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Meet the team

Find out more about our technical experts across Aegon.

Pensions Technical Services

The Pensions Technical Services team sits within Aegon’s Group Legal & Company Secretariat function.  Together they have over 200 years’ experience in the pension industry and hold extensive expert knowledge of many technical pension topics.  Their remit is to provide concise technical expertise and guidance to support Aegon colleagues and Financial Advisers deliver the right outcomes and outstanding service for customers.

Our team

Lesley Turbert – Pensions Technical Support Manager

Lesley is the Pensions Technical Support Manager at Aegon supporting pensions technical and regulatory change across Aegon’s pension products and services.  She has over 30 years of experience in the pension industry and joined the Pensions Technical team in 2007 with a focus on providing expert pension technical support to Aegon colleagues and Financial Advisers and supporting pension technical aspects of key regulatory and strategic projects.  Lesley spent a couple of years working as a Legal Consultant in the Legal Propositions team and was involved in the development of the Aegon SIPP, ISA and GIA products on the Aegon Platform.  She returned to manage the Pensions Technical team in November 2018 and leads a small team of pension technical specialists based in Edinburgh and Peterborough.

Jennifer Keys – Senior Pensions Technical Consultant

Jennifer has been with Aegon for over 25 years and joined Pensions Technical in 2008. She provides pensions technical support for regulatory and strategic projects and expert technical support to Advisers and colleagues across Aegon. She is part of Aegon’s budget response team and works closely with a wide variety of colleagues to communicate and embed change (such as pension simplification, pension flexibility and the introduction of automatic enrolment) internally and externally, via the technical material on Aegon’s adviser site. She has a particular interest in auto-enrolment and workplace pensions.

Jason Derrick – Senior Pensions Technical Consultant

Jason joined Aegon in 2016 following Aegon’s purchase of BlackRock’s DC pension business. He joined Pensions Technical in 2021 where he provides pensions technical support for projects, advisers and to Aegon colleagues. He has over 30 years’ experience in the industry, 25 of which have been spent in a variety of pensions technical roles for a number of pension providers. 

Colin Adams – Senior Pensions Technical Consultant

Colin is a Senior Pensions Technical Consultant at Aegon. He has over 20 years’ experience in the industry, having worked in staff training and development for over 17 years as well as experience of working in customer services and finance before joining the Pensions Technical Team at the end of 2022.

Linda Bradburn – Pensions Technical Consultant

Linda has been a member of the Pensions Technical department for over 25 years, having previously worked at Crusader Insurance and Guardian Royal Exchange.  Her main activities are answering pension queries for colleagues and advisers, reviewing marketing material and customer outputs, supporting internal projects and helping maintain the content of Aegon’s online Technical Zone.

Vicki Slinger – Pensions Technical Consultant

Vicki has over 20 years of pensions experience, working in Aegon’s customer services teams covering various Scottish Equitable products, delivering product and process training, and working on regulatory change projects. Vicki joined the Pensions Technical Team in 2018.   She enjoys dealing with internal and external queries on a variety of pensions topics, writing articles for our website and supporting regulatory change projects within Aegon.

Louise Hay – Pensions Technical Consultant

Louise is a Pensions Technical Consultant and has over 30 years’ experience in the pensions industry across various customer services departments. More recently Louise joined the Pensions Technical team supporting customers through the technical query mailbox as well as ensuring our technical articles for advisers on the website and customer facing documentation are up to date and accurate.

David Murray – Pensions Technical Consultant

David is a Pensions Technical Consultant with 13 years’ experience working in a number of roles across Aegon. He joined the Pensions Technical team 1 year ago and supports customers, advisers and colleagues with technical queries and helps ensure all our documents and materials are correct and up-to-date.

Our other technical experts

Martin Haggart Dip PFS AwPETR – Technical Manager (Pensions)

Martin is Technical Manager (Pensions) at Aegon and has over 30 years of experience in the pensions industry. His brief is to focus on the ever-changing pensions and tax legislation, to proactively support key customers and to identify and communicate sales opportunities to advisers and their introducers. Martin is a frequent speaker to audiences large and small on the full range of pensions issues, simplifying complex technical issues with the aim of highlighting opportunities that will bring the maximum benefits for clients. He is a key contributor to the technical material held on Aegon’s adviser site and regularly writes articles for a range of adviser publications.

Elaine Cruickshank – Tax and Trusts Manager

Elaine is a qualified accountant and member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. She is Tax and Trusts Manager in the Aegon retail sales team and has been with Aegon for over 19 years. She provides tax and trusts support to the Aegon retail and protection sales teams and advisers. She is Aegon’s tax and trusts spokesperson - writing articles, delivering webinars and presenting at seminars.

Kate Smith

Kate is Head of Public Affairs at Aegon, with over 30 years of experience in the pensions industry. She has been at Aegon since 2006. Kate is a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute and Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute.   

Kate’s focus is on the ever-changing pension environment and the evolving shape of the workplace pensions market. Kate led the Trustees’ submission for the authorisation of the Aegon Master Trust with the Pensions Regulator.

Kate’s mission is to seek to achieve good outcomes for savers, promote the value of saving and highlight the importance of regulated professional advice to help people achieve a lifetime of financial security Kate is a frequent commentator in the financial and consumer press. Kate is the ‘Pensions Doctor’ for the Daily Telegraph. 

Kate is a member of the cross-industry Pensions Equity Group and is co-chair of the policy sub-committee.  

She’s twice winner of the Woman in Financial Advice awards (2018 and 2019) and was shortlisted for the Professional Pensions Lifetime Achievement Award for Women in Pensions in 2022. In 2021 Kate was recognised as a role model for Women in Banking & Finance (WIBF) for her work in highlighting the gender pension gap. 

Steven Cameron – Public Affairs Director

Steven Cameron is Aegon UK’s Public Affairs Director, with responsibility for analysing and lobbying on proposed changes from regulators and Government regarding pensions, savings, regulations and the provision of advice. Steven led Aegon’s engagement with the FCA on the Consumer Duty proposals and champions collaboration between advisers and providers as the Duty approaches implementation.

He is one of the industry’s top commentators on these topics across trade and consumer media. An actuary by profession, he has over 35 years’ financial services experience. He is Chair of TISA’s Retirement Policy Committee and a member of the Strategic Committee as well as Financial Guidance and Social Care working groups.