Independent Governance Committee
Zurich has established an Independent Governance Committee (IGC) to work in the interests of members of its workplace pension schemes.
The role of the Independent Governance Committee (IGC) is to assess the value for money provided by Zurich for people like you who are saving for retirement.
We will act solely in your interests and will operate independently of Zurich. To work out how to measure value for money we asked people like you what they thought was most important about pension schemes. You told us it was the ultimate outcome that really matters, but you gave us clear insights about how you thought we should assess progress to delivering a good outcome, in particular that:
1. The Company is adhering to the appropriate rules and regulations;
2. The service is good when compared with other sectors, such as water or energy companies, not just when compared with the service of other pension providers;
3. Prices are competitive, and where prices are higher than expected there is a good reason for this; and
4. The Company does its best to achieve good outcomes for you through its investment on your behalf and helps you to make the right decisions to achieve better outcomes;
The IGC challenges Zurich on the way they compare with the rest of the pensions market, including on the costs they charge you and the profits they make. We also assess, and where necessary, challenge them on the value for money of workplace personal pension schemes using this guidance.
I hope the work we do will help to give you confidence in Zurich as your pension provider and encourage you to engage more in the decisions you need to make about your pension.
Anna Bradley, Chair of the Zurich IGC
Who is on Zurich UK's IGC?
The Zurich Independent Governance Committee is wholly independent, as measured against the guidance on independence set out by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Anna Bradley, Chair
Anna is a long-standing consumer advocate. Anna worked at Which? for many years, and is a former CEO of The National Consumer Council. Anna also chairs a number of other regulatory and consumer oversight bodies in other sectors including in rail, water and payments.
Laurie Edmans CBE
Laurie has wide experience in leading pensions and life assurance businesses and was a founder board member of NEST, of the Pensions Regulator and of the Money Advice Service. He chairs the defined contribution pension plan for Reach Plc, formerly Trinity Mirror plc. He was appointed CBE in 2006 for services to pensions reform.
Anita Fernqvist
Anita is presently Chief Data Officer for Zurich Insurance in the UK, with over 14 years of experience in the insurance industry. Anita brings extensive experience of leading and delivering large scale Operational Transformation programmes in addition to running and optimising operational disciplines such as Business Change, IT, Robotics and Continuous Improvement with a view to driving better customer value through operational excellence.
Mark Thompson
Mark brings over thirty years of investment management experience to the IGC. Previous investment roles include the CIO of the HSBC Bank UK Pension Scheme, where he led on both the DB and DC investment strategies for over 8 years. Prior to that Mark held a number of senior roles at Prudential/M&G Investments and was a Trustee of the Prudential's UK Pension Scheme.
