401k and Payroll Private-Labelers Unite

401kWire.com -- June 6, 2007 -- What's the perfect payroll partner for a 401(k) provider specializing in private-label defined contribution platforms? One answer, in Mark Gutrich's eyes, is SurePayroll, because they are a payroll provider who specializes in private-label payroll platforms. In an interview with the The 401kWire, the ePlan Services president and CEO revealed SurePayroll as his latest partner and explained how they fit into ePlan's strategy.

"Rather than trying to go pick off the 6,000 TPAs or the 10,000 payroll firms [in the country], we're looking for scale," Gutrich told The 401kWire, describing how ePlan searches for partners. "We wanted a like-minded marketer who would play well with our other private-label partners. It aligns our interest with our partners' interest."

ePlan already has such a partnership with CompuPay, a firm with 20,000 payroll clients, and now SurePayroll and its 28,000 small business payroll clients have signed on ePlan's dotted line, too. Each firm now has an ePlan private-label 401(k) platform -- CompuPay's is called Power401k and SurePayroll's is Sure401k -- that they can offer to the same banks to whom they offer private-label payroll platforms, and those bank in turn can offer the private label 401(k) to the small businesses they already serve.

SurePayroll 401(k) product manager Steve Kania and CompuPay 401(k) sales manager Don Totty both could not immediately be reached for comment.

"Both CompuPay and SurePayroll are organizations which are focused on the commercial banking space for developing private-labeled online payroll applications," Gutrich elaborated. "We basically market the same services in different categories."

Between these partnerships, Gutrich admitted, ePlan has access to almost 50,000 small business payroll clients, the "largest composite outside of ADP and Paychex."

There's another benefit to the payroll firm partnerships ePlan has built. According to Gutrich, it now gives him the payroll support to more easily offer, calculate and keep track of automatic enrollment.