This document can help you judge how well the Mastertrust is performing and give you confidence in saving with Legal & General. We are required by law to produce this report on an annual basis and some of the contents are set out in the regulations. We appreciate that some of the language used in pensions can be complicated, so we have tried wherever possible to give you an explanation in plain English. Please let us know if there is anything that you would like us to explain further. We’ve also included a glossary of terms in Appendix 6.
Well-designed investment options that meet your needs and help to deliver good investment performance returns for you over the long term
Welcome to this year’s Chair’s Statement. I am Robert Waugh, Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Legal & General WorkSave Mastertrust (the Mastertrust).
Introduction
Clear and engaging communications that help you to make the best decisions on your current and future pension savings
Smooth and accurate administration, including the investment of the regular contributions you make to your pension scheme
Confidence that your pension scheme is meeting all its legal requirements and that someone is actively looking after your interests
Delivering all these things to you at a cost that’s competitive against other comparable options available in the pension marketplace
After this introduction, you can read about some of our highlights from the last year, as well as the priorities we set ourselves and the progress we made against these. Separate Chair’s Statements have been produced for the Legal & General WorkSave Mastertrust and the Legal & General WorkSave Mastertrust (RAS). If you’re unsure which Legal & General Mastertrust you are a member of, please check online at Manage Your Account. Alternatively, follow the signposting on your annual benefit statement to see which Scheme you’re in. Finally, we would like to thank the Pension Scheme Management Team and the entire team at Legal & General who have supported the Mastertrust throughout the year. This summary and the statement are signed on behalf of the Trustees by
Concluding remarks
In section 7, we describe how we have kept our knowledge of pension matters and the Mastertrust itself up to date. We’re always looking for ways to continue to develop and improve our offering and our priorities for 2025 are detailed in section 8 of this report.
Looking ahead, we have a clear action plan to continue to improve the Mastertrust
One of our key aims is that the Mastertrust provides good value. Having carried out our assessment, along with our external independent adviser, we concluded that the Mastertrust provided ‘Good’, and in some areas, ‘Excellent’ value to you. Our assessment considers both the quality of the services as well as the charges and transaction costs you pay. We explain the rationale for our assessment in section 6 of this report. We also explain how we are satisfied that administration and core financial transactions were carried out accurately and promptly.
Our assessment of the last 12 months
We aim to achieve excellent standards in running the Mastertrust to deliver the best possible outcomes for you. To allow us to do this effectively, all our Trustees are completely independent of Legal & General. This means that we can provide sound, independent, and clear challenge where this is needed. You can find out more about this in section 1.
We continue to set high standards for the running of the Mastertrust
Independent Chair of Trustees for the Legal & General WorkSave Mastertrust 14 October 2024 (The original signed version is available for inspection on request, please contact mastertrust_trustees@lgim.com for this copy.) The remainder of this statement describes in more detail the Trustees’ governance and management of the Mastertrust during the last year.
Robert Waugh
Legal & General WorkSave Mastertrust (RAS)
Annual statement of governance by the Chair of the Trustees for the year to 5 April 2024
Legal & General WorkSave Mastertrust ©2024
The Occupational Pension Schemes (Administration, Investment, Charges and Governance) and Pensions Dashboards (Amendment) Regulations 2023.
For the record
We hope this statement helps you understand how your pension is being looked after. If you would like to give any feedback on its contents, please contact us at mastertrust_trustees@lgim.com You can also contact Legal & General’s Trust Services team 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. You can also call them on 0345 070 8686, 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. More information about how to contact Legal & General can be found here, including how to register for Manage Your Account, where you can access a virtual chat facility and secure messaging.
How to get in contact
Download the full report
Your employer has chosen the Mastertrust as your pension scheme, and we believe the following features of the Scheme allow you to effectively save for your retirement. Our job, as independent Trustees of the Mastertrust, is to make sure that it delivers these things for you:
Sections
Key highlights
Sections (clicking these links will open up the relevant page in main report in another window
01 - How we oversee the Mastertrust
02 - The default investment options
03 - Charges and transaction costs
04 - Administration
05 - Member engagement and feedback
06 - Value for members
07 - Trustees' knowledge and understanding
08 - Action plan for 2024-2025
Appendix 1 - Statement of Investment Principles
Appendix 2 - Investment returns sole governance
Appendix 3 - Charges and transaction costs
Appendix 4 - Illustrations
Appendix 5 - Default investment options asset allocation, performance-based fees and charge cap reporting
Highlights
Appendix 6 - Glossary
SCROLL
The Occupational Pension Schemes (Administration and Disclosure) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 (SI 2018/233); and
Regulation 23 of the Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) Regulations 1996 (SI 1996/1715) as amended by the Occupational Pension Schemes (Charges and Governance) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/879) and the Occupational Pension Schemes (Administration, Investment, Charges and Governance) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/1070); and
This annual statement regarding governance has been prepared in accordance with:
•
What were the key highlights from the last 12 months?
