Overview
For more than 30 years, Tom Morante’s clients have relied on him to help them navigate an increasingly complex global regulatory, sustainability-focused, and technology-driven environment. He advises clients on U.S. and foreign insurance regulatory, compliance, and transactional matters, as well as cross-border business operations, with a focus on Latin America.
Tom counsels insurance and reinsurance companies; captive insurers; insurance agents; distributors and wholesalers; insurtechs; fronting insurers; financial institutions; and investment funds, with a focus on matters involving life and annuities, health, business interruption, extended warranty, reps and warranties, title, data privacy, cyber, parametric, credit, and political risk insurance.
Clients engaging in business in the United States and abroad also seek Tom's counsel with respect to mergers and acquisitions, joint venture transactions, capital formation, import/export, and licensing and distribution agreements. Collaborating with foreign law firms around the world, Tom has also handled regulatory compliance and enforcement matters abroad. He is fluent in Spanish and completed undergraduate study in Colombia and Spain, and legal studies in Mexico.
Insurance clients regularly ask Tom to assist in the development of offshore life insurance, annuities, and investment products in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and other offshore jurisdictions. He also counsels them on the foreign laws implicated in the distribution and cross-border sale of insurance products, with an emphasis on Latin America and Asia. He advises U.S. insurers with respect to establishing operations in various foreign countries and foreign insurers on engaging in insurance business in the United States.
Tom’s representative insurance matters include domestic and foreign insurance company formation and authorization, mergers and acquisitions and sale of policy portfolios, captive insurance company formation, and policy contract drafting and coverage analysis. In addition, he handles insurance agent, agency, managing general agent, and third-party administrator licensing under state insurance laws; advising on sales practices such as digital marketing and insurtech transactions, fronting and reinsurance transactions, structuring domestic and offshore private placement life insurance (PPLI) and private placement variable annuities (PPVA) as well as insurance dedicated funds; and cybersecurity and data privacy compliance.
Tom also advises insurance clients on Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regulations and related sanctions programs, the USA Patriot Act and foreign country anti-money laundering laws, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and foreign anti-corruption legislation. Further, Tom counsels clients on the financial services chapter of the U.S.–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and on U.S. free trade agreements with numerous Latin American countries. In addition, he monitors China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the context of trade, lending, and investment in Latin America, with an emphasis on financial services.
Tom leads Carlton Fields’ International Insurance Regulatory team and co-chairs its Mexico Desk. In addition, Tom is the co-chair of the firm’s Global Anti-Corruption practice, which provides comprehensive global guidance to companies and individuals involved in international business transactions or subject to governmental investigations. He is the former chair of both the ABA Business Law Section’s International Coordinating Committee and International Business Law Committee, and currently co-chairs the ABA Business Law Section/International Law Section's International Task Force. Tom also serves on the board of advisors of Inter-American Dialogue’s Financial Services Advisor publication.