Welcome to the Great 401(k) Podcast Debate, a series of point/counterpoint episodes involving controversial topics in the retirement plan space, and pooled employer plans (PEP) are undoubtedly controversial.

Are PEPs living up to their promise? Are they lowering costs and increasing efficiencies for the smaller organizations that use them? And what’s the outlook for their adoption?

We asked pro-PEP Group Plan Systems’ Pete Swisher and Plan Design Consultants’ JD Carlson, a PEP critic, to weigh in, and as expected, it got heated. Here’s what they had to say.