Short answer: If your company uses a professional employer organization (PEO), you have two 401(k) choices: join the PEO’s multiple employer or pooled employer plan, or run your own plan on the PEO’s payroll. The PEO’s plan means less administration; your own plan stays with you if you change PEOs. This list compares Basic Capital, Empower, Fidelity Advantage 401(k), Slavic401k and Voya on the structures they support and the roles they take, from each provider’s own materials as of November 2026.

Basic Capital publishes this page and is one of the providers listed. Providers appear in alphabetical order, not ranked. Each fact comes from the provider’s own website, checked November 10 to 11, 2026.

First decision: the PEO’s plan or your own

A bona fide PEO can sponsor a multiple employer plan for its clients if it meets Department of Labor conditions, including keeping “employee-benefit-plan obligations to MEP participants after the client employer no longer contracts with the organization” (29 CFR 2510.3-55). If you are moving off an employer of record at the same time, read moving from an EOR to a PEO first.

How we compared providers

1. Structures supported: MEP, PEP, or a single-employer plan that works with PEO payroll.

2. Fiduciary roles: who is the 3(16) plan administrator and who selects the funds.

3. Portability: what happens to your plan if you change PEOs.

4. Payroll fit: how contributions get from the PEO’s payroll to the plan.

The providers

Basic Capital

• Offers Safe Harbor, Traditional and Pooled 401(k) plans. For PEOs it supports a PEO-sponsored MEP or PEP, a standalone or carve-out plan for one client, or a second plan beside an existing MEP.

• For pooled plans: one Form 5500 for MEPs, PEPs and group of plans, plus combined testing and audits.

• PEOs can offer it white-labeled or co-branded. PEO clients get a 1:1 dedicated support specialist and on-site trainings.

• 300+ payroll integrations; most employers are live in 30 to 60 days.

• See Basic Capital for PEOs and pooled plans.

Empower

• Empower’s pooled workplace plans page lists pooled employer plans, multiple employer plans, and plans offered by a “professional employer organization,” described as “employers partner with a plan offered by a company that manages human resources, payroll, and benefits.” (Empower pooled workplace plans page, retrieved 2026-11-11)

• The same page says pooled plans can “transfer key fiduciary responsibilities and risk to a plan professional.”

• Ask: who serves as 3(16) on your plan. Empower’s own small-plan materials say plan administration and compliance on its Ready Select offer are handled by a partner third-party administrator (TPA). (Empower small business retirement plans page, retrieved 2026-11-11)

Fidelity Advantage 401(k)

• Fidelity “performs most administrative duties as the Plan Sponsor, 3(16) and 3(38) fiduciary.” (Fidelity small business 401(k) page, retrieved 2026-11-11)

• Because Fidelity, not the PEO, is the plan sponsor, the plan is not part of your PEO contract. Fidelity says payrolls it does not integrate with can still submit contributions each pay period through its Express Entry tool, so ask your PEO whether it will send them.

• Ask: how contributions are sent from the PEO’s payroll, and what plan design choices you keep.

Slavic401k

• Slavic401k’s PEO page says it partners “with PEOs like yours” to offer a 401(k), that a multiple employer plan is “the most common plan for our PEOs,” and that it also offers pooled employer plans. (Slavic401k PEOs and associations page, read 2026-11-11)

• The same page says Slavic401k acts “as a 3(16) administrative fiduciary and 3(21) investment advisor” for PEOs and their clients, and that “contribution data is automatically transferred to Slavic401k as a part of payroll processing.”

• Ask: which PEO payroll platforms it receives data from, and the investment menu for your plan.

Voya

• Voya’s multiple employer solutions page offers “administrative services for Multiple Employer Plans (MEPs) and Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs)” and says it works “with you, your clients and your preferred Third Party Administrator.” (Voya multiple employer solutions page, retrieved 2026-11-11)

• Ask: whether your plan needs a separate third-party administrator. Voya’s employer guide says that, depending on the plan, some third-party administrator services may be bundled with the recordkeeper.

Questions to ask your PEO before you decide

1. Is your plan a multiple employer plan or a pooled employer plan, and who is the plan sponsor?

2. Who is the 3(16) plan administrator and who selects the funds?

3. What can we change in plan design: match, vesting, eligibility, Roth, after-tax?

4. If we leave the PEO, what happens to our employees’ accounts, and on what timeline?

5. Can we run our own plan on your payroll instead, and how do contributions get to it?

The 3(16), 3(21) and 3(38) guide explains the roles. If you want a match without annual testing, see safe harbor 401(k). To set up a plan that moves with you, book a demo.

References

Competitor sources are listed as plain text.

• 29 CFR §2510.3-55, Association retirement plans and other multiple-employer plans. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XXV/subchapter-B/part-2510/section-2510.3-55

• Empower. (n.d.). Pooled workplace plans. Retrieved 2026-11-11.

• Fidelity Investments. (n.d.). Small business 401(k). Retrieved 2026-11-11.

• Slavic401k. (n.d.). 401(k) plans for small business, PEO 401(k). Retrieved 2026-11-11.

• Voya Financial. (n.d.). Multiple employer solutions. Retrieved 2026-11-11.