About

AXA Life Invest is a provider of savings, investment and pension products and services to banking and financial partners in markets outside the USA. Alan Boland, in his position as general counsel and company secretary, is responsible for leading an Ireland-based legal and tax team that cover cross-regional markets to ensure AXA Life Invest operates in a legally safe and compliant manner. A difficult and highly-regulated environment, the insurance sector has seen recent regulatory challenges such as RDR in the UK and Solvency II regulations, requiring adept, commercially-minded support. Rather than taking a solely consultative approach, the team often act as drivers of business strategy and in doing so share close links to their business partners. According to Boland, the team are ‘empowered to engage directly’ with senior management and ‘support [top management] to identify appropriate actions and communications in dealing with regulators on matters of strategic importance’. Looking after all legal issues for the legal entity structure that incorporates a number of Irish regulated entities, the two dedicated lawyers in Ireland are complimented by another tax professional and have colleagues abroad in the UK and France. Alongside these strong internal relationships, the team work on company dealings with regulators is a key way in which the team have a tangible impact on the business, ensuring a ‘strong knowledge and respect’ for the regulatory environment exists within the entire company. Cross-functional collaboration is standard; for example, working ‘hand in glove’ with the AXA Life Invest proposition team and collaboration with the finance department to identify and design a project to mitigate a potential material matter for one of their business lines. This involved ‘designing appropriate internal controls and governance structures in line with the developing complex legal environment for regulated entities. We have designed, with our IT team, systems to manage the complex calculation and HMRC reporting requirements applicable to our UK products’.