Aon PEP Surpasses $5B in Assets and 100K Participants

Aon PLC announced today that its pooled employer plan, Aon PEP, has reached $5 billion in live and committed assets since its inception in 2021.

The PEP now serves more than 130 employers and more than 100,000 eligible employees, Aon stated. The firm reported that participant behaviors in the plan have improved, including an 11% increase in eligible participant enrollment after one year, and a 5% increase in the amount saved by existing and new participants after two years.

“Thus far during 2025, approximately 75% of the growth has been from the addition of new employers and assets, with the remaining 25% from ongoing plan operations for employee and matching employer contributions, asset earnings, withdrawals, etc.,” said Rick Jones, senior partner in wealth solutions for Aon and leader of the firm’s pooled employer plan offering, in an emailed statement to PLANSPONSOR.

The new $5 billion in assets is more than double the assets the firm reported two years ago. In November 2023, Aon announced the PEP hit $2 billion in plan assets, doubling the $1 billion it reported just over one year prior.

“PEPs are transforming how organizations approach retirement benefits,” Jones said in a statement announcing reaching the $5 billion level. “Employers see immediate advantages from these pooled platforms, including lower costs, significantly reduced administrative workload and improved governance, all of which ultimately deliver better experiences for their teams and enhanced outcomes for employees.”

Aon’s news also comes on the heels of Empower’s recent announcement that it will take over recordkeeping services for the Associated General Contractors’ $600 million PEP. Empower has established and managed more than 50 PEPs, covering approximately 1,000 employer-sponsored plans and nearly 100,000 participants, since 2021.

Research from Optavise, an employee administration, benefits and human resources solution company, published in 2024, found that about one-quarter of employers cite time, resource constraints and administrative complexity as barriers to offering new benefits—underscoring the scale of the issue PEPs are intended to resolve.

“In response, many employers are adopting PEPs as a more efficient solution that delivers broader organizational value,” Optavise stated in the report. “Industry research shows that 30% of plan sponsors consider simplifying administration and compliance their top reasons for exploring PEPs, while nearly 20% cite lowering investment and administrative costs.”

According to Aon, employers participating in its PEP indicated that their 401(k) workload decreased between 50% and 75% on average after joining the pooled plan.

“Without the pressures to maintain internal bench strength to manage a DC plan or worry about potential plan liability in today’s more litigious environment, [employers that become PEP participants and individual plan] participants don’t feel that they have the same level of risk as a plan sponsor would, simply because they have the weight of another organization doing the heavy lifting,” said Beth Jackman, director of global benefits, retirement and mobility at Atmus Filtration Technologies—an employer participating in Aon’s PEP—in a statement.

PEPs accumulated $9.41 billion in assets and surpassed 1 million participants as of December 2023, according to filings on the U.S. Department of Labor’s EFAST 5500 Database. Georgetown University’s Center for Retirement Initiatives estimated assets reached more than $17 billion as of December 31, 2024.

“As more organizations embrace PEPs, we’re proud to help lead the industry forward – empowering employers of all sizes to offer sustainable retirement security while adapting to the evolving needs of their workforce,” said Jennifer Brasher, head of wealth solutions in North America for Aon, in a statement. “This is just the beginning of a new era for workplace retirement benefits.”