Our governance
ReAssure is part of the Swiss Re group, which is committed to best practice principles of corporate governance
The Group is governed by the Board Operating Manual (BOM) which sets out the high level governance arrangements approved by the Boards and the delegation of authorities.
It sets out those powers which the Boards wish to exercise themselves (or through formally constituted committees of the Boards) and the delegation of other powers, such as the day to day management of ReAssure, to the Chief Executive Officer and the ReAssure Management Committee.
The Board Operating Manual articulates:
- ReAssure’s ownership, legal and regulated entity structure.
- The interface between the Boards and their subsidiaries.
- The key responsibilities of the Boards and their sub committees.
- The key responsibilities of the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and the ReAssure Management Committee.
- The principal authorities for Board and ReAssure matters.
- The operation of the matrix management structure and interface with our shareholders.
- The oversight arrangements over key in-sourced and out-sourced activities.
- The key aspects of the internal control environment which assist the Boards and Executive Directors and Officers to govern direct and control the business.
The Board is supported by standing committees which include:
- Audit Committee
- Risk Committee
- Board Investment Committee
- Fairness Committee
- Independent Governance Committee (IGC)
The introduction of the IGC provides greater protection to scheme members. It acts solely in the interests of scheme members, operating independently to assess, and where necessary, challenge ReAssure on the administration and value for money of the scheme for its members.
You can access the IGC Terms of Reference below. In summary, the Independent Governance Committee:
- Has a duty to assess the value for money of ReAssure workplace personal pensions on an ongoing basis.
- Review the design and execution of investment strategy.
- Consider whether costs and charges are appropriate for the scheme and its investments.
- Ensure appropriate assessment of the quality of service and governance standards
- Raise and escalate any concerns to the Board of ReAssure in the first instance, and ultimately our regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), if the IGC feel ReAssure have not responded to a particular concern.
Our IGC members have been carefully selected to ensure they have the appropriate skills, knowledge and experience in relation to Workplace Personal Pensions to be able to execute their duties.
The IGC represents scheme members interests and scheme members can contact the IGC to share their views directly. If you have any individual servicing queries or complaints you should raise these in the normal ways. Each year an Annual Report will be published on this page that will explain the work of the IGC over the previous twelve months.
Board of Directors
Rick now has a number of Non-Executive Directorships in the Insurance Industry as well as Trusteeships in the Pension and Charitable worlds.
Rick has undergraduate and post graduate degrees and was the President of the Chartered Insurance Institute in 2003/4. He is currently Senior Warden of the Worshipful Company of Insurers.
Matt has Masters degrees from both Manchester Business School and the University of Oxford.
Mike is a CIMA-qualified accountant, with over 26-years’ experience in the financial services industry. His past experience includes financial consolidation, external/financial reporting, management accounting, business partnering, mergers and sales.
He was previously with Aviva plc holding a variety of senior roles, most recently Group Consolidation and Reporting Director responsible for leading the Financial Consolidation and Reporting Services team for the plc Group.
Mike has also held senior finance roles in India, Europe and the UK.
He is based at the Group’s headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. Michael is a UK qualified actuary and also a member of the Swiss Actuarial Association.
During his 26 years with Swiss Re he has worked extensively in both the life and health business as well as property and casualty. Michael is also Chairman of the Reinsurance Sub-Committee of the International Actuarial Association.
He has been a Board member since 2008, chairs the Audit and Risk Committee and is a member of the Fairness Committee.
He has been a director of Scottish Mutual, Abbey National Life and Scottish Provident, where he chaired the Supervisory Committee which looked after the interest of with-profits policyholders.
He is a Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, and was previously a senior advisor to Government Ministers as a Director General on the Cabinet Office, Ministry of Justice and the Prime Minister's Office.
Brian is a director of Ardmore Shipping Corporation and Aergen Aviation Finance. He was previously a senior executive and director with major airlines in Canada and Ireland. He started his career at Arthur Andersen in Dublin and became a partner in 1998.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a post graduate diploma in Professional Accounting.
Colin’s executive career was with Standard Life where, amongst a range of roles, he was Appointed Actuary and Group Chief Risk Officer.
ReAssure Management Committee
Matt has Masters degrees from both Manchester Business School and the University of Oxford.
Mike is a CIMA-qualified accountant, with over 26-years’ experience in the financial services industry. His past experience includes financial consolidation, external/financial reporting, management accounting, business partnering, mergers and sales.
He was previously with Aviva plc holding a variety of senior roles, most recently Group Consolidation and Reporting Director responsible for leading the Financial Consolidation and Reporting Services team for the plc Group.
Mike has also held senior finance roles in India, Europe and the UK.
Angela is responsible for ensuring ReAssure's business activities and standards meet the requirements of the industry regulator. She is also responsible for monitoring business activities and their consequent outcomes for customers, reporting the results to the Board of Directors.
Angela has over 30 years' experience in the Life and Pensions industry and has held executive Compliance positions in various life assurance companies for over 20 years.
She is a Chartered Insurer and an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute. She was appointed in June 2010.
She was appointed to the Life Management Board in 2012 and brings extensive financial services experience encompassing mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, distribution and corporate finance.
He progressed to Head of Financial Risk and has been Chief Risk Officer since January 2016.
He was the Deputy COO at Guardian Financial Services and before that performed a number of senior roles at Aviva UK Life.
