On Wednesday, high-profile ERISA attorney Bonnie Treichel announced that she’s launched Endeavor Law, a new firm to “meet the needs of emerging and growing financial services firms, including Registered Investment Advisors.”
Citing fee compression and increased litigation, Treichel and Endeavor Law Founding Partner Sean Cooper said that for emerging and growing financial services firms, “compliance, regulatory and legal burdens are substantial and can result in unexpected and burdensome costs.”
“We are proud to offer flat fee solutions for many legal issues, including our fractional general counsel service, that would typically be hourly at many firms,” Treichel explained. “We have found our clients appreciate the predictability offered by this structure over the more traditional hourly model.”
While working with firms at Endeavor Retirement, they saw an opportunity to bridge the gap and provide a necessary service in the market.
More specifically, Treichel noted the current retirement coverage gap, which includes:
- 60 million Americans lack access to a workplace plan;
- Approximately 64% of Hispanic American workers lack access;
- Approximately 53% of Black American workers lack access; and
- A 30% gap between females’ and males’ savings at retirement (despite women living longer on average).
“There is a lot of research that supports the idea that a growing number of investors/participants and plan sponsors want an advisor of the same age, race, or gender,” she explained. "My way of bridging this gap is to provide access to affordable services for retirement plan advisors and their clients to ensure we can make being a retirement plan advisor more accessible.
“This is an industry-wide challenge to (1) expand coverage and (2) be more inclusive in doing so,” Treichel concluded. “My team and I can help through solutions for advisors that make resources scalable and affordable for emerging and growing advisors and their teams.”
