The People Behind the Process
Culpepper RFP exists for one reason: plan sponsors and committees are accountable for provider decisions they rarely have the time, market data, or documentation practices to make well on their own. We run that process for them — independent, structured, and documented — across retirement plans, health and welfare plans, and endowments and foundations.
What makes the work credible is where we've been. This team has sat on all sides of the fiduciary table — advisor, recordkeeper, investment manager, committee member — which means we know how providers price, how they present, and where proposals and reality tend to diverge. And we have no actual or potential conflicts of interest with any firm we evaluate: no products to sell, no referral fees, no relationships to protect.
What we do and how the engagement levels work → services
About The managing partner of Culpepper RFP, LLC…
Jay Gepfert has spent more than twenty years providing retirement consulting and investment advisory services to plan sponsors of all sizes. Before founding Culpepper RFP, he was with Russell Investments, a leading international investment consulting organization — and across his career he has sat on every side of the fiduciary table: recordkeeper, investment manager, investment advisor, and plan sponsor. That 360-degree view is the firm's working advantage: when Jay evaluates a proposal, he has usually written one like it, sold one like it, and voted on one like it.
Jay received his BA from Davidson College, where he played Division I tennis. A lifelong athlete and longtime coach, he now spends part of his time as a women's fast-pitch softball umpire at all levels, including collegiate — which is to say, he has years of practice standing in the middle of a contest with no stake in who wins, applying the rules the same way for everyone. His clients get the same thing.
Jay has served on numerous boards and contributed to many philanthropic endeavors, and currently volunteers as a wish grantor with the Connecticut chapter of Make-A-Wish.
About Jake Gepfert…
Jake manages and executes complex RFP engagements at Culpepper RFP, guiding clients to best-fit providers through structured, data-driven evaluation. He has led and supported RFPs for 3(38) investment managers, 3(21) investment advisors, PEPs, and recordkeepers, along with comprehensive fund and fee analyses — and his engagement experience extends across actuarial firms, health benefit brokers, and retirement plan service providers.
Two specialties round out the firm's coverage. Jake has worked on mental health parity (MHPAEA) evaluations, supporting the compliance-focused comparative analyses that regulators increasingly request. And he brings a grounding in cybersecurity best practices to every engagement — so providers are evaluated not only on pricing and capabilities, but on data security, governance, and operational resilience, in line with the DOL's cybersecurity expectations.
Jake is known for a structured approach, close attention to detail, and the ability to translate technical and fiduciary complexity into clear, actionable terms for committees. He is a graduate of Presbyterian College in South Carolina.
About Zoe Gepfert Wendel
Zoe brings thirteen years of experience partnering with clients across healthcare, consumer packaged goods, nonprofit, and technology organizations. Her background in client services and project management is paired with a deep focus on operational excellence — and inside an engagement, that's what clients feel: order brought to complexity, timelines kept, and strategic goals translated into well-managed execution. The weekly updates clients consistently praise? That discipline is where they come from.
Culpepper RFP is a family firm — which means the name on the door is the name on your engagement, and accountability never gets handed down the hall. Continuity and personal accountability are genuine trust signals for committees hiring a small firm over a big-brand consultant.
Our References Are Our Clients — All of Them
Our clients engage us for independent evaluations at sensitive moments — often at the direction of counsel — so we don't publish named testimonials or case studies. Discretion is part of the engagement.
What we offer instead is stronger: 100% of Culpepper RFP clients can act as a reference, a standard we've maintained since the firm began. When you're seriously evaluating whether to work with us, we'll connect you directly with organizations similar to yours in size, plan type, and situation — and you can ask them anything.
Questions about how we work? See our full FAQ
“Working with Culpepper RFP greatly streamlined the process for our team and helped us achieve our goals via an efficient and thorough process.” — Manager of Benefits
— Manager of Benefits
Talk to the Person Who'd Run Your Evaluation
A call with Jay isn't a sales screening — it's a working conversation about your situation, what level of evaluation fits, and whether we're the right firm for it.