Download the current Annual Report

IGC Annual Report 2022

Previous reports and other documents

IGC Annual Report 2021

IGC Annual Report 2020

IGC Interim Report January 2021 This report was produced after the IGC reporting timetable was changed from April to April to calendar year.

IGC Response to FCA and TPR Joint Discussion Paper DP21/3 “Driving value for money in defined contribution pensions”

IGC Annual Report 2019/20

Old Mutual Wealth Life Assurance IGC Annual Report 2019/20 (This was the final report produced by the Old Mutual Wealth IGC. From the 2020 Report onwards, the IGC will take into account the former Old Mutual Wealth products and Scheme Members.)

IGC Annual Report 2018/19

IGC Annual Report 2017/18

IGC Terms of Reference

Customer summary of 2022 Annual Report

One of the roles of the IGC is to act solely in the interests of customers who have workplace pension contracts with ReAssure and review the value for money that they are receiving.  Every year, the IGC produces a report that describes, in some detail, what they have done and the results of their value for money assessments.  The following document sets out some of the key findings, for those customers who prefer more of a summary view.

IGC Customer Summary 2022

Costs and charges

It’s important that you consider the costs and charges you pay for the ongoing administration of your workplace pension. On this page, you can find tables showing the range of costs and charges paid by members who invest in all funds offered by ReAssure, along with some sample illustrations showing how these charges could affect the future value of your pension.

Independent Governance Committee Members:

david hare
David joined the Standard Life IGC as Independent Chair in April 2019, and has been the Independent Chair of the Phoenix IGC since 2015 and the ReAssure IGC from 2021.

He has over 30 years of experience in the UK insurance industry. He qualified as an actuary in 1988 and has held various actuarial, marketing and financial risk management roles in a number of life insurers, including five years as Chief Actuary, UK & Europe at Standard Life. From 2012 to 2017, he was a partner at Deloitte, specialising in actuarial audit and review work, including providing Independent Expert reports to the Court on the policyholder impact of five different inter-company transfers of insurance business. Having returned from Deloitte, he now holds a number of non-executive roles with UK insurance companies.

David was President of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) from June 2013 to June 2014. Prior to becoming the President-Elect of the IFoA in June 2012, he was a non-executive member of the then Board of Actuarial Standards of the Financial Reporting Council (from January 2010). He was a member of the Independent Project Board that oversaw the ABI’s audit of the legacy pension schemes identified by the OFT in 2013 as being at risk of being poor value for money, whose December 2014 report included a number of recommendations for IGCs to follow.

Steven Blight
Steven joined the IGC as an Employee Member in September 2021. He is a qualified actuary who has been with the Phoenix Group for over 20 years with his current role being focused on the pricing of new business for annuities and protection products within the life companies of the Group and supporting various projects including those related to changes and development of product propositions within the Group.

Steven’s previous roles at Phoenix have mainly been within the Actuarial team where he was responsible for managing the Group’s exposure to longevity, mortality, expense and persistency risks. He also has experience in developing the Group’s approach to determine the amount of regulatory capital required to be held given the type of business and risks the Group has on its books and also the workings and management of with-profits funds within the Group, and therefore has a broad experience across the business.

Andrew Milligan
Andrew joined the IGC as an independent member in July 2022. He is an independent economist and investment consultant, who has 35 years experience in financial markets, most notably at Aviva Investors as Head of Economic Research and Business Risk and then Aberdeen / Standard Life Investments as Head of Global Strategy. He currently has a portfolio of roles, including sitting on the investment committee of the Health Foundation endowment, as an Advisory Board member for the Devlin Mambo consultancy, especially concerned with ESG advice, and an investment adviser to chartered financial planners Balmoral Asset Management, part of the Progeny Group.

Andrew's expertise will help the IGC maintain a consistent approach to analysing Standard Life's investment approach following on from the transition to the Sustainable Multi-Asset fund in 2022.

Rachel Haworth
Rachel joined the IGC as an independent member in August 2022.  She is a customer-focussed leader with extensive experience in the financial services industry, including HSBC First Direct and most recently as Customer Experience Director for Coventry Building Society. Rachel’s expertise spans strategy, marketing, digital transformation, risk management and cultural leadership.  She is also a Non-Executive Director for Mansfield Building Society.

