SouthEast Personnel Leasing, Inc., usually shortened to SPLI, has operated since 1986 and sits under Jamestown Holdings Corporation, which also owns Lion Insurance Company, Plymouth Insurance Agency and Packard Claims Administration. That ownership chart is the whole story. SPLI is a workers' compensation company that also delivers payroll and HR, and because the carrier, the agency and the claims administrator share a parent, underwriting and claims sit under one roof rather than with a broker and a third party. The company cites more than 6,000 clients and roughly 90,000 W-2s a year, concentrated in Florida.
That structure is why SPLI quotes construction, transportation, marine, sanitation, staffing and forestry payrolls that many PEOs decline outright. Premium is billed pay-as-you-go, so there is no large deposit up front and no audit-driven true-up at year end. For a contractor with 10 to 150 hourly workers priced out of the standard market, that combination is hard to replicate.
Companies still shop alternatives, usually for one of four reasons. The comp rate moved at renewal and there is one carrier behind the quote. A CFO or lender asked about IRS CPEO certification or ESAC accreditation and the answer was no on both. The technology and the benefits menu lag the national platforms. Or the business grew out of Florida and stopped looking like the hourly, high-hazard employer the model was built for. None of those is an automatic reason to leave. What follows is who gets shortlisted instead, and what switching really costs.
SouthEast Personnel Leasing alternatives at a glance
| Provider | Best for | Not a fit for | Typical cost and pricing model | CPEO / ESAC | Watch-out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SouthEast Personnel Leasing, Inc. (SPLI) (current) | Construction and trade contractors; 5 to 500 employees (sweet spot: 10 to 150 hourly workers) | Tech and professional-services offices wanting a modern HR platform | Quote-only Percentage of payroll, driven largely by workers' comp class codes, quoted per client | No / No | Neither IRS CPEO-certified nor ESAC-accredited, and the HR technology is basic compared with national mid-market PEOs. |
| FrankCrum | Construction and skilled trades employers; 10 to 500+ employees (sweet spot: 10 to 150) | Buyers who require CPEO or ESAC credentials | Quote-only Bundled administrative fee quoted per client, driven by payroll size, headcount and workers' comp risk class | No / No | Neither IRS CPEO-certified nor ESAC-accredited, and the service footprint is still weighted toward Florida and the Southeast. |
| CoAdvantage | Small to mid-size companies (10 to 250 employees); 10 to 250 employees | Enterprise companies over 500 employees | Quote-only PEPM, quoted per client; its site says it does not publish a fixed rate | Yes / Yes | The June 2025 PrimePay merger is still integrating; product roadmap and rep-coverage assignments are unsettled through 2026. |
| DecisionHR | Florida and Southeast small businesses; 1 to 500+ employees per the company's own intake ranges (sweet spot: 10 to 250) | Buyers who require ESAC accreditation | Quote-only Quote-only, typically PEPM or percentage of payroll depending on the workers' compensation classes | Yes / No | Not ESAC accredited, and the 2025 Coalesce Capital recapitalization plus ongoing acquisitions make near-term service continuity worth diligencing. |
| Vensure Employer Solutions | Blue-collar SMBs (construction, staffing, restaurants, manufacturing); 10 to 500 employees | Pure tech / SaaS startups | Quote-only PEPM or percentage of payroll, quoted per client (varies by legacy brand) | Yes / Yes | Operates through 100+ acquired brands (Tandem HR, Solvo, etc.); the service experience varies based on which legacy team actually delivers your account. |
5 of the 5 providers here do not publish rates. What varies between them is the fee structure, not a published number, so compare the structures in the fourth column and get quotes for the rest. Fit, exclusions and credentials come from each provider’s profile in our directory, verified September 2026 against the IRS CPEO list and the ESAC directory. Typical cost is a published or publicly reported range, not a quote.
How we picked these. The providers below were chosen from the 36 PEOs on our panel by fit with the typical SouthEast Personnel Leasing, Inc. (SPLI) client: company size (5 to 500 employees (sweet spot: 10 to 150 hourly workers)), industries (Construction, Transportation, Marine) and the trade-off in SouthEast Personnel Leasing, Inc. (SPLI)’s own profile (neither irs cpeo-certified nor esac-accredited, and the hr technology is basic compared with national mid-market peos). Credential status comes from the IRS CPEO register and the ESAC directory, verified September 2026. We are paid by the PEO a client selects, from any provider on the panel, at no cost to the client, so no provider pays more to appear here.
