Legal & General Independent Governance Committee
I’m Joanne Segars, Chair of the IGC. Our committee is responsible for checking whether you’re receiving value for money from your pension.
How we assess value for money We look at whether you’re getting a good deal by rating eight different parts of your pension. Where we can, we compare Legal & General against its competitors. This is a summary of our assessment for 2023. You can also access our appendices for the charges and costs that affect your pension, including illustrations and fund performance.
Welcome to this year’s annual report from the Independent Governance Committee (IGC).
Welcome
Meet your IGC
All members of the IGC are considered independent of Legal & General as they have not been employed by any firm within the Legal & General Group within the last five years. They have not had any direct or indirect relationship of any description with the Legal & General Group within the last three years, other than by their membership of the IGC.
Welcome
Our assessments summary
Meet your IGC
Useful links
Joanne Segars
Mark Ashworth
Rachael Brougham
Helen Carey
Heather Lauder
Daniel Godfrey
Useful links
How to get in contact with us
If you have any feedback or questions, or you need to tell us about an important issue that affects your pension, please email us at: IGC@lgim.com
You can find out more about us and our work here.
How to contact Legal & General
If you need to contact Legal & General about your pension plan, you can call them on 0345 070 8686, open between 8:30am and 7pm Monday to Friday. Call charges will vary. Legal & General may record and monitor calls and please be aware that helpline colleagues cannot provide financial advice.
You can also email Legal & General at employerdedicatedteam@landg.com
Please remember not to send any personal, financial or banking information belonging to you because email is not a secure method of communication.
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Our view is that you are receiving good value for money
Our summary of our assessments for 2023
Investment pathways
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing
Accessing your pension
Member engagement and communication
Member service and administration
Investment choice and performance
Default strategies and their investment performance
Costs
and charges:
Are the right investment choices available once you’ve started to take a flexible income?
The investment options are fit for purpose and provide value for money. In most cases, members are using the options in the way the pathways were intended.
Read more >
Our value rating: Good
Is your pension invested responsibly? ESG issues are directly linked to your pension through the assets your pension savings are invested in, such as equities which are shares in companies.
Legal & General continues to lead the industry in this area. Its approach is rated the strongest or above average by independent experts. If you’re invested in one of the main default funds you’ll have access to Tumelo, an online platform showing the companies your pension is invested in and you can give your opinion on ESG issues. We’ve reviewed Legal & General’s ESG policies and believe they are of good quality. Read more >
Our value rating: Excellent
What choices are available when you come to take your money? Are there tools and support in place to help you make informed decisions?
You can access the full range of retirement options, and you have flexibility in how and when you choose to take your money. There are good tools and information to help you. There are more services available online, and communications have been improved. Legal & General received a good score when we compared the options you have with competitors. Read more >
Our value rating: Good
Do you receive clear, high-quality communications? Are there tools available to help with your retirement planning?
Communications are appealing and are right for your needs. There is a wide range of material to help you make decisions. The online portal for viewing and managing your pension has been improved. Communications are being designed to support those with accessibility needs. External benchmarking described the available communications as ‘good’ and ‘strong’. Read more >
Our value rating: Good
Is your pension well run, and do you receive good service?
Legal & General’s service was excellent throughout the year. 97% of targets for administration and the helpline were met. The team received a record level of positive feedback, and our rating was confirmed when we compared Legal & General against its competitors. Read more >
Our value rating: Excellent
Is there a good range of funds if you want to make your own choice? How well do these funds perform?
The funds available are well designed and appropriate for most members. We believe that Legal & General has strong investment capabilities, supported by independent advice, and fund performance has been good. Most of the funds have a good responsible investing rating. Read more >
Our value rating: Good
Are the default funds appropriate for you to invest in, and how well do they perform? If you haven’t chosen your own funds, you’ll be in a default fund.
Legal & General completed a detailed review of its default funds in 2023. It decided to change the main default fund from the Multi-Asset Fund (MAF) to a Target Date Fund (TDF). We believe TDFs have the potential to produce better outcomes for most members in the long term. A new TDF default fund is launching in 2024 called the Lifetime Advantage Fund. Read more >
Our value rating: Acceptable with areas for improvement
Are the costs and charges for your pension competitive and do they offer good value for money?
The costs and charges you pay are very competitive and this is backed up by comparing them against other providers. Read more >
Our value rating: Excellent
Costs and charges
Default strategies and their investment performance
Investment choice and performance
Member service and administration
Member engagement and communication
Accessing your pension
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing
Investment pathways
Excellent
Select the assessments below to find out more about their rating
Acceptable...
