Regulatory Updates
Regulatory Updates provide quick access to employee benefit regulations, rulings and other guidance released by governmental agencies in the U.S. and Canada.
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DOL Issues Guidance and RFI on Helping Small Employers Improve Workers' Retirement Plan Outcomes; Comments Due September 29
Jul 28, 2025, 05:00
by
Amanda Wilke
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued limited interpretive guidance to help small employers select high-quality, low-cost pooled employer plans (PEPs). DOL also issued a request for information (RFI) about prevailing pooled employer plan market practices.
Operated by entities known as pooled plan providers, PEPs are retirement savings plans adopted by two or more unrelated employers to provide retirement benefits to employees and can allow participating employers to provide benefits at a lower cost. PEPs also allow participating employers to transfer most of the administrative and fiduciary responsibilities to the pooled plan providers. All of this translates to lower costs for the retirement plan participants, which can lead to increased retirement savings.
The RFI:
- Builds upon previous requests related to pooled employer plans, which were created by the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019;
- Provides interpretive guidance about an employer’s responsibilities when joining a PEP and offers advice on selecting a plan; and
- Solicits information about prevailing market practices related to PEPs, which could serve as the basis for a future regulatory safe harbor that would encourage employers to join PEPs and motivate entities to offer strong and sound plans.
DOL will consider the responses as part of a process aimed at developing a potential regulatory safe harbor or safe harbors that comprehensively encourage market participants to offer and employers to join such plans.
The efforts:
- Are designed to reduce investment costs for workers saving for their retirement, and
- Will help small employers provide more attractive benefits to potential hires, drawing discouraged workers into the labor force.
Comments are due September 29, 2025.