying on one advisor; an entire institutional team backs you.

As your advisor, our job is to vet these providers, align them with your goals, and ensure the plan you’re offered is truly in your best interest, not a product being pushed by someone who stands to benefit financially. We’re not tied to any single platform, recordkeeper, or investment menu. Our role is to protect your outcomes, not anyone’s quota.

A Pooled Employer Plan (PEP) enables multiple unrelated businesses to participate in a single, professionally managed and maintained retirement plan structure. Instead of each employer being responsible for their own standalone plan with separate compliance tasks, filings, and oversight, the pooled structure shifts nearly all of that burden to experienced fiduciaries.

You still retain control over key decisions, including eligibility, employer match, and payroll integration. But ongoing plan management, compliance monitoring, testing, and filings are handled centrally by the PEP provider and its fiduciary partners (3(16), 3(38), etc.).

If your current plan is standalone and only offers basic recordkeeping, you may still be responsible for many oversight and compliance tasks, even if you’re not aware of them.

A “low” number on paper doesn’t always reflect a fair or efficient fee structure.

We often uncover hidden costs buried in older contracts, such as revenue-sharing, inflated advisory fees, or unnecessary wrap charges, which can make a plan appear more cost-effective than it actually is.

Our benchmarking process goes well beyond a simple rate check. It includes:

  • Side-by-side comparisons of recordkeepers and platform providers

  • A full breakdown of every fee layer (TPA, advisory, investment, custody, etc.)

  • Negotiating better terms or recommending more cost-effective alternatives

It’s not uncommon for businesses to reduce total plan costs by $25,000–$ 100,000 or more annually through strategic restructuring, even if their current plan was previously considered “low-cost.”

Under a Pooled Employer Plan (PEP), operational responsibilities are handled by designated experts, not left to the business owner or internal HR team.

The Pooled Plan Provider (PPP) assumes primary responsibility for day-to-day plan operations, including compliance testing, 5500 filings, participant notices, and DOL or IRS audits.

That means you’re not personally managing complex deadlines or shouldering liability for administrative errors; experienced fiduciaries handle these functions under the PEP framework.

If your current plan is standalone, you’re likely still responsible for coordinating multiple vendors and staying compliant without this level of built-in oversight.

Not at all.
In fact, many of the businesses we help have 20-300 employees and are exactly the ones most at risk of overpaying or missing compliance steps, because they’re too small for HR to stay on top of everything but too big for simple solutions to work.

We scale with your size and complexity, and Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs) allow small and mid-size businesses to access institutional pricing and fiduciary protections that used to be reserved for large employers.

No, and that’s a key difference in working with us.
PEPs are not always the right fit. In some cases, a customized standalone plan or a prototype structure with the right fiduciary layers makes more sense.

We run the analysis based on your current plan, your employee population, your goals, and what you want to outsource. If a PEP is a better fit, we’ll show you why. If not, we’ll explain the tradeoffs—and help you optimize what you already have.

Many plans appear simple on the surface but are actually very risky underneath.
What feels “easy” often comes from years of default settings, ignored notices, and autopilot renewals.

We break that cycle by helping you:

  • See how your current plan is performing

  • Understand where risk, cost, or inefficiency is hiding

  • Simplify with structure, not shortcuts

Once the right system is in place, you’ll spend less time managing your plan, not more.

Yes, and that’s part of what sets us apart.
We don’t stop at compliance and cost—we help employees understand and use their plan. Our education programs are modern, concise, and tailored to the real questions employees ask.

Better education means higher participation, more satisfaction, and fewer employee questions landing on your desk.

That’s absolutely fine.
We’re flexible and collaborative—we can either work alongside your current providers or help you transition if that’s the better path.
In many cases, we act as an overlay, bringing in benchmarking, plan optimization, and fiduciary protections while keeping familiar relationships in place.

Our goal is not to blow things up. It’s to upgrade what’s not working and protect what is.

You don’t need to do this yourself or all at once.

We start with a simple conversation and review your plan documents in the background. From there, we handle the research, benchmarking, analysis, and transition roadmap.

Your total time commitment: about 1–2 hours total, across a few short meetings.
And the return? Lower fees. Less liability. Higher confidence.

What Employer Feedback on PEP(s)

  • ✔ “I finally stopped worrying about whether we were compliant.”
  • ✔ “Our employees actually understood their plan for the first time.”
  • ✔ “The PEP was a better fit for us, more cost-effective, and easier to manage.”
  • ✔ “We couldn’t afford full plan management before, but now we can.”

There’s zero risk and a lot to gain.

🔒 Fully confidential. No cost & no commitment.

Just a quick note.

We know you’re busy. Probably skeptical. Maybe even tired of all the sales noise.

That’s not what this is.
We’re here to be useful, earn your trust, and hopefully win your business.

Elena Samofalova

Elena Samofalova

Investment Advisor / Retirement Strategist

CEO, Palm Beach Private Wealth Management

Helping small and mid-sized businesses reduce 401(k) risk, simplify compliance, and support their team with real guidance.