Independent Governance Committee

Aegon UK’s Independent Governance Committee (IGC) was set up in April 2015. The role of an IGC is to act independently of their pension provider as a customer advocate by reviewing whether workplace pensions provide value for money, challenging providers accordingly. The IGC makes recommendations to Aegon UK’s Board of Directors regarding value for money for workplace pension scheme members.

To protect your interests, the IGC has a blend of skills and experience from across the pensions industry. This includes legal, pension scheme governance and actuarial expertise from the independent members and insight into Aegon UK’s business model and its customers from the Aegon UK IGC representatives. Together, the expertise and experience makes sure the IGC is able to make judgements on the value of money for Aegon UK’s workplace pension scheme members.

The IGC published it's fifth report in April 2020. You can read this, and the previous reports, by downloading from the menu on your right.

Who is on Aegon UK’s IGC?

Aegon UK’s IGC is chaired by Ian Pittaway and including Ian is made up of five members; three independent members and two Aegon UK members.

Ian Pittaway, Senior Partner at Sacker and Partners LLP, nominated representative of Independent Trustee Limited

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Ian acts for a number of pension schemes as legal advisor and has gained extensive pensions law experience on a wide range of issues. Ian is an expert on governance and often advises Trustee Boards on the most effective way to approach and take decisions. He is Chairman of his firm’s independent trustee company and is chairman of trustees or independent trustee of a number of pension schemes. He is also a former Chairman of the Association of Professional Pension Trustees (APPT) and a former Chairman and Secretary of the Association of Pension Lawyers.

Independent member: Alison Bostock, Client Director of PTL Governance Ltd (PTL), nominated representative of PTL

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Alison joined PTL as a full time professional trustee in 2015, after a 25 year career in pensions consultancy as an actuary. Alison acts as trustee to a number of DB and DC pension schemes, and is a leading member of PTL’s Governance Advisory Arrangement which acts as an IGC to assess value for money for the workplace pension schemes of a large number of smaller providers. Alison holds the PMI Certificate in DC Governance and now serves on the committee that oversees the syllabus and examinations for the qualification.

Independent member: Helen Parker

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Helen Parker has 30 years’ experience working on consumer issues, first in executive roles and now as a non-executive. Helen was a member of the senior leadership team of Which?, Europe’s largest independent consumer organisation, for more than a decade. Helen now has a number of non-executive roles with a focus on consumer engagement and protection. She is a non-executive director of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme which protects consumers when authorised financial services firms fail, and is also a non-executive committee member of Healthwatch England, the independent national champion for people who use health and social care services.

Ronnie Taylor – Chief Distribution Officer, Aegon UK

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Ronnie is responsible for leading Aegon’s growth across both workplace and wealth channels. Ronnie has over 20 years of experience in the industry and is an actuary by profession. Having worked in a variety of senior roles across the pensions industry, Ronnie has a wealth of experience of, and insight into, the pensions industry, which he uses to ensure that Aegon is giving you value for money. Ronnie’s main focus is on member engagement and communications.  He is ensuring that Aegon is devoting sufficient financial and physical resources to understand what is important to workplace members.

Dougy Grant – Managing Director, Existing Business, Aegon UK

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Dougy is an actuary with 20 years of experience within Aegon, holding leadership roles in finance, marketing, sales, operations, and general management. He has been Managing Director of Existing Business since 2016. Dougy is a member of the Aegon UK Executive Committee and the Aegon UK Customer Committee. Dougy brings a deep understanding of Aegon’s business and its operations. Dougy is ensuring Aegon is focused on the right areas of customer service, taking and applying learnings from across different business units and seeking ways to improve the overall customer experience.

*Ian and Alison are corporate IGC members. This means they're employed by companies which provide professional independent services, and Aegon UK’s service contract is with the company rather than the individual.

Ian, Alison and Ronnie are also members of the Board of the Aegon Master Trust (AMT). A Master Trust is a multi-employer occupational scheme where each employer has its own division within the master arrangement. There is one legal trust and therefore one trustee board. The Trustee retains decision making independence for each division on things such as investment and service providers under a trust wide governance structure. Master Trusts offer employers the benefit of a governance function but with generally lower operating costs, greater simplicity and expediency than a single employer scheme.

We believe the IGC and AMT share common goals and objectives to ensure customers are receiving value for money, therefore there are clear benefits to having individuals who are members of both the IGC and Master Trust.

Terms of Reference

The Terms of Reference applicable to our IGC are available here.  

Value for money principles

The IGC has developed its own value for money principles to reflect Aegon UK’s book of business. These value for money principles reflect research amongst Aegon UK’s customers and also amongst broader consumers which asked what they regarded as key to value for money.

The findings showed that as well as looking for low charges and good returns on their investments, customers want a choice of funds, which are responsive to the appetite for investment risk they have and that they want to be able to keep track of their policy’s performance online. These are all reflected in the principles.

Next steps

If you're a member of a workplace pension scheme with Aegon UK, then the IGC’s work is important to you. Aegon UK and its IGC work together to make sure workplace pension schemes offer value for money in line with the principles the IGC has developed.

Future IGC reports will be published on an annual basis.

Get in touch

The IGC is particularly keen to hear from workplace pension members. If you'd like to contact the IGC, you can get in touch by email at igc@aegon.co.uk. 

As email isn’t a secure method of communication, please don’t send any personal, financial or banking information.