Landrum HR Solutions is the PEO division of Landrum, Inc., a second-generation family-owned company operating out of Pensacola, Florida since 1970, rebranded from LandrumHR to Landrum in 2024. The footprint is centered on Northwest Florida and the Southeast, with satellite offices in the Carolinas and Georgia, and the company stated reach of more than 1,800 client businesses across 44 states at its 50th anniversary in 2020. The scope is the conventional bundle: payroll and tax, benefits, the MyLandrum HRIS, risk management, and HR consulting.
What sets it apart from most regional peers is the credential stack. Landrum Professional Employer Services, Inc. III sits on the IRS CPEO list effective 1/1/2017, and the firm has been ESAC accredited since 1995 as a founding participant, 30 continuous years as of 2025. Plenty of regional PEOs hold one credential. Holding both, that long, is a short list.
Companies still shop alternatives, and the reasons repeat. Renewal pricing moved faster than payroll did. The business expanded into states where a Gulf Coast team has less local weight. Headcount drifted past the sweet spot, or an acquisition changed the risk profile. Or the buyer wants a platform-led experience, and MyLandrum is a competent HRIS rather than a differentiator. What follows is the usual shortlist, and when staying put is the better call.
Quick comparison at a glance
| Provider | Best fit for | Pricing posture | Service model | Strength | Watch-out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Landrum HR Solutions | Gulf Coast and Southeast SMB | Quote-only bundled fee | Named local team | CPEO and ESAC since 1995 | Regional footprint, no published pricing |
| FrankCrum | Construction and trades, Florida SMB | Quote-only bundled fee | Regional teams | Owns its workers' comp carrier | Neither CPEO nor ESAC |
| DecisionHR | Florida and Southeast SMB | Quote-only | Regional teams | IRS-certified, stable renewals | No ESAC; 2025 recapitalization |
| CoAdvantage | Multi-state SMB, 10 to 250 EEs | PEPM | Regional teams | Comp pooling, CPEO and ESAC | PrimePay merger still integrating |
| Engage PEO | Compliance-heavy mid-market | Quote-only PEPM | Teams with staff attorneys | Employment-law advisory, all 50 states | No mobile app or global hiring |
| ADP TotalSource | Multi-state mid-market | Percentage or PEPM | Service pods, named contacts | Benefits buying power | Fees grow with salaries, rigid terms |
FrankCrum
FrankCrum is the Clearwater-based, family-owned Florida PEO that most often lands on the same shortlist: same state, founded 1981, same sweet spot, same preference for a named service relationship over an app. The difference sits under the workers' compensation line, because FrankCrum owns its comp carrier, Frank Winston Crum Insurance, and underwrites in house.
That produces pay-as-you-go premiums with no large down payment, which removes the deposit that sinks many small contractors, plus an appetite for blue-collar risk classes that tech-oriented PEOs decline. Where it loses is credentials: FrankCrum is not on the IRS CPEO list and is not ESAC accredited, which ends the conversation for a CFO or lender who screens on certification.
Who it fits: Southeast employers in construction, skilled trades, franchises or light industrial work, where the comp class rate decides the deal. See the FrankCrum profile.
DecisionHR
DecisionHR is the closest structural comparison in the Florida market: founded 1996, under one brand since, St. Petersburg based, with more than 30,000 worksite employees across 42 states by its own December 2021 statement. Like Landrum it is certified, with three entities on the IRS CPEO list all effective 1/1/2017.
Where it beats Landrum is benefits predictability and reach. DecisionHR publicly claims eight consecutive years of single-digit medical renewals for most enrolled groups, and its comp program is placed through an A rated carrier. A 42-state presence gives a spreading employer more comfort, though neither is a true national.
Where Landrum wins is ESAC and ownership stability. DecisionHR is not ESAC listed, and Coalesce Capital took a majority stake in November 2025, alongside acquisitions of Modern Business Associates in 2022 and Paymasters in 2026. That usually means new systems, new team assignments or a revisited renewal philosophy. Ask about continuity and renewal caps. See the DecisionHR profile.
CoAdvantage
CoAdvantage is the one alternative here that matches Landrum's credential stack outright. Founded 1997, both CPEO certified and ESAC accredited, around 110,000 worksite employees, targeting the same 10 to 250 band with a strong Southeast concentration. It merged with PrimePay in June 2025 under Aquiline Capital ownership.
Its clearest advantage is workers' compensation pooling, competitive enough that in a higher-risk industry the premium difference alone can justify a move. Pricing is PEPM in the range of roughly one hundred twenty to one hundred eighty dollars per employee per month, and the CoAdQuantum platform now sits alongside PrimePay's HCM stack.
Where Landrum wins is continuity and carrier choice. The PrimePay integration was still in early innings through 2026, with roadmap and rep coverage unsettled, and CoAdvantage carries fewer benefit carrier options than the nationals. Swapping a family-owned firm for one mid-merger is not an obvious upgrade. See the CoAdvantage profile.
