Strengthening Internal Governance Across LocalTapiola Group
"Advisense understands LocalTapiola’s unique structure and governance model, and didn’t just deliver a report – they genuinely aimed to support us and anchor the knowledge within our organisation." - Eeva Kavonen, Chief Audit Executive, LocalTapiola Group
Enhanced Governance Practices
Structured Improvement Areas
Empowered Evaluation Methodology
LocalTapiola Group is one of Finland’s largest insurance and financial services organisations, serving approximately 1.6 million customers through a network of regional mutual insurance companies and a wide range of insurance, financial and risk-management services. The Group’s strong local presence and mutual ownership structure are central to its strategy and long-term commitment to lifelong security for customers.
To further enhance its internal governance system and framework and ensure alignment with regulatory expectations and industry best practices, LocalTapiola Group partnered with Advisense. The mission was to obtain a clear understanding of the Group’s governance maturity, identify concrete improvement areas across the group, and develop approaches that could be sustainably applied internally.
The Challenge
LocalTapiola Group sought a comprehensive evaluation of its governance arrangements at the Group, spanning governance practices, policy frameworks, and critical functions. While solid structures were in place, the Group wanted to:
- Understand its governance framework in relation to evolving regulatory expectations.
- Identify potential improvement initiatives across the functions and organisation.
- Develop ongoing internal assessment of the framework.
This required a broad understanding of internal governance standards, regulatory drivers and best practices in the insurance and financial services sector, and practical implementation experience
The Solution
Advisense deployed a multidisciplinary team of governance, compliance and risk advisory experts. The engagement combined in-depth analysis with collaborative design, ensuring LocalTapiola Group could both benefit from external insight and develop internal ownership of the outcomes.
Key components of the project included:
• Governance framework review: Assessing roles and responsibilities at the board and management levels, decision-making flows, and alignment with supervisory expectations. Analysing key governance and risk policies for clarity, completeness and operational integration across the Group. Identifying the key data capabilities and sources.
• Interviews and anchoring: Conducting structured interviews with executives and key stakeholders to capture qualitative insights, expectations and uncover practical challenges.
• Development of the evaluation methodology: Working together with LocalTapiola’s internal teams to re-design a tailored governance evaluation methodology for the Group to use in future self-assessments.
• Prioritised improvement plan: Translating findings into concrete, sequenced action items with clear ownership and impact considerations.
The internal governance assessment conducted by Advisense was thorough, smooth and insightful. Advisense understands LocalTapiola’s unique structure and governance model, and didn’t just deliver a report – they genuinely aimed to support us and anchor the knowledge within our organisation. The team’s expertise and professional approach provided us with valuable recommendations to strengthen our internal governance practices. The assessment has been instrumental in helping us align with regulatory standards and improve our overall governance framework.
– Eeva Kavonen, Chief Audit Executive, LocalTapiola Group
Effective internal governance is crucial in the insurance industry, where regulatory standards are stringent and continuously evolving alongside the increasing focus and requirements of the supervisory authorities. It was a pleasure to work together with LocalTapiola’s experts and management. Our goal was to provide LocalTapiola Group with a clear and actionable assessment and concrete actions that would enhance their governance practices and ensure compliance. We are pleased that our work has contributed to their ongoing success.
– Joonas Värtinen, Director Internal Audit, Advisense
The Result
The advisory engagement provided LocalTapiola Group with a holistic and transparent view of its governance strengths and areas for improvement. The structured approach enabled both immediate governance enhancements and the capability for ongoing self-assessment.
Outcomes included:
• A comprehensive governance assessment with clearly defined improvement areas.
• A evaluation framework co-developed with Group Internal Audit for annual or strategic use.
• Concrete recommendations to strengthen governance, clarify policy responsibilities, and enhance internal reporting lines.
• Elevated internal expertise and ownership of governance evaluation processes.
