PEPs and small TPA firm

My TPA firm is very small and 99% of our clients have less than 100 participants.  Most have less than 40.  I'm concerned that as time goes on, PEPs become more popular and my business is threatened.  Is there an option for a small TPA firm to market PEPs?  Can I join forces with a company that sponsors a PEP while I maintain TPA and consulting services for my clients?  Thankfully, my market values local service but I'm not going to fool myself into thinking that clients won't jump ship if a PEP makes more sense for them and the popularity grows.

Most likely yes.  We serve as Plan Sponsor, Recordkeeper, Plan Administrator to a PEP.  We use an unrelated TPA firm who performs compliance (TPA) services and an outside 3(38) advisory firm who chooses/monitors the fund lineup for the PEP.  Each employer can work work with their own 3(21) advisor if they choose.  There is a separate trust company.  There was a lot of setup/coordination and money involved to get it off the ground. 

With that being said though, a PEP is not the be all end all for many employers.  If they like a lot of hand holding and consulting services, a PEP may not be right for them.  Your brand/message may be what is needed for your market.

We got into the PEP market because we spent 20+ years working with PEOs and/or closed MEPS, before sponsoring an Open MEP.  We took our Open MEP and migrated to the PEP environment.  Over the years, we created proprietary software to manage these plans.  If you don't have an lot of experience in the market, you may also want to take that into consideration before making the leap.

We're in a similar situation.  Personally I don't think there are great net advantages to MEPs and PEPs in the smaller market; of course there are multiple factors and it's important to drill into the total costs, but it's easy to gloss over that stuff and sell it as the hottest newest thing.  However, there is always the issue of perception, and sales people pushing things that might or might not be improvements - and that's the problem.  I believe there will be consolidation.  Plus it seems the trend is towards the "no service" service model (e.g. ADP and Paychex), and there seems to be consolidation in the small professional fields, especially medicine, and the bigger companies that are gobbling up the smaller companies just offer 401k with some kind of match.  Anybody can do that.

I'm in the fortunate position of not having to worry about it myself and haven't paid that much attention so I might be missing something.