Engage PEO
Engage PEO is a different proposition. Founded 2011, independent, operating in all 50 states, targeting companies from 25 to 500 employees. It staffs licensed employment-law attorneys and pairs them with every client, unusual advisory depth at this size, and it is both CPEO certified and ESAC accredited, so the screen FrankCrum and DecisionHR fail is not an issue.
Where it beats Landrum is at the top of the HR stack and across state lines. Engage is built for employers with real employment-law exposure: professional services, healthcare, nonprofits, manufacturers in states with aggressive wage-and-hour enforcement.
Where Landrum wins is cost posture for smaller groups. Engage is not built for companies under about 15 employees, and a Pensacola employer with 25 people and a simple risk profile usually finds the regional quote cheaper. It has no mobile app and no international hiring support. See the Engage PEO profile.
ADP TotalSource
ADP TotalSource is the national comparison point, and it belongs here because the most common reason a Landrum client genuinely needs to leave is geography. It is the largest PEO in the country by worksite employees, both CPEO certified and ESAC accredited, built for companies of 50 to 250.
Where it beats Landrum is benefits buying power and multi-state compliance. Access to Fortune 500 quality plans matters when your census does not price well in a regional pool, and the platform is more capable than MyLandrum. If the Gulf Coast team is fielding questions about jurisdictions it sees rarely, this switch solves a real problem.
Where Landrum wins is price posture, service intimacy and contract flexibility. TotalSource typically prices on percentage of payroll, commonly two to four percent, or PEPM, roughly one hundred fifty to two hundred fifty dollars per employee per month. Percentage pricing grows with every raise, so we negotiate hard for flat per-employee rates. Service runs through call-center pods, terms tend to be rigid, and implementation can be slow. See the profile and our review.
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
G&A Partners
Privately held, CPEO certified and ESAC accredited, founded 1995, with around 130,000 worksite employees after the January 2026 Ethan Allen HR acquisition. G&A competes on personalized service teams rather than call centers, at PEPM pricing of roughly one hundred thirty to two hundred dollars per employee per month. Its strength is Texas and the Sun Belt rather than the Gulf Coast, and third-party review scores are mixed.
Paychex PEO
A division of Paychex, CPEO certified and ESAC accredited, with nationwide infrastructure and deep multi-state tax compliance. It is the natural look for a company that wants national payroll depth without ADP pricing, or that already runs Paychex payroll. Typical cost runs roughly one hundred forty to two hundred twenty dollars per employee per month, with accumulating add-on fees and a less modern platform as the tradeoffs.
When you should NOT switch from Landrum HR Solutions
Leaving is right only when the math is clearly better and the disruption is justified.
You are mid-contract. Annual agreements are typical, but notice periods and exit terms live in the Client Services Agreement and they vary. Breaking a term early usually means liquidated damages or accelerated fees, and that cost will eat the savings of any reasonable alternative.
You are mid-plan-year. Switching mid-year 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: your state unemployment wage base and rate position reset in ways that cost real money. If your renewal is more than four months out, wait for it.
You are in a hiring sprint or an acquisition. Lock the workforce, then change the infrastructure.
The credentials are why you bought. If your lender or CFO screens on CPEO and ESAC, two of the most commonly quoted Florida alternatives do not carry both. Trading a 30-year ESAC record for a lower admin fee should be deliberate.
Your service team is the reason your HR works. If the named local team is the difference between functional HR and chaos, you are buying that team, not a PEO. Swapping it for a pooled service desk to save money is a false economy.
Alternatives to Landrum HR Solutions without co-employment
Some people searching for Landrum alternatives do not want another PEO. They want out of co-employment itself: the PEO as employer of record on the W-2, the pooled health plan, the shared comp policy. There are three options, and they trade money for control in different places.
ASO (administrative services only). The same payroll, HR and compliance administration, but you stay the employer of record and buy benefits and comp in your own name. You keep your plans and carriers, and give up the pooled pricing that is usually the largest line in a PEO's favor. For groups under 50 in states with expensive small-group medical, ASO often costs more in total.
Payroll and HR software plus a benefits broker. Gusto, or a similar platform, with a separate broker placing medical, dental and comp. Cheapest in software cost, most work for you, and benefits priced on your own group: fine for a healthy census, painful for a small or older one. The right answer when you already have an in-house HR person and stable benefits.
Employer of record for the out-of-state minority. If co-employment exists only because of a handful of employees in states where you have no entity, an EOR for those few plus normal payroll for everyone else can replace the PEO, though it gets expensive per head.
How to decide: put the PEO renewal, an ASO quote and a payroll-plus-broker quote on one page, total annual cost including benefits and comp, not admin fees. If the non-PEO total is within a few percent, the control is usually worth it. If the gap is ten percent or more, the pooled pricing is doing real work and the better move is a different PEO. We run that comparison inside the free side-by-side.
What to compare line-by-line
Most comparisons fall apart because companies compare the headline PEPM and skip the rest. Here is what belongs on the spreadsheet.
- Admin fee structure. PEPM versus percentage of payroll. Percentage fees grow with raises; PEPM does not.
- Pooled health plan vs. carve-out. Carve-outs preserve plan design but lose pricing leverage.