FrankCrum
FrankCrum is the closest structural match to SPLI in the market. Founded in 1981, family-owned and based in Clearwater, it underwrites workers' compensation through its own affiliated carrier, Frank Winston Crum Insurance, and bills premium pay-as-you-go. If the affiliated-carrier structure is why you are with SPLI, FrankCrum is the one alternative that keeps it.
It wins on everything wrapped around the comp. The core package bundles payroll, HR support, workers' compensation, compliance and EPLI into one rate, which matters once an owner and a bookkeeper cannot run HR alone. The benefits stack inside it is a step up from SPLI's.
It loses on the two things it shares with SPLI rather than solves. FrankCrum is not on the IRS CPEO list and is not ESAC accredited, so if the credential gap pushed you to shop, this move does not close it. The footprint is Southeast-weighted, and on the narrowest classes, marine and sanitation, SPLI's appetite is deeper. See the FrankCrum page.
CoAdvantage
CoAdvantage is a regional PEO founded in 1997, roughly 110,000 worksite employees, concentrated in Florida and the Southeast. It merged with PrimePay in June 2025 under Aquiline Capital, pairing its CoAdQuantum platform with PrimePay's HCM stack.
It wins on credentials and pooling. CoAdvantage is both IRS CPEO-certified and ESAC accredited, so the two boxes SPLI cannot tick are checked. Its comp pooling is competitive, and for a higher-risk employer that fits a pooled program the premium math can beat a single-carrier quote. PEPM pricing runs roughly 120 to 180 dollars per employee per month, and the technology is ahead of SPLI's.
It loses at the top of the hazard scale. Pooling mixes your risk with everyone else's, which makes it affordable for moderate classes and unavailable for the hardest ones. A roofing, marine or long-haul payroll SPLI writes comfortably may not get a workable number here. The PrimePay integration is also early enough that service continuity and platform roadmap belong in writing. See the CoAdvantage page.
DecisionHR
DecisionHR has run under one brand from St. Petersburg since 1996, the same Florida cohort as SPLI, with more than 30,000 worksite employees across 42 states. A majority stake went to Coalesce Capital in November 2025.
It wins on certification at regional pricing. Three certified entities sit on the IRS CPEO list, all effective January 1, 2017, giving a CFO federal employment tax certainty SPLI cannot offer, without national-brand rates. It also competes hard on health, publicly claiming eight consecutive years of single-digit medical renewals for most enrolled groups. For a Florida employer whose workforce has shifted toward salaried roles, that alone can carry the decision.
It loses on comp depth. Workers' compensation is placed through an A-rated carrier rather than underwritten in-house, so appetite for the hardest classes is narrower. DecisionHR is also not ESAC accredited, and the recapitalization plus acquisitions make service continuity worth asking about. See the DecisionHR page.
Vensure Employer Solutions
Vensure is the national blue-collar option. Founded in 2004 and backed by Stone Point Capital, it has assembled roughly 526,000 worksite employees through more than 100 acquisitions, and the verticals inherited from those brands are the point of the model.
It wins on breadth without abandoning the classes SPLI serves. Vensure writes construction, staffing, restaurants and manufacturing, carries both CPEO certification and ESAC accreditation, and its scale buys benefits leverage no Florida regional can assemble. For a contractor expanding into several states, it covers the map while keeping industry knowledge. Published pricing runs roughly 130 to 220 dollars per employee per month.
It loses on consistency. The service experience varies with which acquired brand delivers your account, a real risk if you are leaving SPLI because you want something predictable. Vensure also places comp rather than underwriting it through an affiliate, so the hardest classes may still price better at SPLI or FrankCrum. Ask early which team services the account. See the Vensure page.
Not sure which of these fits your headcount and state? Get a free side-by-side of the PEOs that fit your company →
Other PEOs worth considering
Group Management Services (GMS)
Ohio-based and founder-owned, GMS is on the IRS Certified PEO register effective January 1, 2018, with about 25 local offices and a deep comp and safety practice, including self-insured status in Ohio since 2014. It is built for the employer type SPLI serves: construction, trucking, staffing and manufacturing. It is not ESAC accredited, and a base around 50,000 worksite employees does not buy medical rates the way a national does.
BBSI (Barrett Business Services)
BBSI is publicly traded on NASDAQ, ESAC accredited and SOC 1 certified, with 138,218 average worksite employees in 2025 and a branch model, 45 offices in 15 states, that puts a team on site. Its comp bench is deep in a different way from SPLI's: self-insured in four states plus a captive insurer for Arizona and Utah. It is not on the IRS CPEO list, and California produced roughly 72 percent of 2025 revenues, so it fits employers out West. See the BBSI page.