Rachel is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. She has a personal passion for ensuring customers are treated fairly and is particularly keen to make sure consumers, including those considered vulnerable, get value for money and good outcomes from their pension decisions.

Maggie Craig
Maggie spent all her executive career in the financial services industry. She has worked in the industry with Standard Life and Aegon, lobbied for the industry when at the Association of British Insurers and regulated the industry when at the FCA where she led pension policy during the pension freedom years and led the strategy for the FCA Scotland’s Office set up the FCA Devolved Nations team. She was a Trustee on the Board of the FCA’s Pension Plan for two years. Alongside her day job at the FCA, Maggie regularly lectured on financial services regulation at Glasgow College and Heriot Watt University.

Maggie is Chair of Children 1st, Scotland’s national children’s charity and chairs the Audit and Risk Committee of the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service. She is an external examiner for the Financial Services and Regulation Skills module of the Diploma at The University of Edinburgh Law School and is an honorary Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. Maggie has been active on Diversity and Inclusion issues for several years with particular focus on mental health issues in part because she lives with a significant mental health condition.

Andrew Davies
Andrew is an experienced strategist, marketer and business development professional. His career of over 35 years spans the breadth of Financial Services covering pensions, wealth management, life, healthcare and general insurance. Andrew has held a wide range of senior management positions. Most recently he was Director of Marketing Strategy & Customer Insight for AXA UK & Ireland during which he established their first customer centricity strategy. Whilst Head of Strategic Development for AXA Life, Andrew created the initial strategy, and was one of the founder members of the Elevate investment platform (now Standard Life Elevate). Andrew currently runs his own management consultancy business specialising in strategic change and business transformation as well as training and coaching senior managers. Andrew has qualified as a Chartered Insurer and Financial Planner in addition to holding separate professional Project, Process and Proposal Management qualifications. Andrew is also a board director for the Standard Life Master Trust Co. Ltd.

Workplace pensions

Trustees of specific defined contribution (DC) occupational pension schemes, have to meet requirements on governance standards, charge controls and communications on pension flexibilities.

The requirements are detailed below:

  • Appointing a chair of trustees who will sign an annual Chair’s statement
  • Meeting certain governance standards and explaining this in the Chair’s statement, specifically:
    1. That core financial transactions are processed promptly and accurately
    2. That the value of charges and transaction costs borne by scheme members is reasonable
    3. That any default arrangements are designed in members’ interests and reviewed regularly
    4. That the Trustee board has the necessary knowledge and understanding to run the scheme properly
  • Informing members about the increased range of options they have at retirement

ReAssure has two trustee boards, which you can read about below.

G Trustees Limited was established in 1986 and has been acting as trustee to a number of pension schemes administered by ReAssure since then.  There are two directors who act solely in the interests of members, with any potential conflicts of interest considered in accordance with the Conflict of Interest policy, to ensure they can act independently of ReAssure.  They look after;

  • The ReAssure Number Three Executive Pension plan (with effect from 27 March 2018).

Trustees:

Paul has worked in Management and Executive positions within the Operations (Customer Services and Information Technology) Division of ReAssure for the past 30 years. During that time he has contributed towards the implementation of the key business administration and system strategies of the Company and played a key operational role in all Business Acquisitions and Migrations. Within Business Solutions, the focus is to guide the development of future strategies, systems and processes to support growth within the business and provide strong Customer outcomes.

Paul has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Accountancy from the University of Southampton.

Mike Woodcock is the UK Chief Financial Officer of ReAssure.  He joined the company on 30 July 2012.

Mike is a CIMA-qualified accountant, with over 26-years’ experience in the financial services industry.  His past experience includes financial consolidation, external/financial reporting, management accounting, business partnering, mergers and sales.

He was previously with Aviva plc holding a variety of senior roles, most recently Group Consolidation and Reporting Director responsible for leading the Financial Consolidation and Reporting Services team for the plc Group.

Mike has also held senior finance roles in India, Europe and the UK.

Grant is Head of Legal for Service, Integration and Group Operations within the Phoenix Group.

He is a qualified solicitor with over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry.

Prior to joining the Phoenix Group, Grant was a solicitor in the litigation team of a large multinational law firm.