We completed the triennial review of our sole governance default investment options in July 2023, and considered how to evolve them to continue to deliver the best possible outcomes. While we are broadly comfortable that all default investment options are consistent with their aims and objectives, we have identified the potential to improve expected outcomes further by giving members access to private market investments, further ESG integration and the addition and reduction of risk for some of the default options. We have embarked on an ambitious project to implement our recommendations. You can find more detail in section 2.
We completed our triennial review
At the start of 2024, we approved a new default investment option for the Mastertrust – the Lifetime Advantage Fund (LAF). LAF looks at your chosen retirement age and adjusts the way your pension savings are invested as you move closer to - and then into - retirement. It also invests in a wide range of investments which may include company shares, bonds, cash, and a range of private market assets. By adjusting your investments to fit your chosen retirement age, this should allow for more flexibility in how and when you access your pension savings. We have carefully considered the launch of this new fund and received independent investment advice. LAF is now available for employers to select as an alternative scheme default for their employees. You can read more about how we reached our decision in section 2. In addition, we are moving all members in the Multi-Asset Fund (MAF), the second largest fund used as a default investment option, to one of the Target Date Funds (TDF), because we think TDFs will produce better outcomes in the long term. Further information on this change is detailed in section 2.
We approved a new default investment option
We carried out our annual trustee effectiveness review in June. As in previous years, the review was facilitated by an external provider to ensure our governance controls were independently assessed. You can read more about this review in section 7.
Our effectiveness was externally reviewed
Our Member Experience Committee (MEC) was formed at the start of 2024 to focus on the overall experience you receive in your interactions with Legal & General, at all stages of your savings journey. This new committee combined and replaced our Communications and Operations Committees.
We created a new Member Experience Committee
Continue to evolve our standard default investment options to improve expected member outcomes.
Continued oversight of investment in systems and processes to achieve the end goal of personalised end-to-end member journeys.
Strategic focus on how to improve the transition from accumulation (saving for retirement) into retirement, with products and focus on member journeys and nudges.
Help our members consolidate their pension pots, to help improve retirement planning and pension outcomes.
Click the bullets below to view the updates for each of the prorities identified in the previous report
We have delivered the priorities we set ourselves for this year
Over the year Legal & General we ran member webinars which included a focus on consolidation. 8,379 members watched the webinars which provided information to them about their pension. We’re pleased that there continues to be high levels of uptake with positive feedback ratings. We also covered consolidation in the annual member forum in November 2023. Over 10,000 members watched the forum last year and we received over 1,400 questions which shows strong engagement with the event. Messaging around consolidation will continue into the next reporting year as we know many members are interested in this topic. My Future Now, an online consolidation tool, is available to members allowing them to easily track down their pensions and transfer them into their pension with Legal & General.
Help our members consolidate their pension pots, to help improve retirement planning and pension outcomes
We continue to engage with Legal & General and have oversight of the development of the decumulation offering available to members. We note that improvements in this area are a key priority for Legal & General.
Strategic focus on how to improve the transition from accumulation (saving for retirement) into retirement, with products and focus on member journeys and nudges
We continue to receive regular updates from Legal & General on the introduction of a model to enable greater personalisation to improve member journeys. Legal & General adopts a ‘digital first approach’ and some services have been streamlined through being made available online in Manage Your Account. This allows members to receive faster services. Members can now easily nominate their beneficiaries online. Legal & General is further investing in an in-house communications tool which has been used during the year to enhance the maturity pack, leaver letter and Lifepoint letters and will continue to support with greater personalisation. Members are receiving a more personalised experience when they use the retirement planner which was updated and relaunched during the year. When members access this through Manage Your Account, the information is now pre-populated making it easier to use.
