If you have a workplace personal pension - we look after your interests
The Independent Governance Committee (IGC) works solely in the interests of customers who have a workplace personal pension. It is independent of Phoenix Life.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) introduced the role of the IGC for workplace pensions to ensure the pension schemes deliver value for money for members. On this page you'll be able to read the annual reports from the IGC, give your feedback and meet the committee members.
What we do
Our role is to act in your interest, assessing the value for money you are receiving from your workplace personal pension and to challenge Phoenix where we feel that it could be doing more for you. One of these challenges was to understand the response by Phoenix to ensure customers interests were maintained during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Value for money is not just about what something costs. We also look at the quality of what you get in return for your pension savings and how it compares with other workplace pension schemes. We examine different aspects of your experience as a scheme member to form a complete picture of the value for money that Phoenix is providing you.
To assess if you are getting value for money we look at seven areas:
Investments
We examine where your money is invested and how well the fund is performing.
Costs and charges
We review the charges and costs deducted from your pension savings.
Customer service
We look at the level of customer service you receive.
Management culture
We look for evidence to ensure that there are clear examples of Phoenix wanting to do the right thing for customers by continually seeking to improve customer outcomes.
Customer communications and engagement
We review how Phoenix communicate with you to ensure that you can understand what’s happening with your pension savings and take action when you need to.
Application of ESG principles to investments
We examine the extent to which the decisions on how your money is invested is driven by Environmental, Social and Governance considerations.
Risk and governance
We look at how the rules, practices and standards within the business are managed to ensure they deliver a strong governance to support the effective management of Phoenix’s risks.
2023 Annual Report Summary
The role of the IGC is to act solely in the interests of customers who have a workplace pension contract with Phoenix Life to review the value for money those customers receive. Every year the IGC produces a report that explains what they’ve done and what the results are from their value for money assessments. The report below sets out the value for money scores for each area. It includes what’s changed from last year, challenges to Phoenix Life and what action customers can take.
Transaction costs
Transaction costs for Phoenix funds within scope of the Phoenix Independent Governance Committee (IGC)
Costs and charges
Find the costs and charges of your workplace pension and view example fund illustrations
We report back to you
We encourage you to read our annual report for 2023. The report includes:
- Our opinion on the value for money provided by Phoenix
- Our consideration of your feedback
- The concerns raised with Phoenix and how they responded
The Independent Governance Committee (IGC) represents workplace pension customers within Phoenix Life, Standard Life and ReAssure, to provide a consistent governance approach across Phoenix Group.
Representing you
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) sometimes consults on changes to its rules. Where these could affect the role of Independent Governance Committees or we think the proposed changes could affect members of workplace schemes, we may respond to give our views about how the new rules could work best for you.
Consultation Paper 19/10
In February 2019, the FCA issued Consultation Paper 19/10 which focusses on rules about publishing and disclosing costs and charges to workplace pension scheme members. We responded to this in May 2019 and you can read our response.
Consultation Paper 19/15
In April 2019, the FCA issued Consultation Paper 19/15 which proposed the extension of Independent Governance Committees’ remits. We responded to this in July 2019 and you can read our response.
Consultation Paper 20/9
In June 2020, the FCA issued Consultation Paper 20/9 which proposed the extension of Independent Governance Committees’ remits. We responded to this in September 2020 and you can read our response.
Joint Discussion Paper DP 21/3
In September 2021, the FCA and The Pensions Regulator issued a Joint Discussion Paper DP 21/3 on Driving Value for Money in Defined Contribution Pensions. We responded to this in December 2021 and you can read our response.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Statement
We have also written a statement after monitoring the business’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic and you can read our response.
Contact us
If you have any comments we are keen to hear from you, please contact us.
Meet the committee
We have made some changes to our IGC to ensure a consistent governance approach for Phoenix Life workplace customers and Standard Life Assurance Limited workplace customers. Our members are a mix of independent and Phoenix Group members working collaboratively to ensure you get value for money.
We would like to thank our outgoing IGC members for all the many great contributions to the IGC during their tenure. Sheila Gunn for pioneering the fit for purpose protocol that is used for all customer communications, Ingrid Kirby for helping with the implementation of the Sustainable Multi-Asset Fund and Venetia Trayhurn for creating the framework to assess the newly implemented investment pathways.
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 5 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 retired 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 until June 2014. Before 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 Association of British Insurers' audit of the legacy pension schemes identified by the Office of Fair Trading 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.
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 ABRDN 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 and he is an Accredited Professional Trustee with the Pensions Management Institute. Andrew is also a board director for the Standard Life Master Trust Co. Ltd.
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 the Deputy Chief Actuary for the UK Life Companies of the Group, focused on overseeing the reserving calculations, managing risk, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and developing strategic financial policies within the life companies of the Group.
Steven’s previous roles at Phoenix have mainly been within the Actuarial team where he was responsible for pricing of new business for annuities and protection products, 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 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 trustee to the Central Board of Finance, one of the three national bodies which handle the investments of the Church of England, sitting on the investment committee of the Health Foundation endowment, an investment adviser to the financial services company, the Progeny Group, and an Advisory Board member for the Devlin Mambo consultancy, especially concerned with ESG advice.
Andrew's expertise will help the IGC maintain a consistent approach to analysing Standard Life's investment processes, following the creation of the Sustainable Multi-Asset family of funds in 2022 and the roll out of more modern investment approaches to other funds.
Rachel joined the IGC as an independent member in August 2022. She is a customer-focussed strategic leader with extensive experience in the financial services industry, including Marketing and Digital roles with HSBC First Direct and Product, Proposition and Customer Experience Director roles for Coventry Building Society. Rachel’s expertise spans strategy, marketing, digital transformation, risk management, ED&I, ESG and cultural leadership.
She holds a number of other non-executive roles within financial services, currently as a Non-Executive Director and Chair of Remuneration Committee for both Mansfield Building Society and the Mortgage Advice Bureau.
Rachel 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. Rachel’s wide-ranging experiences will help the IGC build on its assessment of the value offered in both retirement products and investment pathways.
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, led the strategy for the FCA Scotland’s Office and 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 sits on the Board of the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service where she chairs the Audit and Risk Committee. She also sits on the Board of Glasgow Credit Union 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.
