What are some of the main legislative or regulatory changes that have impacted you?

We have been involved in many challenging projects, like supporting the implementation and development of the direct channel in Portugal, performing a new global digital ecosystem, and implementing a new joint venture.

The direct channel presented specific legal work on the digital piece, namely by the legal validation of the digital journey and procedures and all communications and documents associated with the insurance contract. At the same time, consumer rights and obligations on market conduct, for instance, need to be addressed.

In the global digital ecosystem, the main challenge is finding a balance between different legal requirements across countries and IT capabilities.

The new joint venture brings with it all the legal structure that needs to be deployed, not only for the joint venture itself but all the requirements for a new insurance company to be approved and ready to start its business.

Apart from all the projects, we provide legal support for the whole Company area in a highly international environment, with new questions and challenges every day.

Strong and solid technical knowledge is indispensable in the sector where we perform and as general legal expertise.

My perception is that never before, we need to be updated on the new legislation that is published and, beyond that, to be able to understand questions that may be perceived as relevant and to make a follow-up on themes that most likely will end up being regulated, like cybersecurity, sustainability, artificial intelligence, and automated cars, just to name a few. If we are informed and alert, dealing with new regulations and adapting sooner is easier.

Soft skills are also essential; it is important to be resilient, have good communication skills, and understand and listen to the business. Being perceived as an added value and adapting to provide valuable and legal solutions is critical.

I cannot stress enough the ability to listen to the business needs: Legal needs to be onboarded on the business matters and projects as soon as possible and must be seen as an added value to the process of doing things right. For this, it is essential to have strong alliances with the business and to be accurate and solution focused.

The insurance sector is heavily regulated, and there is always new legislation coming in. Lately, we have been impacted by the regulation on the size of letters and information on telephonic costs, which both required massive changes in our documentation and, in general, in all that relates with insurance distribution, with the implementation of the IDD and the new legal regime of insurance distribution that resulted from its transposition.

More recently, we have been working on several new ASF Regulations, particularly one that will strongly affect the payment notices, with more information that needs to be provided to Clients and that aims to explain changes in the insurance premiums to customers.

Although GDPR and all privacy regulations have been around for several years, they have been a game changer globally and have a very high impact on the insurance sector.