Client Spotlight: Kindur
- 5.23.2019
Earlier this year, New York–based Kindur launched its innovative online wealth management platform with a mission: to help retirees use their savings wisely and efficiently.
“Managing money in retirement can be confusing: there’s savings, insurance, social security and healthcare costs to balance,” says Kindur founder Rhian Horgan. “Our goal is to help people in retirement know how much they have to spend and how much they need to save to prepare for the unexpected. We want to put them in the driver’s seat so that they can retire fearlessly.”
Before starting Kindur in 2016, Horgan spent 17 years at JP Morgan, where she helped investors manage their wealth. She conceived of Kindur as a way for baby boomers to define a “retirement paycheck,” a regular sum of money that would give them a sense of stability and control during their retirement years.
“Kindur helps people manage what’s essentially a melting ice cube,” says Partner Timothy Silva, who advises the company on regulatory and compliance issues. “They do this by using sophisticated algorithms to help people maximize after-tax retirement income from a host of different sources in order to meet spending needs and attain retirement lifestyle goals.”
WilmerHale initially connected with Kindur through Counsel David Berman, who linked the company’s General Counsel Alastair Wood—a Citigroup alum—with the firm’s Emerging Company and Venture Capital Practice. “We were immediately impressed with Alastair’s ideas and experience,” says Partner Stephanie Evans. She also notes that Horgan’s decision to retain a general counsel so early in the company’s lifecycle showed great foresight: “It demonstrated that Rhian not only had a great idea, but that she was committed to building a strong and successful company.”
Kindur proved to be a good fit for WilmerHale’s QuickLaunch program, which provides cost-effective counsel to . Evans has led Kindur’s corporate work and notes that the WilmerHale team is now “helping the company transition from a true to a more established company.” In part this has involved securing funding from leading fintech investors, including Anthemis Group and Point 72 Ventures.
In addition to advising Kindur on its critical and capital raising efforts, Horgan and Wood were seeking to partner with a law firm that could help Kindur navigate the complex regulatory issues inherent in establishing an internet-based investment advisory business. WilmerHale’s Investment Management Practice provided the regulatory knowledge needed to assist Kindur in applying US Securities and Commission (SEC) rules and guidance designed for more traditional asset management firms to an online investment platform, addressing issues such as interpreting the application of the SEC’s advertising rules to social media.
Helping Kindur achieve its business goals while addressing such novel questions has made the client particularly compelling to work with, says Silva. So has the company’s mission, Evans notes: “They have an important goal: they want to ensure that retirees’ savings and investments will carry them through the rest of their lives.”
The WilmerHale team representing Kindur also includes Special Counsel Edward Meehan and Senior Associates Seth Davis and Peter Roth.
Contact us to learn more about WilmerHale’s QuickLaunch Program.