- Workers' comp master policy vs. your own. A master policy bundles you into the PEO's experience modifier and rates; your own preserves your mod.
- CPEO status. IRS recognition and federal employment tax certainty. Non-CPEOs can operate cleanly, but wage base treatment at mid-year transitions differs.
- ESAC accreditation. A separate financial assurance program, and the credential a lender or cautious CFO usually asks about. It is where the Florida field splits.
- Technology stack. Self-service, manager workflows, reporting, integration with accounting and time systems. Demo it with real data.
- Dedicated service vs. ticketing. Named team, or pooled center with a case number? Both work. They do not cost the same.
- Exit terms. Notice period, termination fees, data return, COBRA admin handoff.
- Renewal cap language. Most PEOs do not cap year-over-year increases. The ones that do are showing you something.
- EPLI bundling. Coverage limits, deductible, included or sold separately.
- SUTA spread. The PEO's state unemployment rates versus your own. Sometimes cheaper, sometimes you are subsidizing other clients.
Not sure what your current arrangement really costs? Request a current-PEO audit.
How to do the comparison without burning months
The standard process takes 60 to 90 days, runs five sales cycles in parallel, and ends with a spreadsheet nobody trusts. Start instead by getting clear on what you need versus what Landrum delivers today. ADP TotalSource is an expensive answer to a problem you may not have in three states. An honest fit assessment kills three of the five quotes before you start.
Then pull the data the alternatives need: full census with comp, state and class code; benefits enrollment and renewal history; comp loss runs and experience modifier; 401(k) details; and your Landrum invoice with the full fee breakdown. Compare apples to apples: same plan tier, same contribution strategy, same comp structure. We are paid by the PEO a client chooses, so the comparison costs you nothing and we have no reason to favor any of the 28 firms on our panel.
Skip the five-vendor sales gauntlet. Start with a 10-minute questionnaire and we will build the side-by-side around your actual census.
What switching actually takes: the implementation timeline
The disruption is easy to underestimate. For most small and mid-sized businesses, implementation runs about four to eight weeks from a signed agreement to the first PEO-processed paycheck. The sequence is predictable: 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 handles state registrations, tax setup and benefits enrollment communications. You provide the employee data, the carrier elections and the cutover decisions. A switch aligned to the plan year is the clean case; a mid-year switch means every employee ends up with one W-2 from the outgoing PEO and a second from the incoming one.
One detail specific to leaving a certified PEO: because Landrum is on the IRS CPEO list, a mid-year move to a non-certified provider changes how federal wage bases are treated, which can mean paying Social Security and FUTA wage bases twice on higher earners in the same year. Our switching guide has the sequence.
FAQ
Is Landrum HR Solutions a certified PEO?
Yes, and it holds both credentials buyers screen for. Landrum Professional Employer Services, Inc. III is on the IRS CPEO list effective 1/1/2017, and the firm has been ESAC accredited since 1995, a continuous record of 30 years as of 2025.
Why do companies leave Landrum HR Solutions?
Usually footprint, scale or technology rather than a service failure. The service model is concentrated in Northwest Florida and the Southeast, so a company expanding into many states starts asking about a national bench. Others outgrow the 10 to 150 employee sweet spot, or want a platform MyLandrum was never built to be.
Will my benefits get worse if I leave Landrum HR Solutions?
Not automatically, but design for it. A regional PEO's pooled medical can price well for a favorable census and poorly for an older group, and the only test is like-for-like at the same plan tier and contribution strategy.
What does it cost to leave Landrum HR Solutions?
It depends where you sit in the agreement. Annual agreements are typical, so at renewal with notice the cost is mostly operational: implementation, internal HR time, employee communication and benefits gap planning. Breaking a term early is a different question, answered in your Client Services Agreement.
Is a regional PEO like Landrum riskier than a national one?
Not inherently, and the credential stack is how you test it. ESAC accreditation gives financial assurance on a private PEO's payroll tax and benefit contributions, and an unbroken record back to 1995 is about as much as a private regional firm can offer. What it cannot offer is a national service bench, so the risk is fit.
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 one-time implementation or setup fees, payroll-related charges (off-cycle runs, manual checks, amended filings, custom reports), minimum monthly fees, termination fees and early-exit penalties, year-end processing fees, HR project fees, state registration fees, and benefits administration charges. Renewal increases are the biggest one: attractive first-year pricing can climb at renewal, so ask in writing how renewals are handled. Request a full fee schedule and a sample invoice before signing.
The practical takeaway
Landrum HR Solutions is a good PEO with a credential record few regional firms can match, and for a Southeast employer replacing an unstaffed HR function it is often the right answer for years at a stretch. The reasons to leave are usually structural: you outgrew the footprint, the census stopped pricing well in a regional pool, or you need a platform the firm was never built to be. Get the medical renewal history and comp class rates in writing from every provider you quote, the incumbent included, and compare total annual cost rather than admin fees. If the math says stay, stay. If it says switch, switch at renewal with your data in order. Our ranked PEO list gives a wider view.
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.