Who should not leave SouthEast Personnel Leasing, Inc. (SPLI)
SouthEast Personnel Leasing, Inc. (SPLI) is built for construction and trade contractors, transportation and marine employers, staffing firms placing hourly labor, employers who struggle to place workers' comp in the standard market. Its published sweet spot is 5 to 500 employees (sweet spot: 10 to 150 hourly workers) and it writes construction, transportation, marine, sanitation, staffing, forestry. If your company sits inside all three of those, the case for moving has to come from price or service, not from fit, because on fit you are already in the right place. Three specific reasons to stay:
- Workers' comp written through an affiliated A.M. Best A-rated carrier, so underwriting and claims sit under one roof
- Genuinely willing to write construction, transportation, marine and other high-hazard classes many PEOs decline
- Pay-as-you-go comp premium removes audit-driven true-ups and large deposits
If none of those three describes why you bought SouthEast Personnel Leasing, Inc. (SPLI), that is the real signal, and the providers above are where to look. SouthEast Personnel Leasing, Inc. (SPLI)'s own profile says it is not the right fit for: tech and professional-services offices wanting a modern hr platform; buyers who require a cpeo or esac-accredited provider; companies whose main driver is rich medical benefits.
When the timing is wrong to switch from SouthEast Personnel Leasing
Leaving is right only when the math is clearly better and the disruption is justified. Four situations argue for staying.
You are mid-contract. SPLI agreements are typically annual, but the notice, fee acceleration and termination language in your Client Services Agreement governs. Seven months into a term, the exit cost can eat the savings.
You are mid-plan-year. A mid-year switch means a W-2 split for every employee, two sets of tax filings, a 401(k) blackout during plan transfer, and benefits re-enrollment mid-calendar. SUTA matters too: a mid-year move can restart wage bases in some states, real money on a large hourly payroll.
Your comp is the business. If your class codes are the reason you are here and nobody else quotes them at a workable number, the affiliated carrier is doing work no admin-fee saving replaces. If nothing comes back competitive, you have your answer.
You have open claims, or you are hiring hard. Claims administration sits in-house, so moving mid-claim means coordinating two programs. And integrating an acquisition is hard enough without changing payroll and comp infrastructure too.
Alternatives to SouthEast Personnel Leasing without co-employment
Some buyers do not want another PEO. They want out of co-employment itself: the PEO as employer of record on the W-2, the pooled benefits, the shared comp policy. There are three options, and each trades money for control.
ASO (administrative services only). The same payroll, HR and compliance administration, but you stay the employer of record and buy benefits and workers' compensation in your own name. You keep your plans and carriers, and you give up the pooled pricing that is usually the largest line in a PEO's favor. For a high-hazard employer this is the hardest of the three: comp in your own name is what the standard market prices punitively. Get a standalone quote first.
Payroll software plus a broker. Gusto or a similar platform for payroll and HR, with a broker placing medical, dental and comp. Cheapest in software cost, most work for you, and benefits priced on your own group, which is fine for a healthy census and painful for a small or older one. It suits a contractor whose comp premium dwarfs the admin fee poorly.
Employer of record for the out-of-state minority. If co-employment exists mainly because of a few employees in states where you have no entity, an EOR for those people plus normal payroll for everyone else can replace the PEO, though it gets expensive per head.
How to decide: put the SPLI renewal, an ASO quote and a payroll-plus-broker quote on one page, total annual cost including benefits and comp, not admin fees. Within a few percent, the control is usually worth it. If the gap is 10 percent or more, the pooled and affiliated pricing is doing real work, and the better move is a different PEO.
What to compare before you leave SouthEast Personnel Leasing
Put every quote on the same census and compare six things: the admin fee structure (per employee per month or a percentage of payroll), master health plan versus carve-out, workers comp master policy versus your own, CPEO status, coverage in every state you employ in, and exit terms. The full checklist is in our ranking of the best PEOs and our switching guide covers the process step by step. If you would rather not run it yourself, the free side-by-side puts SouthEast Personnel Leasing and the providers above on one page on identical assumptions.
