Allison J. Tam
Partner, Corporate & Financial Services
Allison Tam is a partner in Willkie’s Corporate & Financial Services Department in New York and a member of the Insurance Transactional and Regulatory Group. She serves as Co-Chair of the firm’s Insurance Regulatory Group. Allison represents clients in the insurance industry in transactional and regulatory matters. Her experience includes representing insurance industry clients on some of the largest merger and acquisition and restructuring transactions in the U.S. and internationally over the last 25 years.
Allison is ranked by Chambers USA (2017-2023) as a leading New York practitioner in Insurance Transactional and Regulatory matters. The 2023 edition highlights her notable experience with “the regulatory aspects of complex and high-value transactions.” In 2022, Allison was named to Crain's New York Business 2022 Notable Women in the Law. In 2020, she was named as one of Law360’s Insurance MVPs.
Willkie’s Insurance Transactional and Regulatory Practice is ranked Band 1 by both Chambers and Legal 500.
Allison represents clients on a broad range of insurance corporate and regulatory matters, including formation and licensing of insurance companies, acquisitions of insurance companies, reinsurance transactions, mergers of insurance companies, insurance company investments, enterprise risk management and withdrawal from insurance markets. Allison regularly represents clients before state insurance departments on these matters. Allison's experience also includes counseling clients in connection with demutualizations, divisions, not-for-profit conversions and mutual holding company transactions. In 2021, Allison also worked on the first insurance company division transaction in the U.S. under new state insurance laws.
Allison regularly monitors international, federal and state insurance-related legislation and regulations for clients and regularly attends meetings of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
Experience
- Chambers USA (New York), Insurance: Transaction and Regulatory, Leading Individuals (2017-2023)
- Crain's New York Business – 2022 Notable Women in the Law
- Law360: 2020 MVP – named one of the 5 MVPs of the year for insurance
- New York Metro Super Lawyers, Insurance Coverage
- Law360: 2010 “Rising Legal Stars Under 40” – named one of the 10 “Rising Stars” to watch in the area of insurance
Allison is a member of the Federation of Regulatory Counsel and the Association of Life Insurance Counsel. She is also a board member of the Association of Life Insurance Council, the leading organization for life insurance law legal scholarship for lawyers practicing in the field.
- "Special Interest: New York's high court clarifies the ground rules for stranger-owned life insurance transactions in the Empire State," Best's Review (April 2011)
- "Overview of the Life Settlement Market," The Review of Securities & Commodities Regulation (May 2009)
- Co-author, "Insurable Interest, the 800 lb. Gorilla," Life Settlement Review (May 2009)
Allison's significant matters include:
- Represented American Family Insurance Group in the sale of a majority stake in the attorney-in-fact of Trusted Resource Underwriters Exchange to funds managed by Gallatin Point Capital
- Represented Delaware Life Insurance Company in its sale of Delaware Life Insurance Company of New York to Nassau Financial Group
- Represented Sixth Street in its acquisition of Talcott Resolution Life Insurance Company from a consortium of investors
- Represented KKR in its proposed acquisition of retirement and life insurance company Global Atlantic for $4.4 billion, one of the largest pending life insurance transactions of 2020
- Represented Fidelity National Financial, Inc., the nation's largest title insurance company, in its acquisition of FGL Holdings for $2.7 billion, one of the largest life insurance transactions of 2020
- Represented Genworth Financial in its $2.7 billion pending acquisition by China Oceanwide
- Represented Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Company in its demutualization and acquisition by Berkshire Hathaway
- Represented MetLife, Inc. in connection with its spin-off of Brighthouse Financial, Inc.
- Represented Centerbridge Partners in its acquisition of Superior Vision Corporation, a leader in managed vision care, from Nautic Partners, and its acquisitions of a majority stake in Davis Vision, Highmark Health’s managed vision care benefits unit, and a minority stake in Highmark Health’s vision retail subsidiary, Visionworks
- Represented Protective Life Corporation in its $1.2 billion acquisition of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company’s individual life insurance and annuity business
- Represented Protective Life Corporation in its acquisition of Liberty Mutual’s individual life and annuity business in a $3.3 billion multi-party transaction involving Liberty Mutual Group and Lincoln Financial Group
- Represented SBLI USA in its demutualization and acquisition by Prosperity
- Represented Homesite Group, Inc. in its sale to American Family Insurance
- Represented Aviva plc in its $2.5 billion sale of Aviva USA Corporation to Athene Holding Ltd.
- Represented Protective Life Corporation in its $1.06 billion acquisition of MONY Life insurance Company and its reinsurance of certain policies of MONY Life insurance Company of America
- Represented Alleghany Corporation in its $3.4 billion acquisition of Transatlantic Holdings, Inc.
- Represented MetLife, Inc. in its $16 billion acquisition of American Life Insurance Company (ALICO) from AIG
- Represented Essent Group Ltd. in its establishment of a new mortgage guaranty insurer
- Represented MBIA in its restructuring transaction to establish a separate municipal financial guaranty insurer
- Represented Sun Life Financial Inc. in its acquisition of the employee benefits group operations of Genworth Financial, Inc.
- Represented JPMorgan Chase & Co. in its sale of the Chase insurance companies to Protective Life
- Represented Lincoln National Corporation in its $7.5 billion merger with Jefferson-Pilot Financial Corporation
- Represented MetLife, Inc. in its $11.8 billion acquisition of Travelers Life & Annuity
- Represented the St. Paul Companies, Inc. in its $16 billion merger transaction with Travelers Property Casualty Corp.
- Represented The Prudential Insurance Company of America in its demutualization
Credentials
Education
SUNY at Buffalo Law School, J.D. (cum laude), 1997 American University, B.A., 1992