Continued oversight of investment in systems and processes to achieve the end goal of personalised end-to-end member journeys
The new MEC was established in January 2024. It is responsible for overseeing and assessing the experience you receive at different points of your savings journey, including all interactions with Legal & General. As part of this we created a dashboard for MEC which brings together rich data on how members engage with their pension, the demographics of members, usage of online tools, member feedback scores on services and digital tools and how members are taking their pension. This data helps us stay up to date on members’ overall experience of saving for their pension.
Ensuring our governance structure is most effectively structured to support our members. This includes the creation of a new Member Experience Committee (MEC)
As explained in section 2, we are moving all members in the Multi-Asset Fund (MAF), the second largest fund used as a default investment option, to one of the Target Date Funds (TDF), because we think TDFs will produce better outcomes in the long term. The default investment options have been expanded following the addition of a new alternative, called the Lifetime Advantage Fund (LAF). Your employer may choose to select this as the default investment option for your Scheme, or you can choose to invest in it yourself.
Continue to evolve our standard default investment options to improve expected member outcomes
Ensuring our governance structure is most effectively structured to support our members. This includes the creation of a new Member Experience Committee (MEC).
We hope this statement helps you understand how your pension is being looked after. If you would like to give any feedback on its contents, please contact the us at mastertrust_trustees@lgim.com You can also contact Legal & General’s Trust Services team 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. You can also call them on 0345 070 8686, 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. More information about how to contact Legal & General can be found here, including how to register for Manage Your Account, where you can access a virtual chat facility and secure messaging.
Contact us
The Mastertrust membership
Our Mastertrust continues to be trusted by increasing numbers of employers to provide benefits for their scheme members. As it grows, the Mastertrust provides greater economies of scale which allows for further investment into the Scheme and enhancement of the benefits available to you. During the year the Mastertrust Legal & General WorkSave Mastertrust (RAS), and its sister Scheme, the Legal & General WorkSave Mastertrust, have grown as follows:
Following the Scheme year end, we identified that the Assets Under Administration (AUA) and membership numbers disclosed in last year’s Chair’s Statement for the accounting years to 5 April 2022 and 5 April 2023 had been understated. The understatement related to the omission of data for members that have accessed their pension and are in drawdown (those in the 'decumulation' phase). The issue was reported to The Pensions Regulator. The root causes of the reporting error have been addressed. A full review of the processes and controls around AUA and member data for the Scheme has been carried out. The review confirmed that those processes and controls are being fully and effectively implemented to ensure the error cannot be repeated. The data for the accounting period to 5 April 2024 includes members and their assets in the decumulation phase of their retirement journey.
WorkSave Mastertrust (RAS)
Participating employers
5 April 2024 5 April 2023
203 188
129 113
332 301
Membership
702,734 634,481
1,178,531 1,088,192
1,881,265 1,722,673
Assets under administration
£16.41 billion £13.13 billion
£10.71 billion £8.06 billion
£27.12 billion £21.19 billion
WorkSave Mastertrust
Total
Chair’s Statement 2024
Find out more about what we are required to do by law and meet the board of Trustees.
How we oversee the Mastertrust
Section 1
A default investment option is where your money will be invested if you haven’t selected your own funds. It allows you to join a pension scheme without having to make an active decision on where to invest your money.
The default investment options
Section 2
The charges you pay on the funds you invest in will affect the returns you get from your pension savings over time. Understand the charges you pay and our assessment of whether this represents good value for you.
Charges and transactions costs
Section 3
We have appointed Legal & General Assurance Society Limited (Legal & General) to administer the Mastertrust on our behalf. Find out how we monitor the experience you receive, ensure that core financial transactions are processed promptly and accurately and check that service standards are maintained.
Administration
Section 4
Our Member Experience Committee has oversight of the communications you and your employer receive. We want to ensure communications are clear, easily understood and of a high quality, and support you at every stage of your journey, from starting to save to reaching retirement.
Member engagement and feedback
Section 5
One of our key aims is that the Mastertrust provides good value. Having carried out our assessment, along with our external independent adviser, we concluded that the Mastertrust provided ‘Good’, and in some areas, ‘Excellent’ value to you. Read on for a summary of the results and rationale.
Value for members
Section 6
We explain how the combined knowledge and understanding of the Trustees, together with the advice available, enables us to properly exercise our duties.