What switching actually takes: the implementation timeline
The disruption is easy to underestimate, so plan for it. For most small and mid-sized businesses, implementation runs about four to eight weeks from a signed agreement to the first PEO-processed paycheck; employers with more locations, carriers and class codes take longer. A signed Client Services Agreement opens a benefits enrollment window of roughly two to four weeks, then payroll cutover, then the first paycheck.
The work divides cleanly, and it is worth confirming that division in writing before you sign. The incoming PEO does the heavy lifting: state registrations, tax setup, benefits enrollment communications. You provide the employee data, the carrier elections and the cutover decisions. On a hazard payroll, add comp binder timing and a handoff plan for open claims.
Timing decides how smooth it feels. A switch aligned to the plan year is the clean case. A mid-year switch adds complexity mainly because of W-2 reporting: every employee ends up with one W-2 from the outgoing PEO through the switch date and a second from the incoming PEO for the rest of the year. Plan the date rather than rush it.
FAQ
Is SouthEast Personnel Leasing a certified PEO?
No. SPLI is not on the IRS Certified PEO list and is not ESAC accredited. That does not make it a weak operator; it has run since 1986 and writes comp through an affiliated A.M. Best A-rated carrier. It matters when a CFO or lender screens for those credentials. If yours does, CoAdvantage and Vensure carry both, and DecisionHR carries IRS certification.
Is FrankCrum better than SouthEast Personnel Leasing?
Neither is universally better, and they are closer to each other than to anything else here. Both underwrite comp through an affiliated carrier, both bill pay-as-you-go, and neither is CPEO-certified or ESAC accredited. FrankCrum is the broader HR company, bundling payroll, HR support, compliance and EPLI into one rate. SPLI is narrower and more comp-led, with appetite for marine and transportation classes others decline.
Will my workers' compensation cost more if I leave SouthEast Personnel Leasing?
It can, and for high-hazard classes it often does. SPLI's advantage comes from underwriting through an affiliated carrier, which is why it quotes roofing, trucking and marine risks that get declined elsewhere. A PEO that brokers comp has to find an insurer willing to take your class codes and loss history. Send every provider the same loss runs, and ask for the comp rate separately from the admin fee.
What does it cost to leave SouthEast Personnel Leasing?
It depends where you sit in the agreement. SPLI agreements are typically annual, so at renewal with proper notice the cost is mostly operational: implementation, internal time and benefits gap planning. Exiting mid-term means whatever fee acceleration or termination language is in your Client Services Agreement. Also confirm how open claims are handled after the exit date and when any deposit or collateral comes back.
Will my benefits get better if I leave SouthEast Personnel Leasing?
Often yes, because benefits are not what SPLI is built around. The model is comp, payroll and risk, and the medical menu is thinner than what mid-market PEOs bring. CoAdvantage, DecisionHR and Vensure compete harder on the health line. The caution runs the other way: the comp economics are what you risk losing, so price comp, benefits and admin as one annual number.
How long does it take to switch to a new PEO?
For most small and mid-sized businesses, implementation runs about four to eight weeks from a signed agreement to the first PEO-processed paycheck; mid-market employers with more locations and carriers take longer. The path is a signed Client Services Agreement, then a benefits enrollment window of roughly two to four weeks, then payroll cutover, then the first PEO-processed paycheck. The incoming PEO handles state registrations, tax setup, and benefits enrollment communications; you provide the employee data, the carrier elections, and the cutover decisions. Mid-year switches add complexity, mainly because of W-2 reporting, so the cleanest transitions are timed to the plan year.
What hidden costs should I watch for in a PEO agreement?
The ones most often missed are implementation or setup fees, payroll charges (off-cycle runs, manual checks, amended filings, custom reports), minimum monthly fees, termination and early-exit penalties, year-end processing fees, state registration fees and benefits administration charges. In a comp-driven deal, add deposits, collateral and audit true-ups. Renewal increases are the biggest one, so ask in writing how renewals are handled and request a full fee schedule and sample invoice before signing.
The practical takeaway
SouthEast Personnel Leasing does one thing better than almost anyone: it writes workers' compensation for employers the standard market does not want, through a carrier under the same parent, billed as you go. If that is your problem, FrankCrum is the closest alternative that solves it the same way. If the problem is the credential gap, the technology or the benefits menu, the certified regionals close it, and the question becomes what your comp costs once it is priced elsewhere. Shop the comp line first, price the arrangement as one annual number, and time the move to your plan year. If the math says stay, use the quotes to negotiate the renewal.
If you would rather have the comparison done for you: tell us about your company and an advisor comes back with the two or three PEOs worth quoting, at no cost to you.