This identifies the need for IGCs to work with Government and regulators to push providers to ‘modernise’ workplace pensions.
Ian Pittaway, chair of Aegon UK’s Independent Governance Committee comments on its second annual report and future focus: “With Independent Governance Committees now two years old, their ability to drive change in the workplace personal pensions market must keep building momentum and pursue a modernising agenda. Our second annual report describes how we’ve challenged Aegon UK on its progress in delivering value for money, how customers are benefitting and where we are looking for further or faster action. With a significant majority of Aegon UK’s customers now meeting our value for money principles, in year 3 our data analysis will look more forensically at where further improvements can be made.
“Customer views on value for money must be fully taken into account. This year’s industry research across over 13,000 pension scheme members has provided new insights into what’s front of customers’ minds, reinforcing our belief that while charges are important, they are far from the only element of value for money.
“Engaging customers is an ongoing challenge but even a little improvement in understanding can change attitudes and improve member outcomes. We’ve taken a close interest in Aegon UK’s programme of ‘upgrading’ customers to its modern platform to evidence how the communication power of digital technology can drive behaviours. IGCs as well as Government and regulators should be pushing for ‘legacy’ pensions to be modernised to deliver improved engagement alongside clearer and lower charges.“
Aegon’s award winning IGC
The Aegon UK IGC was awarded the “Best Independent Governance Committee 2016” at the Pensions Insight DC Awards last year. The judges commented that the first Aegon UK IGC annual report was; “head and shoulders above the other IGCs. It had a thorough and well thought through framework for assessing value for money and demonstrated a number of examples where it had challenged the provider in terms of charges and delivery timescales. Its report was easy to read, with plenty of pictures and diagrams to maintain interest and written in plain language”.
Read the full report: Continuing to Deliver Value For Money for Aegon UK’s Workplace Pension Customers
|
