Governance of With-Profits policies

Independent Governance of With-Profits policies

ReAssure have appointed a With-Profits Committee who are responsible for managing the with-profits funds and making sure that the interests of with-profits policyholders are appropriately considered.

What is the With-Profits Committee?

Our With-Profits Committee provides independent input to make sure the interests of ReAssure with-profits policyholders are protected. As well as the Committee, ReAssure’s With-Profits Actuary also has a responsibility to advise on the fair management of with-profits business.

The Committee discusses all relevant issues with the With-Profits Actuary. The Committee can take the Actuary’s advice and may take such external financial, accounting, actuarial, legal or other advice, as appropriate.

The Committee covers the ReAssure with-profits business and all other with-profits business of Phoenix Life Limited. The ReAssure with-profits business is in the Guardian Assurance With-Profits Fund, the LG With-Profits Fund, the National Mutual With-Profit Fund and the Windsor Life With-Profit Fund.

What does the With-Profits Committee do?

They give advice to ReAssure on the fair treatment of its with-profits policyholders and raise any issues that it feels ReAssure needs to consider. The committee meets at least four times a year and its duties cover the following:

Treating you fairly: ReAssure is responsible for the management of its with-profits business. The Committee reviews the decisions the company proposes to take to make sure they’re fair for all with-profits policyholders. If it feels they’re not, it will challenge ReAssure to justify them.
Your expectations: The Committee doesn’t deal with individual customer complaints or questions, but it regularly reviews information about with-profits complaints to make sure ReAssure is treating customers fairly. If the Committee thinks there are any issues that ReAssure should be doing more about, it will raise them on your behalf.
Speaking up for you: ReAssure explains how it manages its with-profits business in its with-profits guides. These are based on a more detailed document called the Principles and Practices of Financial Management (PPFM). The Committee checks that ReAssure is operating its business in the way described in the PPFM.
Making its views known: At its meetings, the Committee discusses its views and, where relevant, challenges the company’s proposed actions with relevant senior managers. The minutes of the meetings, setting out the Committee’s recommendations, are also sent to the Board of ReAssure, together with any additional reports from the Chairman of the Committee.

Annual reports to with-profits policyholders

Once a year, the Committee provides ReAssure with its opinion on how the company managed its with-profits business in the preceding year. The Committee considers in particular, the fairness of how with-profits policyholders have been treated and if the business has been managed in the way described in ReAssure PPFMs.

ReAssure takes the Committee’s views into account when it produces the company’s annual reports to UK with-profits policyholders. There is a separate report for each of ReAssure’s four with-profits funds.

As well as confirming the Committee’s opinion on how ReAssure has managed its with-profits business, the reports highlight any significant issues that the Committee has found. If the Committee ever feels it has concerns that should be communicated to policyholders with further information, it will do so in the report.

With-Profits Committee Terms of Reference

With-Profits Committee members

Kerr Luscombe

Kerr is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries with over 35 years’ experience in the Life Assurance industry. He joined the Committee in April 2019 and became Chairman the following month. He is also Chairman of the other With-Profits Committees in the Phoenix Group, having been a Member since September 2016.

Kerr is a Non-Executive Director of Scottish Friendly Assurance Society and a Member of the With-Profits Committee at Aegon UK. He is also a Trustee Director at The Merchants House of Glasgow, a Charity.

He was previously Group Finance Director at Royal London Group and has held Finance Directorships of the Life Insurance businesses of Lloyds Banking Group and Santander, as well as other senior management roles in the industry.

Margaret Snowdon OBE

Margaret Snowdon OBE is a pensions professional and experienced non-executive director. She is Senior Independent non-executive Director of XPS Pensions Group plc. She also serves on the Advisory Board of Moneyhub Financial Technology Limited.

Margaret previously held partner and director level positions with leading pension companies and until recently was an Independent Trustee of the Pension Superfund. She also served as a non-executive Director of the Pensions Regulator and was the last volunteer Chair of the Pensions Advisory Service.

Among her many voluntary roles within the pensions industry, Margaret is Chair of the Pension Scams Industry Group and was Chair of the Pensions Administration Standards Association until the end of 2018 when she became their first Honorary President. She is Chair of the Pensions Advice Taskforce and an Advisor to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Investment Fraud.

Margaret was appointed an OBE in 2010 and has received many awards for her contribution to Pensions.

Amanda Bowe

Appointed a Director to Standard Life Assurance Board in October 2016 and joined the Phoenix Life and Phoenix Life Assurance Board on completion of the acquisition of Standard Life.

Amanda has over 20 years' risk management experience and has held senior positions at the UK's Financial Services Authority and Aegon UK. In addition to her role on the Phoenix LifeCo Board, Amanda is a non-executive Director on the Boards of British Gas Insurance where she Chairs the Board Risk Committee, Co-op Insurance Services Limited, and Inigo Managing Agent Limited where she chairs the Risk and Investments Committee.

Amanda is also a Director and Trustee of the Prince Philip Gordonstoun Foundation.

Sam Buckle

Sam Buckle joined the Phoenix Group in 2011 and took up the role of Heritage Customer Director in August 2020. During her time with Phoenix, Sam has held a variety of roles including managing the Group’s regulatory relationships; supporting mergers and acquisitions activity and leading on transformation and integration programmes. Prior to Phoenix, Sam had a varied career in Santander holding a number business and senior compliance roles across the Retail Bank.

Steve Wilson

Steve qualified as a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in 1985. He has worked in the Life Assurance industry for over 40 years, in a variety of roles, notably as With-Profits Actuary at Royal London from 2004 until 2016, during which time he had significant involvement in several acquisitions, including the life assurance business of Cooperative Insurance. Earlier in his career Steve held several roles at Scottish Provident Institution from 1993 to 2001, including Group and Appointed Actuary.

In early 2017 Steve joined the With-Profits Committee of Legal & General as an Independent Member and served in that capacity up to September 2020, when the L&G With-Profits business was acquired by ReAssure. He then joined the Phoenix Group With-Profits Committee in a similar capacity on January 1 2021, following the acquisition of ReAssure by the Phoenix Group. He also joined the With-Profits Committee of M&G Prudential from the start of 2021.

In addition, Steve served on the Life Board of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries between 2011 and 2015.

Jeremy Nurse

Jeremy is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and has almost 40 years’ experience in the UK and European life assurance markets, both in consultancy and at senior roles within several insurance firms. He joined the Committee in September 2022 and is also a Trustee Director for the University of Brighton Academy Trust as well as for a charity that runs a Nursing Home in Sussex.

Jeremy has undertaken numerous regulated roles in the insurance industry, including as: Chief Actuary/Appointed Actuary at Rothesay Life for 10 years and at several other firms both in the UK and overseas; a director of UK/Irish subsidiaries for AIG and MetLife; the Independent Expert for a Part VII transfer of insurance business, and the Skilled Person for the Financial Conduct Authority in its Thematic Review of Annuity Sales Practices.