LifeSight Pooled Employer Plan

Retirement benefits are a key component of total rewards strategy and the employee experience. Our Global Benefits Attitudes Study 2024 found that 55% of employees said retirement benefits are an important reason to stay at a company. If you want to hire and retain the best talent, you need a competitive retirement strategy that focuses on positive employee outcomes, and balances employer workforce management and risk management.

Today defined contribution (DC) plans are the primary retirement savings vehicle for most U.S. employees however, sponsoring a plan has become increasingly complex and time-consuming. Defined contribution plans are also the target of excessive-fee and other litigation – leaving plan sponsors and fiduciaries exposed to meaningful risk.

The retirement landscape is changing and you have an opportunity to harness the advantage to your employees and your business.

What is a pooled employer plan (PEP)?

Pooled employer plans (PEPs) are the latest expansion in defined contribution plan outsourcing in the U.S., however pooled plan arrangements are already available across the globe in countries such as Australia, Belgium, Germany, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. In the U.S., PEPs are expected to reshape the way retirement benefits are delivered. Our LifeSight PEP enables employers to fully outsource their 401(k) plans with peace of mind.

A PEP aims to build economies of scale and transfer fiduciary risk by allowing unrelated employers of any size to participate in a single defined contribution plan. LifeSight PEP allows employers to retain the flexibility to select key contribution and other design features that align with your business needs.

A PEP is sponsored by a Pooled Plan Provider (PPP), which is the named fiduciary and entity responsible for management and administration of the PEP. Participating employers shift nearly all oversight and governance to the PPP, including fiduciary responsibility for investments and plan administration. You maintain responsibility for selecting and monitoring the PPP. The PPP selects and monitors other service providers.

WTW is the PPP for the LifeSight PEP

Pooled Employer Plan (PEP)

WTW partners with leading service providers for the LifeSight PEP

• Recordkeeper: Transamerica
• Trustee: State Street Bank and Trust Company (SSBT)
• Auditor: Deloitte
• Investment managers: Blackrock, PGIM Fixed Income, State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), and more
• Self-directed brokerage window provider: Charles Schwab

Why choose a PEP?

For many employers, PEPs provide a way to offer market leading retirement benefits to their workforce with mitigated fiduciary risk, less effort, lower costs, and more strategic focus.

A PEP may enable you to:

• Lower plan costs through scale in investments, recordkeeping and other plan functions
• Transfer fiduciary risk by outsourcing ERISA 402(a)¹, 3(38)², and 3(16)³ responsibilities
• Lessen administrative effort by shifting vendor management, governance, and day-to-day tasks
• Improve participant financial health through tools and solutions that support well-informed decision making, leading to better retirement outcomes

Unlike a traditional 401(k) plan, a PEP offers a fully outsourced defined contribution solution, allowing employers to focus on other priorities.

Why choose WTW’s LifeSight PEP?

Our LifeSight PEP provides you with:

• A trusted solution with a commitment to innovation that only our vast expertise and decades of experience can provide. It integrates our scale and track record in retirement plan consulting, governance, administration, and investments with our recordkeeping partner’s 20+ years of experience providing pooled plan solutions.
• The ability to retain the flexibility to make important plan design decisions that impact the overall cost of the plan and value being delivered to employees.
• First-class and engaging employee experience.
• Dedicated expertise in retirement plan governance, administration and technology, enabling you to fully delegate with peace of mind and actively engage your employees to make better decisions for their future.
• An investment structure that works harder for savers and is powered by our independent viewpoints, expert ideas, extensive research and robust implementation.
• Access to more market-leading consultants who can help you make decisions enabling better retirement outcomes and strategic financial resilience for your employees.

What are the broader benefits for employers choosing to partner with WTW?

We support U.S.-based employers in all aspects of defined contribution plan management, including:

• Plan design, compliance and consulting services
• Investment advisory and delegated solutions
• Data and analytics
• Fully outsourced DC plans through the LifeSight PEP

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The expanding range of DC plan solutions

Pooled Employer Plans are the latest expansion in DC outsourcing solutions

The expanding range of DC plan solutions

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The expanding range of DC plan solutions

Pooled Employer Plans are the latest expansion in DC outsourcing solutions

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The LifeSight PEP is an important part of our vast portfolio of retirement plan capabilities, including expertise in managing pooled defined contribution plans in the U.K. and Europe. Our deep expertise across defined benefit and defined contribution retirement program design, administration, plan management, investments and financial wellbeing will drive a first-class experience for both you and your employees.

We will not only keep up with innovation in the defined contribution space – our vision is to drive it.

• We work with 455 of the Fortune Global 500, 887 of the Fortune 1,000 and thousands of non-Fortune-listed companies⁴
• We have extensive experience implementing delegated investment programs, with over $160 billion in assets under management globally.⁵
• Our recordkeeping partner has decades of experience providing pooled plan solutions and administers pooled plan assets for nearly half a million participants.⁵
• We provide co-fiduciary services to clients with a combined $9+billion in assets and 65,000+ participants.⁶
• We administer global DC pooled plan solutions totalling over $20 billion in assets.⁵
• We have over 40 years of experience in benefits and outsourcing technology with 99% of our outsourcing clients choosing to stay with us year after year.⁶

Our vast experience, strong track record and drive to continually innovate means that employers choosing WTW are fully supported to realize their retirement strategy goals both today and as they evolve.

Why now?

Why not now? With 44% of U.S. employees ranking retirement a benefit they most want employers to prioritize, according to our WTW Global Benefits Attitudes Study 2022 and with the seismic global shift toward DC plans as the key source of retirement savings - their importance for improving employee outcomes, employer workforce management and risk management, the opportunity has grown too big to ignore.

The retirement landscape is changing and you have an opportunity to harness the advantage to your employees and your business.

Want to learn more?

We provide a range of defined contribution plan solutions to support your retirement strategy. Please contact us to learn more about the LifeSight PEP and how we can help you meet your retirement strategy needs.

Footnotes

1. 402(a): Named fiduciary of the plan (main fiduciary who oversees the selection and monitoring of all other plan fiduciaries and assumes most of the plan sponsor’s duties)
2. 3(38): Investment fiduciary
3. 3(16): Administration fiduciary
4. As of January 2024
5. As of December 31, 2023
6. As of March 2024