ASPPA creates a credential for the pooled-plan market

The people who run multiple employer plans and pooled employer plans now have a credential, and it arrives just as pooled employer plan assets double. The American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries' Qualified Pooled Plan Professional designation requires a 15-to-20-hour course with 12 online education modules, a practice exam, and a proctored credentialing exam. Kelsey Mayo, ASPPA's executive director, said the credential is for professionals who want 'job-ready expertise in pooled plans' — useful, she added, for third-party administrators, advisers, recordkeepers, and compliance teams, beyond the providers themselves.

The credential lands in a market that is growing quickly: the 2026 PLANSPONSOR Recordkeeping Survey, fielded in April and May among 36 defined contribution recordkeepers reporting on business as of December 31, 2025, put 1,420 MEPs at $159 billion in assets across 56,010 employers and more than 2.3 million participants, while PEPs held $34 billion across 330 plans and 10,797 employers covering more than 1.2 million participants — double the year-end 2024 figure. On the PEP side, Voya led recordkeeping with $6.198 billion, followed by Transamerica at $5.353 billion and Principal at $4.684 billion; on the MEP side, Empower's $35.654 billion topped the list, ahead of Transamerica's $29.086 billion and Principal's $24.452 billion.

PEP assets are still roughly a fifth of MEP assets — $34 billion against $159 billion — but doubling in a year is the kind of growth that makes a credential look timely. The course content, with its emphasis on employer onboarding and transitions, governance and compliance across multiple employers, and the operational complexity of shared arrangements, describes a job distinct from single-employer work. ASPPA, as this publication has argued, sees pooled-plan administration as its own discipline.

The designation is in part a supply-side bet that training enough qualified professionals now will bring the market along. It also points to where the revenue is moving. The certification will not by itself decide which recordkeeper wins the PEP race — that comes down to platform and price — but it puts a clear marker on the segment that doubled in 2025.