Trustees' knowledge and understanding
Section 7
We are always looking for ways to continue to develop and improve the offering for our members. Read more about our key priorities for 2025.
Action plan for 2025
Section 8
Statement of Investment Principles
Appendix 1
Investment returns
Appendix 2
Charges and transaction costs
Appendix 3
Illustrations
Appendix 4
Glossary
Appendix 6
The sections below are designed to help you understand how we oversee the Mastertrust, our assessment of whether the Mastertrust provides you with good value and our action plan for 2025. Hover over each section for a short summary, and click on a section to be taken to the relevant page in the main report. This opens in a new window.
Default investment options asset allocation, performance-based fees and charge cap reporting
Appendix 5
Section 1 How we oversee the Mastertrust
In the sections that follow, we will generally refer to these collectively as Legal & General to simplify matters.
Legal & General WorkSave Masterust ©2023
The law requires that we: • design default investment arrangements in your best interest and keep these under review (the default investment options are for those who don’t wish to make their own decisions on where their pension savings are invested); • ensure that core financial transactions are processed in a timely and accurate manner; • assess the quality of the communications you receive and how effective they are in helping you to make good decisions; and • assess whether the costs and charges you pay represent good value. In addition, we have: • a plan which clearly articulates our mission and strategic goals, which are driven by a commitment to deliver the best possible outcomes for our members; and • an objective to develop best practice governance to deliver the best possible outcomes for our members.
Back
So far, we’ve referred to Legal & General as the Mastertrust’s provider. However, several different company names are used throughout this document. We’ve shown below who’s who and what role they play in the Mastertrust:
Who’s who?
Legal & General Trustees Limited (LGTL) - is a corporate trustee company set up to govern the Mastertrust arrangement, which it does together with three professional trustee companies. Employers using the Mastertrust to provide pension benefits for their employees become what are referred to as participating employers.
Legal & General Assurance Society Limited
Legal & General Resources Limited
Legal & General Investment Management
Legal & General Resources Limited (LGRL) - LGRL is the Mastertrust’s principal employer. It does not participate in the Scheme and derives no income or other financial (or non-financial) benefit from it. It is responsible for appointing the trustees but is otherwise not involved in any of the Scheme’s commercial undertakings or appointments.
Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) – a division within Legal & General that manages your funds and makes day-to-day investment decisions. LGIM’s investment and stewardship teams engage with the companies they invest in to ensure they are managing risks and opportunities relating to responsible investing.
Who are the Trustees? We play an important role in ensuring that the Mastertrust is well run. Legal & General believes it’s important for the Board of Trustees to have members who are all independent of the Mastertrust provider and who have lots of experience relevant to meeting the needs of the Mastertrust. The Board of Trustees is as follows: • Legal & General Trustees Limited (LGTL). The LGTL trustee directors are Robert Waugh, Independent Chair of Trustees, Helen McEwan and Meera Venu. • Independent Governance Group (formerly Independent Trustee Services), an independent professional trustee firm, represented by Tegs Harding. • Vidett Ltd (formerly 20-20 Trustees), an independent professional trustee firm, represented by Mark Cliff. • The Law Debenture Pension Trust Corporation PLC, an independent professional trustee firm, represented by Robert Thomas. The trustee directors of LGTL and the representatives of the independent trustee companies comprise the Board of Trustees and, for convenience, are referred to as the Trustees. In December 2022, BESTrustees (represented by Catherine Redmond) was replaced by Independent Governance Group, formerly Independent Trustee Services (represented by Tegs Harding). Since the reporting period there have been subsequent changes to the Trustees appointed to LGTL: Dermot Courtier stood down in June 2023, and was replaced by Robert Waugh in July 2023, and more recently, Moira Beckwith stood down in September 2023, and was replaced by Helen McEwan in the same month.
The Board of Trustees
Dermot Courtier
ceding Independent Chair
Independent Chair
Moira Beckwith
Independent Trustee
Mark Cliff
Tegs Harding
Helen McEwan
Catherine Redmond
Robert Thomas
Meera Venu
Dermot was appointed the Independent Chair of the Mastertrust with effect from 1 March 2017. He also acted as Chair of the Legal & General Independent Governance Committee until his retirement in July 2022. Dermot was Director of Group Pensions at Kingfisher plc as well as Secretary to Kingfisher Pension Trustee Limited which oversees the governance and the running of the Kingfisher Pension Scheme. Dermot is a member of the PLSA DC Committee and a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel & Development. Dermot stepped down as Chair of the Board in June 2023 and has been replaced by Robert Waugh. We would like to thank Dermot for his support, dedication, and guidance to the Mastertrust Board, and we wish him well in his retirement plans.
