About

After AvivaSA Pension and Life Insurance’s initial public offering (IPO) in 2014, general counsel Kurtuluş Çaltekin restructured the legal function of five lawyers and two paralegals, establishing separate company secretarial, consultation and litigation departments. Through the consultation department, the team ensures the company is operating in line with applicable regulation, supports new ideas or projects, and works closely with the Treasury and Turkish Insurance Association during the preparation of new legislation. One of the team’s significant recent achievements includes preparing a “Consultation Paper for Digital Sales in Insurance and Pension Sector”; this paper outlined the regulatory necessities for allowing digital sales and was submitted to the regulatory body. When faced with a Pension Law that prohibited pension companies from operating health and sickness insurance branches, the team lobbied along with the company’s management to lift the ban, finally being successful in August 2016. With an insurance and pension regulator that is known to alter regulations frequently, the team monitors all changes daily, examining and circulating them to the departments of the company, providing consultation and interpretation of the new regulations.