TPA IT Built to Pass Your Next Plan Sponsor Review
Third-party administrators operate in a high-trust environment where security isn't a feature — it's the expectation. Participant data, fiduciary responsibility, and Department of Labor scrutiny all land on your IT. We deliver enterprise-grade protection with the documentation to prove it.
Controls aligned to DOL cybersecurity guidance, ERISA fiduciary standards, and NIST CSF 2.0, with audit-ready documentation that stands up in SOC 1 (SSAE 18) examinations, CEFEX reviews, and Plan Sponsor questionnaires — so security scrutiny becomes routine, not a scramble.
A dedicated brand for the TPA industry
We know this vertical well enough to give it its own home. TPAIT® is our dedicated brand for third-party administrators and retirement-plan providers, with resources built specifically for fiduciary firms — delivered on the same CRC Cloud platform you'll read about here. Explore it at tpait.com →
Operational continuity through every filing season
Plan Sponsors and auditors don't just ask whether you back up data — they ask how fast you recover and how little you'd lose. We answer both with defined targets. Your Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is how quickly you're operating again; your Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is the maximum data you can afford to lose.
We host participant data in a U.S.-based private cloud on infrastructure we own, keep immutable backup at published rates, and verify disaster recovery on a schedule — so RTO and RPO are proven, not promised.
- Defined, tested RTO/RPO targets that satisfy Plan Sponsor due diligence
- Immutable, encrypted backups in a U.S. datacenter held to published standards
- Annual failover testing on hosted environments — recovery verified, not assumed
The controls a TPA is expected to run
Aligned to DOL cybersecurity guidance and NIST CSF 2.0's Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover functions:
| The expectation | What we put in place |
|---|---|
| Identify & assess risk | Risk and identity assessments against NIST CSF 2.0, ERISA fiduciary standards, and Plan Sponsor expectations, with documented findings |
| Protect participant data | MFA, encryption, endpoint detection and response, network segmentation, and role-based access controls |
| Detect threats continuously | 24/7 monitoring, SIEM log correlation, and dark-web monitoring for exposed credentials |
| Respond to incidents | Managed detection and response plus a written, tested incident-response plan — ready before the bad day |
| Recover operations | Immutable backups, replication, and verified disaster recovery with defined RTO/RPO |
| Govern & evidence it all | Audit-ready documentation so Plan Sponsor questionnaires, SOC 1 (SSAE 18) examinations, and CEFEX reviews become routine |
Our infrastructure runs in a Southern California facility engineered to a concurrently maintainable, Tier III-standard design, whose operator holds SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type II attestations, ISO 27001 and PCI-DSS certifications and NIST 800-53 (PE) High alignment, with N+1 redundant power and cooling and a 99.9% uptime service level. See our data centers → How we map to the DOL’s guidance, item by item: DOL cybersecurity guidance → Facing a service-organization audit? SOC 2 & SOC 1 readiness →
Participant data is exactly what attackers hope goes unwatched
Retirement accounts concentrate identities, balances, and trust in one place. The DOL didn't publish cybersecurity guidance for fun — the numbers explain the urgency.
$10.22M
average cost of a U.S. data breach — a record high
IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2025241
days — average time to identify and contain a breach, across all organizations studied
IBM Cost of a Data Breach 202588%
of SMB breach incidents involve ransomware or extortion — vs 39% at large enterprises
Verizon DBIR 2025A 241-day quiet intrusion is a fiduciary nightmare. Secure IT closes that window with a 24/7 SOC and managed detection and response. See how Secure IT responds →
How our plans fit a third-party administrator
Two plans, and a hosting decision on top of either one. Secure IT contains Core IT; Cloud Complete adds our private cloud to whichever of the two you pick — $175 on Core IT, $300 on Secure IT. Most TPAs choose Secure IT or Cloud Complete, given the monitoring, response, and recovery that fiduciary data demands.
| What you need | Core IT $125 | Secure IT $250 | Cloud Complete $175 or $300 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helpdesk, 24/7 monitoring, patching, EDR, MFA, encryption | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Risk assessments & documented, audit-ready controls | — | ✓ | ✓ with Secure IT |
| 24/7 SOC, managed detection & response, SIEM correlation | — | ✓ | ✓ with Secure IT |
| Dark-web monitoring for credentials & domain | — | ✓ | ✓ with Secure IT |
| Participant data hosted in our U.S.-based private cloud | — | — | ✓ |
| Geo-separate replication (backup billed per server) with defined RTO/RPO | — | — | ✓ |
Not sure which fits? The free assessment tells you honestly. Internal IT already in place? Co-Managed IT adds the security depth without replacing your team. See every published rate →
Related industries we serve
Payroll, benefits, actuarial, and accounting firms share the same fiduciary-grade data-protection pressures. Explore the rest of our industry playbooks, or see how we serve accounting & CPA firms, law firms, and nonprofits.
FAQ
How does CRC Cloud align with DOL cybersecurity guidance for retirement plans?
The Department of Labor expects retirement-plan providers to run a formal cybersecurity program: risk assessments, strong access controls, encryption, monitoring, tested backups, and documented incident response. We deliver those controls and map them to the DOL's guidance and to NIST CSF 2.0, so when a Plan Sponsor asks how participant data is protected, you have real answers and the records to back them.
Can you help us pass a Plan Sponsor security review or questionnaire?
Yes. Plan Sponsor questionnaires ask about MFA, encryption, backups, monitoring, staff training, and incident response — the exact controls we implement and document. We keep audit-ready records so completing these reviews becomes routine rather than a fire drill, and we can speak to the technical answers directly if needed.
What RTO and RPO can you support for our filing seasons?
We design recovery around your tolerances. Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is how fast you're operating again; Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is how little data you can afford to lose. With replication and tested disaster recovery, we set and verify targets measured in minutes to hours — and prove them with scheduled recovery testing rather than assuming they hold.
Do you coordinate with our plan-administration and recordkeeping software?
Yes. We work directly with plan-administration platforms, recordkeepers, and actuarial systems, keeping the data flows secure and cutting out the finger-pointing that happens when software vendors, connectivity, and IT are managed by different hands. One accountable partner for the whole stack.
Does CRC Cloud have dedicated resources for the TPA industry?
Yes. We run a dedicated brand for third-party administrators, TPAIT®, with resources built specifically for retirement-plan providers and fiduciary firms. You can explore it at tpait.com. The underlying IT, cybersecurity, and private-cloud delivery is the same CRC Cloud platform, tuned to the TPA world.
What does it cost and how are we billed?
Published, per-user pricing: Core IT $125 per user per month for complete managed IT, Secure IT $250 for the same plus a 24/7 Security Operations Center, and Cloud Complete from $175 when you host with us ($300 with the 24/7 SOC). One-year initial term, then month-to-month with 60 days' notice and no exit fees.
Priced openly, like everything else we do. DOL cybersecurity program work carries a published uplift of +10% on the per-user plan and per-server management fee — documentation, evidence and audit support are real recurring hours, so we price them instead of hiding them in a quote. On Secure IT that is $275 per user per month. Backup, private cloud resources and add-ons stay at their flat published rates. See the full compliance uplift table →
