GPS – PEP Talk:  Custom, Turnkey and Open Pooled Employer Plans from a Team You Trust

Group Plan Systems (GPS), a company co-owned by PRI, was created in 2021 to serve as a professional, independent Pooled Plan Provider (PPP) for the rapidly growing Pooled Employer Plan (PEP) market. Congress created PEPs to allow otherwise unrelated employers to pool their assets and offload nearly all of their fiduciary duties to PPPs and ERISA 3(38) investment managers. GPS now oversees 20 pooled or multiple employer programs, representing over $600 million, 900 employers covering in excess of 25,000 employees.

The GPS programs are unique in that, among other things, we leave it up to employers to select their own investment professionals. GPS is also independent and unaffiliated with the PEPs’ other service providers.

Typically, GPS partners with financial institutions (i.e., banks, trust companies, and investment advisers) to design programs that meet their unique requirements and preferences. GPS has also created a number of turnkey solutions that allow financial institutions and their professionals to “plug-in” and benefit from instant scale.

One of those programs, the GPS Navigator, allows for multiple investment “sleeves” within a single PEP – meaning that a financial institution can serve as the 3(38) investment manager for their clients without having to incur the time and expense associated with building a PEP from scratch. This structure also dispenses with the plan audit conundrum because there are dozens of audit-sized employers in the PEP that help to spread out the costs traditionally incurred solely by a single employer. There is also an “open” sleeve managed by Envestnet Retirement Solutions that allows firms to leverage the PEP without serving as an investment fiduciary.

A list of GPS-sponsored open PEPs is included below. If you are interested in learning more about building or participating in an existing PEP, please email info@groupplansystems.