Jun Sugie, Former Vice Chairman of the Investment Trusts Association, Appointed as Advisor to Wizleap Inc.

Wizleap Inc. (Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Shohei Tanigawa), operator of the financial consultation platform 'Money Career' (https://money-career.com/), announces the appointment of Jun Sugie, formerly of the Ministry of Finance and former Vice Chairman and Senior Executive Director of the Investment Trusts Association, as an advisor.

■ Profile
Former Head of Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau, Mr. Jun Sugie
Joined the Ministry of Finance in April 1979. After serving in various key positions including Director of the Examination and Criminal Investigation Department at the National Tax Agency, Head of the Kanto-Shinetsu Regional Taxation Bureau, and Deputy Director-General (International Affairs) at the National Tax Agency, he became Head of the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau in July 2011. Since retiring from government service, he has served as Councilor and Managing Director of the Japan Securities Depository Center, Managing Director of Hofuri Clearing Corporation, Managing Executive Officer of the Japan Securities Depository Center, Outside Director (Advisor) of IDOM Inc., Vice Chairman and Senior Executive Director of the Investment Trusts Association, and Director of Sumitomo Mitsui Construction. He is an expert in financial administration with extensive experience in key roles within financial and capital markets.

■ Background of the Appointment
Through our insurance agency business and financial instruments intermediary service (IFA), our company strives to provide customers with more appropriate and high-quality financial services. In recent years, as institutional and practical requirements surrounding the insurance and financial industries continuously become more sophisticated, we are also enhancing our internal management systems and governance with an eye toward sustainable growth and improving the value we provide.

Under these circumstances, we have decided to welcome Mr. Jun Sugie as an advisor. He has held a wide range of important positions not only in financial and tax administration but also in financial and capital markets, possessing abundant expertise from both public and private sector perspectives. We believe Mr. Sugie's insights will contribute to strengthening our management foundation and advancing our business operations and service delivery systems, with a view to the sustainable development of the industry.

We will continue to incorporate the knowledge of external experts to ensure appropriate risk management and enhanced governance, while striving to build trusting relationships with all stakeholders through the provision of better services.

The revised Insurance Business Act, which will be enforced in June 2026, makes compliance measures, including stricter rules for comparative recommendation sales, an urgent issue for the entire insurance agency industry. Our company positions this change not merely as a defensive governance response, but as a proactive initiative toward industry standardization.

MC Cloud (MC Market Cloud / MC Expert Cloud), internally developed and operated by our company, is a system that centrally handles the visualization, recording, and quality management of the insurance solicitation process. As we enter the phase of deploying MC Cloud externally as the 'standard infrastructure of the industry', the participation of Mr. Sugie, who is well-versed in financial administration and has a broad network in government circles, provides the strongest possible backing for us.

To rapidly gain trust from the government sector and the market, we deemed it essential to have an expert who has walked the front lines of financial administration join us, leading to his appointment as an advisor this time.

■ Comment from Mr. Jun Sugie
・Expectations for Wizleap
I expect Wizleap to significantly contribute to the realization of the government's current initiative to become a 'nation of wealth management' by supporting everyone's financial decision-making through the power of software.

・Accepting the Advisor Position
(End of provided text)