Equitable launches 403(b) pooled employer plan to support nonprofits

New York – April 9, 2026 — Equitable announced the introduction of the Equitable Retirement AccessSM ERISA 403(b) pooled employer plan (PEP), a new offering designed to help nonprofit organizations offer a scalable, cost‑efficient way to provide their employees with retirement plan benefits.

“Nonprofit leaders pour everything into the people and communities they support, but most don’t have the resources or time to manage a retirement plan,” said Jim Kais, Head of Group Retirement at Equitable. “They recognize how important these benefits are for attracting and keeping talent, and this new solution gives them a practical way to offer a high‑quality retirement plan while we handle the details behind the scenes.”

PEPs are defined contribution plans that allow a group of unrelated businesses to pool their employees’ retirement funds into a single plan managed by a third-party provider. This helps to reduce administrative tasks, such as compliance and reporting, and provides protection from fiduciary risk. Introduced by the SECURE Act in 2019, PEPs are designed to help close the retirement income gap among U.S. workers who do not have access to retirement plans through their employers. The SECURE Act 2.0, passed in 2022, further expanded access by allowing PEPs to be included in 403(b) plans.

This new offering expands the Equitable Retirement Access suite, building on the successful introduction of Equitable’s 401(k) PEP for small and medium‑size businesses in 2025. It also extends access to retirement plan benefits for another underserved segment of the U.S. workforce — employees of nonprofit organizations. While the U.S. nonprofit sector employs roughly one in 10 workers, retirement benefits in this space are often less common than in the public and private sector. Notably, only 21% of nonprofits provide retirement benefits to their employees.

Like employers in every sector, nonprofit leaders increasingly view retirement plans as an essential part of demonstrating care for their employees and supporting long‑term workforce stability. Yet for many smaller organizations — from community health systems to charities and faith‑based institutions — the financial and administrative demands of offering a plan can be prohibitive.

“We continue to see strong demand for workplace retirement solutions that help employers simplify plan management, get the fiduciary support they need and control costs,” added Kais. “By expanding our PEP offerings into the 403(b) market, we’re providing nonprofits access to retirement plans that are easier to run and cost‑efficient — benefits typically reserved for larger organizations. This launch marks an important step as we continue to build our presence in the PEP space.”

The new 403(b) PEP is available through the Equitable Retirement Vision® platform for nonprofit employers establishing a new 403(b) plan or evaluating a transition from an existing provider. PlanConnect LLC, an Equitable affiliate, will serve as recordkeeper, while MAP Retirement will act as the pooled plan provider, third‑party administrator, and 3(16) administrative fiduciary. SWBC Retirement Plan Services will serve as the 3(38) investment fiduciary and Plan Notice LLC will manage notice delivery services.

Through its Group Retirement business, Equitable partners with school districts, municipalities, not-for-profit entities and small-to-medium-sized businesses to provide tax-deferred investment and retirement solutions, including 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) plans for their employees. Equitable’s Group Retirement business has a nearly five-decade history of providing workplace retirement solutions to more than 1.2 million clients.