Good
Excellent
Good
Good
Excellent
Good
Mark Ashworth
Mark was appointed to the IGC in April 2020.
Mark is a senior director at the LawDeb Pension Trustees practice, which is part of The Law Debenture Corporation p.l.c., a FTSE250 company.
He has experience of a wide range of schemes and sponsoring employers, gained in more than 20 years with Law Debenture, and has encountered most situations likely to face pension schemes.
Mark has chaired DC committees for several large DC schemes and the governance committee of a large contract-based scheme. Scheme governance and operational issues are amongst his other key areas of expertise. He currently chairs and serves on five other trustee boards of major UK pension schemes.
Mark qualified as a Barrister and as a Chartered Secretary. In his spare time Mark enjoys cars which are almost as old as he is.
Joanne Segars
IGC Chair
Joanne was appointed Chair of the IGC on 13 July 2022 and has been a member of the IGC since January 2019.
Awarded an OBE for services to pensions in the 2003 Queen’s Birthday Honours, Joanne is a well-known industry figure, having held many high-profile roles including Governor of the Pensions Policy Institute and board membership of the Environment Agency, Pensions Europe and the Pensions Infrastructure Platform. She has also held roles as Chief Executive of the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association and Chair of the Joint Expert Panel on the Universities Superannuation Scheme. Joanne is currently Chair of Trustee at NOW: Pensions and Chair of LGPS Central Ltd. She also serves as an external expert on the Pension Fund Governing Board at CERN in Geneva.
As well as a degree in Economics from John Moores University, Joanne has an MA in Industrial Relations from the University of Warwick.
Joanne is a keen traveller and photographer - especially documentary, street and portrait photography - and is currently taking a Higher National Diploma in photography.
Helen Carey
Helen was appointed to the IGC in March 2023.
Helen is Compliance and Operations Director at AV Trinity, a Chartered IFA firm in Tunbridge Wells.
She has over 25 years’ broad financial services experience, with in-depth knowledge of pensions, investments, sustainable investing and ESG, and the member experience.
Currently, alongside her role at AV Trinity, Helen serves as an independent member on the Hargreaves Lansdown IGC and is an examiner for the Chartered Insurance Institute.
Helen is passionate about good member outcomes and financial education, having played an active role in improving financial understanding in schools and in the workplace.
Helen is a Chartered Financial Adviser and Fellow of the Personal Finance Society.
Rachel Brougham
Rachel was appointed to the IGC in April 2015.
Rachel is a trustee executive at BESTrustees Limited.
Rachel qualified as an actuary and has worked in the pensions industry since 1988.
Her experience includes advising both defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) trustee boards, and the governance committees of various contract-based DC arrangements. Since she joined BESTrustees in 2014, Rachel has held appointments on a variety of pensions boards, including three master trust boards and two independent governance committees, and has had a particular focus on member engagement. She also works with a number of DB schemes of varying sizes.
Away from pensions, Rachel sings with a northwest-based choral society and enjoys walking and baking.
Heather Lauder
Heather was appointed to the IGC in March 2023.
Heather has over 30 years’ experience in retail and business banking, working in NatWest, RBS, Tesco, Virgin Money and Coop banks in large scale customer strategy, customer operations, digital and transformational executive roles.
In addition, she also has non-executive director experience in both public and private sector organisations, where she has been Chair of audit, risk and remuneration committees.
Over the last couple of years, Heather has been a non-executive director with Zurich Assurance. She was appointed Chair to professional services firm DSW to lead them through an IPO in 2021.
Heather also supports local charities as a trustee and mentor. Outside of work she enjoys cooking, travelling and walking.
Daniel Godfrey
Daniel was appointed to the IGC in September 2016.
Daniel studied Economics at The University of Manchester and went on to become Marketing Director of Robert Fleming (now JP Morgan Asset Management).
He’s worked in various senior positions including Chairman of pfeg (Personal Finance Education Group), Director General of The Association of Investment Companies and Director of Corporate Communications at Phoenix Group Holdings Plc. He was Chief Executive of the Investment Association between 2012 and 2015.
Daniel is a Visiting Fellow at the Global Systems Institute at Exeter University. He is a Member of the Financial Reporting Council’s Independent Advisory Panel. He has recently been appointed by the Financial Conduct Authority to chair the Advisers’ Sustainability Group, which is developing best practice guidance for financial advisers on addressing and dealing with the key financial risks of climate change, biodiversity loss and social disruption.
Daniel enjoys watching football, eating good food, and going to the theatre and cinema.
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Summary of the annual report for the year ending 31 December 2023
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