As plan sponsors continue to grapple with rising costs, expanding fiduciary obligations, and increasing administrative complexity, advisors are being called on to deliver solutions that go beyond investment selection. While Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs) have garnered significant attention in recent years, Multiple Employer Plans (MEPs)…
…gain access to a new layer of prospective retirement plan clients. How Does a Pooled Employer Plan Work? Simply put, a PEP allows multiple employers to adopt a retirement plan that covers their employees under one overall plan. Rather than each employer establishing a separate…
…simply explaining what a PEP is—and what it is not. Employers frequently conflate PEPs with legacy Multiple Employer Plans (MEPs), leading to confusion around fiduciary roles and responsibilities. In particular, there is often uncertainty about which duties remain with the employer and which are assumed…
…address many common concerns One way that federal law enables employers to avoid missteps is through the use of multiple employer plans, or MEPs. Simply put, MEPs allow unrelated employers to combine their plans under a single MEP “sponsor.” Typically, the sponsor will make this…
…employee benefit can quickly become a source of administrative complexity, compliance risk, and operational inefficiency. That’s why many firms are taking a fresh look at Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs) and Multiple Employer Plans (MEPs)—not simply as retirement plan structures, but as strategic tools that can…
…obligations are stretching internal resources—particularly for small and mid-sized organizations. As a result, many sponsors are actively seeking ways to outsource administrative complexity and reduce fiduciary exposure. PEPs are one way to address these challenges by allowing multiple employers to participate in a single plan,…
…of Form 8881, Credit for Small Employer Pension Plan Startup Costs and Auto-Enrollment to claim the credits. What about businesses that will join or have joined multiple employer plans (MEPs) or Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs)? Fortunately, Section 111 of SECURE 2.0 ensures the startup tax…
…some of the key differences between three different defined contribution plan types, which may help you start the process. The chart explores three broad plan design options: single employer plans, closed multiple employer plans (MEPs), and pooled employer plans (PEPs). Single employer plans, as the…
…review of recent Form 5500 filings show that even larger employers are taking advantage of PEP benefits. Of the 12 largest PEPs, half of them served employers that averaged at least 188 participants per participating employer. This is well above the targeted “small employer” range…
…their core, PEPs allow unrelated employers to participate in a single retirement plan administered by a third-party Pooled Plan Provider (PPP). This model offers several key advantages over traditional single-employer plans: Reduced Administrative Burden Employers that join a PEP hand off much of the day-to-day…
…guidance: Sponsors may but are not required to include in their plan any type of Roth contribution – employee elective, employer matching, or employer nonelective. The rules currently (pre-SECURE 2.0) applicable to employee elective Roth contributions also generally apply to the new Roth employer contributions….
…practical obstacles. Here is a small sample: Plan sponsors can allow participants to elect to have employer contributions made to Roth accounts. Plans established on or after December 29, 2022, must generally contain an automatic enrollment feature. Access to multiple employer plans (MEPs) and pooled…