Full Profile
Yvonne is an experienced Australian Special Counsel with expertise in a broad range of corporate areas such as establishment of operations, distribution channels, mergers & acquisitions, corporate governance and restructures, regulatory compliance and investigations for insurers, reinsurers, insurance intermediaries and insuretechs.
Yvonne has a depth of specialist experience in the Australian financial services sector, including advising companies on licensing requirements and obligations, directors' duties, compliance frameworks and portfolio transfers. She has represented financial services companies in a number of regulatory investigations and inquiries conducted by ASIC, APRA and the Financial Services Royal Commission, assisting clients with navigating the regulations and strategic responses to regulator inquiries.
Yvonne also advises a range of international and domestic insurance intermediaries in the insuretech sector on corporate establishment, licensing, product development, distribution and agency agreements in the context of the highly regulated Australian financial services regulatory environment.
Yvonne has been recognised as a recommended lawyer in the Legal 500 Asia Pacific for Insurance (2021 and 2020) and Regulatory Investigations and Compliance (2020). She was also a finalist in the Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Awards for Special Counsel of the Year (2021) and 30 under 30 Awards for Commercial Law (2018).
Experience
Insurance Sector
Corporate
- Advising on the merger of two large global insurance companies and the intra-group portfolio transfer of the insurance business from one of the entities to the surviving entity following the integration of the two businesses
- Advising an international insurance company on a comprehensive compliance and corporate governance review of its Australian subsidiary
- Advising an insurer on structuring global parametric product offerings into Australia
- Advising on the establishment and acquisitions of underwriting agencies
- Advising an underwriting agency on product development of its personal lines insurance products and small medium enterprise insurance products and also its distribution arrangements for the transition from its former insurer to the new insurer of its products
- Advising a multinational insurance company on the restructure of the sales distribution model of one its divisions
- Advising on data governance and privacy obligations, including drafting appropriate data management frameworks, privacy policies, personal information collection statements and privacy training materials
Regulatory & Investigations
- Assisting a life insurance intermediary with its response to the Financial Services Royal Commission (FSRC)'s requests for information and attendance at the public hearings as a nominated case study for the life insurance sector, and also advising on its response to ASIC's investigation into its operations, which commenced prior to the FSRC's requests for information
- Advising a regulated entity on an extensive regulatory investigation regarding its compliance processes and negotiations with the regulator on an enforceable undertaking
- Advising a range of international and domestic insurers and underwriting agencies on financial services licensing requirements, distribution channels and prudential regulations.
Reinsurance
- Advised international (re)insurers on the negotiation and drafting of terms of general and life quota share reinsurance agreements
- Advised on APRA approval processes in relation to general and life reinsurance policy wording terms and general and life reinsurance collateral arrangements
Dispute Resolution
- Advising one of Australia’s first insurtech start-ups on product development of its insurance products and its distribution arrangements. This includes advising on the regulatory requirements, policy wordings and acting for the client in its negotiations with its insurer in relation to the drafting of a new agency distribution agreement.
-
Advising an insurtech start-up on the financial services regulatory requirements (including licensing obligations) and negotiation of agreements with key service providers for claims handling and IT.
-
Reviewing, drafting and negotiating strategic alliance partnership agreements between financial institutions and technology counterparties.
