Independent RFP Evaluations for Retirement Plan Providers: Advisors, Recordkeepers, PEPs and TPAs


A documented, conflict-free process for evaluating your plan's providers — advisor, recordkeeper, Pooled employer plan or TPA — whether you have real service concerns, or simply want an independent third party to look over your shoulder.

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Advisor RFP Evaluations

When Is It Time to Evaluate Your Plan Advisor

Advisor evaluations rarely start with dissatisfaction. More often the trigger is external: fee litigation in your industry, Department of Labor questions about fee reasonableness, a plan merger, an advisor's firm being acquired, or a new committee member asking when the advisor relationship was last reviewed — and no one having a documented answer.

Whatever the trigger, the fiduciary question is the same: can you demonstrate, with documentation, that your advisor's fees and services are reasonable and competitive? A structured, independent evaluation is how plan sponsors answer it.

Retirement Plan Provider Evaluations We Run

For 401(k) and 403(b) plans:

  • Investment advisor RFPs — both 3(21) co-fiduciary and 3(38) discretionary arrangements

  • Recordkeeper searches and evaluations

  • TPA evaluations

  • Provider fee and service benchmarking (when a full RFP isn't warranted yet)

For pension plans:

  • Pension investment advisor RFPs

  • Custodian and investment manager evaluations

Looking for a different evaluation?

Looking for a different evaluation? We also run independent evaluations for DOL Cybersecurity firms, OCIO managers,actuarial, and benefit brokers— each covered on its own page.

What Culpepper RFP Handles

  • Identifying advisors that fit your plan's size, location, and service needs

  • Writing the RFP and managing the evaluation from start to finish

  • Organizing evaluation criteria so every comparison is consistent

  • Handling all advisor communication during the evaluation period

  • Summarizing results and presenting findings to your committee

  • Coordinating finalist presentations and agendas

  • Managing reference checks

  • Supporting final fee negotiation

The deliverable is a complete decision file — criteria, comparisons, scoring, and rationale — that documents how the decision was made.

Who Engages Us

Most of our work comes by referral — from past clients, ERISA law firms, and other service providers. The people who contact us are usually HR Directors, CFOs and Finance Directors, Executive Directors, and investment committee members.

Sometimes there's a real service concern. Just as often, they simply want an independent third party to look over their shoulder and confirm the plan is where it should be.

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Frequently Asked Questions

  • It's for you. ERISA attorneys often make the referral, but the people who actually engage us and run point are HR Directors, CFOs, and committee members — usually people who have never run an advisor RFP before and don't intend to become experts in one. That's the point of hiring us: you bring knowledge of your organization; we bring the process, the market data, and the documentation.

  • We handle the research, RFP writing, distribution, all advisor communication, scoring, summaries, finalist scheduling, reference checks, and negotiation support. Your involvement is concentrated at three points: a working session at the start to set evaluation criteria, selection of finalist firms and the finalist presentations at the end, where the decision is yours. Everything between those points is our job.

  • For most committees, a handful of meetings across the engagement — criteria-setting at the start, a findings review in the middle, and finalist presentations at the end. Most full advisor RFPs are started and completed within 90 days, and the process is designed to consume our hours, not yours.

  • It usually does the opposite. When an independent third party runs the evaluation, the process — not any person on your team — drives the outcome. Your incumbent advisor competes on the same criteria as everyone else, nobody internal has to play the critic, and if the incumbent wins, the relationship is stronger for having been validated. The messiest advisor evaluations are the ones run internally, where every question reads as an accusation.

  • No. Educating your committee is part of the engagement — what the fee structures mean, what the market looks like, and what the differences between proposals actually amount to. Clients consistently tell us the committee ended the process more knowledgeable than it started, which is itself evidence of fiduciary diligence.

  • You don't have to know — that's the first thing we figure out together. Benchmarking answers whether your current fees and services are reasonable; an RFI gathers structured market information; a full RFP is a complete documented search. We tell you which level your situation calls for before any engagement begins, and benchmarking is often the right first step

  • Yes — every client we've ever worked with. 100% of Culpepper RFP clients can act as a reference. Once you're seriously evaluating an engagement, we'll connect you with organizations similar to yours, and what you ask them is up to you

“The plan committee was extremely pleased with the advice provided to the committee and the results of the project. Working with Culpepper RFP streamlined the process for our team and helped us achieve our goals in an efficient and thorough process. We highly recommend Culpepper RFP to other organizations for similar assignments.” — Director of Human Resources

— Director of Human Resources


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.

Wondering Whether Your Advisor Relationship Would Hold Up to Review?

Schedule a call with Jay to talk through your situation. You'll leave knowing whether an evaluation makes sense, what level fits — benchmarking, RFI, or full RFP — and what the process would look like.

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