The client is seeking a highly experienced Chief Legal and Compliance Officer to shape the organization’s legal and regulatory strategies as it expands coverage nationally, excluding New York. This executive role will lead multi-state licensing initiatives, oversee product and rate filings, and develop effective relationships with state insurance departments to support approval of new and existing products. As a strategic partner to senior leadership, the Chief Legal and Compliance Officer will negotiate commercial agreements, manage key vendor relationships, and establish a comprehensive compliance program from the ground up.
Key responsibilities include driving multi-state licensing applications and maintaining alignment across jurisdictions; managing a product and rate filing calendar to ensure timely regulatory submissions; negotiating and overseeing contracts with distribution partners, third-party administrators, and technology vendors; and supporting reinsurance treaty negotiations as the organization scales. The role also includes building and implementing scalable compliance coverage for licensing, market conduct, consumer protection, AML, privacy, and complaint handling, along with establishing monitoring and reporting processes for regulatory obligations and providing regular updates to the board and executive leadership.
The Chief Legal and Compliance Officer will serve as a trusted advisor on corporate governance, including corporate secretary responsibilities and strengthening decision-making frameworks, and will lead responses to disputes and regulatory inquiries in coordination with outside counsel to manage legal risk. The role also involves managing outside legal counsel performance and budget, supporting legal aspects of new product launches, state expansions, and acquisitions, and ensuring high-quality legal support across the organization. Qualifications include a Juris Doctor with active bar admission in good standing, deep expertise in life insurance regulation and compliance with experience advising multi-state carriers, demonstrated success leading state licensing and product filings, extensive experience negotiating complex commercial agreements (including reinsurance treaties and distribution partnerships), strong experience building compliance programs in regulated insurance environments, and experience engaging directly with state insurance departments; remote flexibility with monthly in-person leadership gatherings is expected.