Dermot Courtier,
Date joined the Mastertrust Board: March 2017 Date resigned from the Mastertrust Board: June 2023
Mastertrust specialisms: Independent Chair of the Mastertrust Trustee Board; member of the Investment Committee. Skill set: Investment management; extensive experience in defined benefit and defined contribution pensions Prior to this role, Robert was Chief Executive Officer and co-Chief Investment Officer of the Natwest Pension Scheme. Robert was instrumental in the turnaround of the funding position post the global financial crisis, closing the deficit. He oversaw the outsourcing of the administration and the digitalisation of the member journeys, taking the retirement journey from many weeks to 20 minutes. Robert has extensive defined contribution pension experience having chaired the RBS Retirement Saving Plan. He has been a non executive on the investment committee for the Department of International Development, a board member of the Cost Transparency Initiative, and is currently an investment committee member of the Carnegie Trust of Scotland. Earlier in his career, Robert was Head of UK Equities at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership for seven years, having spent the previous 15 years as an equity fund manager at UBS Phillips and Drew. Robert is passionate about members’ experiences and member outcomes, and a keen believer in the role of universal ownership in improving society for future generations.
Date joined the Mastertrust Board: July 2023
Robert Waugh,
Mastertrust specialisms: ceding Chair of the Operations Committee; previously a member of the Governance, Risk and Audit Committee Skill set: employee benefits; governance Moira is an experienced pensions and benefits professional having worked across different aspects of the industry. Prior to joining the Mastertrust, Moira was employed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where she was responsible for the benefit and pension programs over multiple geographies. In this role she had a strong emphasis for good governance and was active on various governance committees in different countries. Moira has gained a wide experience within the corporate environment and brings a wealth of industry knowledge and understanding. Moira continues to be a company trustee of GSK’s pension plans and chairs the DC Committee. Moira stepped down from the Board and her Committee roles in September 2023 and has been replaced by Helen McEwan. We would like to thank Moira for her dedication and contribution to the Mastertrust.
Date joined the Mastertrust Board: September 2017
Moira Beckwith,
Mastertrust specialisms: Chair of the Communications Committee; member of the Operations Committee Skill set: Broad experience of a range of pension matters, such as member options exercises including flexible retirement, longer-term journey planning and in-depth interactions with The Pensions Regulator. Mark represents the independent trustee firm Vidett. Mark brings widespread pensions experience, having worked in various roles on defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes, both as an in-house manager, Trustee Director, Chair of Trustees and as a pensions adviser. During his career, Mark has had the opportunity to work in various dynamic environments, and this has enabled him to develop his skills to provide proactive solutions with a strong emphasis in building relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders and teams. One of Mark's key focus areas is communications, with both the participating companies and members of the Mastertrust. Continuing to improve and expand the various ways in which communications are delivered is core to members' understanding and ultimately optimisation of their pension outcomes at retirement. Working closely with the communications team at Legal & General on new solutions such as online access, pension dashboards and apps continues to drive this incredibly important facet of the Mastertrust.
Date joined the Mastertrust Board: April 2020
Mark Cliff,
Mastertrust specialisms: Chair of the Investments Committee Skill set: Investments; benefit design Tegs represents the independent trustee firm Independent Governance Group (IGG). Tegs works with schemes focusing on the challenges of our time - how to invest over the long term to provide the best member outcomes whilst navigating inflation, demographics and climate change. Tegs believes that the pensions industry has an important role to play in determining the future of our economy, environment, and society. She is a member of the Association of Professional Pension Trustees (APPT) committee on ESG and climate change and works with a number of schemes who have implemented net zero targets. Tegs is a fully accredited professional trustee at Independent Governance Group, working with pensions schemes in a range of different sectors. She is a qualified actuary with over 15 years’ experience in the finance industry, having previously worked in investment consulting, asset management and retail banking.
