By: Kim Barrett, Sr. Product Manager - Regulatory, Legislative and Tax Compliance, LTI Canada

I am not what anyone would consider “techie”, I like puzzles, I like putting the pieces together in my head to figure out where things need to be. As a non-techie, what do all the buzzwords and jargon in the Insurance and Securities industries mean to me? Probably not the same thing as it does to most others. It means I get to dig in, learn and figure out the ins and outs of it all from a “rules” standpoint, not a techie standpoint.

There are always technology advances in the Insurance and Securities Industries, and this is where a lot of people focus but for me, I prefer the puzzle aspect of it. You can make technology fit into anything and do anything these days, but should you be able to? Where is the limit? What regulations do you need technology to conform to? Is there legislation out there in the land of rules? This is where I come in, and this is what makes my career choice so fun to me (and yes, I wrote fun in the same paragraph as regulation and legislation). I get to be the one that looks at the “rules” and work with clients, answer their questions, and figure out what is needed and what we can and cannot do. When the CCIR came out with full disclosure recommendations for Segregated Funds and the Mutual Funds world starts looking into “CRM3”, I get to be the one that compares the recommendations and white papers to see how we can harmonize from a rule’s perspective. When a new version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is released, I get to be the one that works with our clients to ensure their clients have easier accessibility to their information. When the federal and provincial budgets come out each year, they help determine what the rest of my year is going to be like, and it is so interesting to find the impacts and put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Chairing working group discussions and bringing people together to discuss Regulatory, Legislative or Tax issues doesn’t sound like fun to most but it’s what makes me want to come to work each day and get excited about what I do. The rules are usually very specific and yet very vague at the same time, and this can cause a difference in interpretation amongst Financial Institutions. Between the industry associations (IFIC and CLHIA) committees/working groups that I participate in and my own research I am able to assist our clients in finding the answers they need and for the risk of sounding too repetitive, those puzzle pieces start to fit together really nicely.

I work for this amazing company that focuses on technology and what we can do to help our customers with their business. I get to be the one that looks at each of the user-focused pieces of that technology and determine if it is correct from a rules point of view and help determine if it is flexible enough to accommodate the different interpretations when they occur. So, although anything can be done, should it be? Are there rules? Yes, and I get to be one of the people who helps define those compliance rules in the LTI Canada universe and ensure that the new solutions comply with regulations and legislation in the Insurance and Wealth Management industries. That is one of the biggest puzzles I know of. So, what is it like being a non-techie in a techie world? It means my days will continue to be interesting and LTI’s clients will continue to have a Partner on their side to help with Compliance.