Treichel in Insurance Business: ERISA litigation surge puts plan sponsors on defense, brokers on alert

Originally published in Insurance Business.

A sharp rise in Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) litigation since 2020 is creating new compliance headaches for plan sponsors, impacting the brokers and advisors who serve them.

That’s the assessment of Bonnie Treichel, founder of Endeavor Retirement and Endeavor Law, who spoke with Insurance Business America about the forces reshaping the retirement plan landscape. For benefits brokers with plan sponsor clients, she says, the litigation environment alone warrants a hard conversation about risk exposure.

“The plaintiff bar expanded beyond one or two dominant firms,” Treichel said. “More attorneys entered the space, and AI-assisted document review has lowered the cost of filing ERISA lawsuits, enabling more firms to bring cases and further increasing litigation volume.”