Date joined the Mastertrust Board: December 2022
Tegs Harding,
Mastertrust specialisms: Member of the Governance, Risk and Audit Committee and the Operations Committee Skill set: Extensive experience of defined contribution and defined benefit pensions Helen is Chief Pensions Officer at USS where her key responsibilities extend to all aspects of delivery and development of employer and member pensions servicing (including operations, insight, communications, product design, proposition, change and transformation). As well as her executive role at USS, Helen is the Senior Independent Director and Investment Committee Chair at The Exeter (a mutual insurance company based in the south-west). Prior to her current roles, Helen worked for many years at Aegon where she held a number of key positions, including Head of International Sales, Commercial Director and Director of Banks and Partnerships. Since leaving Aegon, Helen has held executive roles at smaller master trust companies and specialist fintechs which have fuelled her passion for ensuring more people understand the value of protection, investment, and pension planning.
Date joined the Mastertrust Board: September 2023
Helen McEwan,
Mastertrust specialisms: ceding Chair of the Investments Committee Skill set: Actuarial expertise and extensive pensions background As well as representing the independent trustee firm BESTrustees Limited on the Mastertrust Board, Catherine sits on the trustee board of a range of other DB and DC pension schemes. Catherine is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, with over 25 years’ experience in the pensions industry. Before becoming an independent professional trustee, Catherine held senior management roles at two of the largest private sector pension schemes in the UK – Barclays UK Retirement Fund and the BT Pension Scheme. Catherine stepped down from the Board and Investment Committee in December 2022 and has been replaced by Tegs Harding. We would like to thank Catherine for her dedication and contribution to the Mastertrust.
Date joined the Mastertrust Board: April 2020 Date resigned from the Mastertrust Board: December 2022
Catherine Redmond,
Mastertrust specialisms: Chair of the Governance, Risk and Audit Committee; member of the Investment Committee Skill set: Financial management, governance and controls; broad spectrum of pensions matters Robert represents the independent trustee firm Law Debenture. Robert brings a corporate focus having worked in various financial roles at two large multinationals – Pfizer and Xerox for 20 years, as well as chairing each of their pension trustee boards. He trained as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen which equips him to lead the Governance, Risk and Audit Committee’s work. He sees good practices in pensions governance through his work with other boards as a full time independent professional trustee, and in his role on the Council of the Association of Professional Pension Trustees. Recognising that much of the population will depend on savings vehicles like the WorkSave Mastertrust for their income in later life, Robert places great emphasis on looking after the needs of members and is particularly interested in the influence of communications on savings behaviour. Robert has a BSC and PhD from the University of Bristol in Biology.
Robert Thomas,
Mastertrust specialisms: Member of the Communications Committee. Skill set: Digital engagement, analytics and marketing; strategy and operations Meera is an experienced digital leader, having worked across strategy, operations, analytics and client partnerships at Google in both the US and UK. Most recently, she led Google UK’s financial services marketing partnerships, focused particularly on insurance, pensions, and comparison sites. In her role, she advised and partnered with clients on consumer insights, digital transformation, and communication strategy. Meera is now a Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a selective leadership programme for 100 senior professionals. Meera started off her career as an equity analyst in healthcare and biotech at Morningstar, helping individual and institutional investors understand the investment landscape. She is a graduate of Stanford University and also studied at Oxford University.
Date joined the Mastertrust Board: January 2022
Meera Venu,
Legal & General Assurance Society Limited (LGAS) - LGAS is the Scheme which sponsors the Mastertrust and provides financial support for its operation and management. LGAS also administers the Mastertrust by investing contributions, maintaining member records, issuing communications, and calculating and paying retirement income
Legal & General Trustees Limited
Trustee independence The law requires that most members of a master trust’s trustee board, including the Chair, must be independent and not affiliated to the master trust in any way. To be non-affiliated, trustees must be independent of any company or organisation that provides, or has provided in the last five years, advisory, administration, investment or other services (a service provider). This includes: • Whether they are a director, manager, partner or employee of a service provider (or an undertaking which is connected to a service provider) in the period of five years ending with the date of the person's appointment as a trustee. • Whether they receive any payment or other benefit from a service provider. • Whether or not the person's obligations to a service provider conflict with their obligations as a trustee (and whether their obligations as a trustee will take priority in the case of a conflict). There are also time limits relating to the appointment of non-affiliated trustees. Trustees can be treated as non-affiliated for a single period of five years (or up to ten years in total). If there is a gap of more than five years between appointments, the previous appointment is ignored when working out the total. Slightly different rules apply to professional trustee bodies (who are not restricted to any particular term, but in which individual representatives cannot retain that role for more than ten years in total, regardless of any gap between appointments). All current Mastertrust Trustees and trustee directors, including the Chair of the Trustee Board, are non-affiliated. During the year Dermot Courtier’s appointment as the Chair of the Trustee Board was extended beyond 1 March 2022 (the end of his first five-year term, following his appointment on 1 March 2017), and this extension concluded in June 2023. In the following activities, the candidate profiles and interviews are managed by Legal & General’s company secretary, with the Chair of Trustees, the Scheme strategists, the Chair of Legal & General Resources Limited (the principal employer) and other members of Legal & General’s senior leadership team. Trustee appointment The law requires that the trustees of a master trust are selected and appointed using a transparent process. Legal & General operates an open and transparent recruitment process as described below. Review process: trustee directors of LGTL LGTL directors are appointed for an initial period of three years. Either party will have the option to renew the appointment for further three-year period, subject to an assessment of the director’s effectiveness. No LGTL director shall serve more than three terms. Either party also has the option to terminate their appointment at any point. Review process: independent professional trustees Legal & General carries out an independent assessment of professional trustees’ effectiveness every three years and, subject to a satisfactory assessment of effectiveness, the trustee will be invited to continue for a further three years. No trustee should serve for more than three terms. Every six years, Legal & General undertakes a market review of the independent professional trustees, considering their suitability and performance against the appointment criteria and compared with other independent trustees. In conducting a market review, Legal & General follows the open and transparent process described below. Selection process: trustee directors and independent professional trustees When preparing the candidate profile for the trustee directors and independent professional trustees, Legal & General considers both the diversity of the Trustee Board (in terms of aspects such as gender and experience) and the gaps identified in the most recent assessment of the Board’s experience and skills. An external executive search agency is appointed to identify suitable candidates to attend an interview. Master trust supervision As an authorised master trust we have provided information to The Pensions Regulator both on request and proactively and have an open and collaborative relationship with them.
Key Highlights
02 - The default investment arrangements
08 - Action plan for 2024
Appendix 2 - Investment returns
Appendix 3 - Charges and transactions costs
Appendix 5 - Glossary
Will be the section linked to main report
Section 8 Action plan for 2024
We are always looking for ways to continue to develop and improve the offering for our members. In the coming months we will be revising our strategic plan and communicating our key objectives and strategic priorities more fully. This will also define our approach to focusing on the growing scale of the Mastertrust. Our key priorities are as follows:
We have requested full information on charges, administration service standards and the processing of core financial transactions. The investment performance and charges are based on figures for the 12-month period to the end of March 2023 rather than the scheme year end to 5 April 2023. This is because investment managers customarily process costs and charges and report investment performance at quarter-ends in accordance with their funds’ mandates. In addition, we have obtained administration service level information for the 12 months to 31 March 2023. This means that some information is missing (for the period 1 April 2023 to 5 April 2023) and some is outside the period covered by this statement. The data for the period 1 to 5 April is not deemed to be material and will be covered in the next report and statement.
Missing information and limitations
We’ll be focusing on diversity within the Trustee Board and the teams that support the running of the Mastertrust, as well as communications to members and the responsible investing element of the investments we provide. Embracing diversity generates a wider pool of talent by reflecting the broadest range of human attributes, experience, and backgrounds. It also supports good decision making and reduces the risk of groupthink by providing different viewpoints, ideas, and challenge. It is therefore important that we, as a Board of Trustees, as well as those that support and advise us, include individuals from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Creating an inclusive culture and ensuring all are effectively involved, valued and supported seeks to ensure that the Board benefits from its diversity by having a safe environment in which to share and discuss different views. We look after the pension savings of millions of members in the UK. Reflecting the diverse needs and beliefs of our members is important in all we do, including how we communicate with members and the products and services we have available.
Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)
Continue to evolve our standard defaults in a number of areas to improve expected member outcomes, including: • Further investing in illiquids to improve diversification and expected outcomes in our current Target Date Fund as well as launching a new default fund with a higher allocation to illiquids. • Reviewing how we analyse, measure and report on the climate impact of our investments.
Ensuring our governance structure is most effectively structured to support our members. This includes the creation of a new member experience committee.
Continued oversight of investment in systems and processes over the next 12 months to achieve the end goal of personalised end to end member journeys. This includes the launch of the new Legal & General App.
