Aegon has announced its support for the agreement OFT has reached with the industry to strengthen scheme governance and to undertake an audit of older and higher charging schemes.
Angela Seymour Jackson, Aegon’s Managing Director of Workplace Solutions says: “Aegon supports the introduction of independent governance committees to represent member interests. This will complement the protection regulation already offers members of contract-based schemes. The industry commitment, which Aegon helped shape, will create both urgency and consistency to making this happen across the industry.
“We also agree that some older schemes would benefit from modernisation. Some have valuable features, but not all may meet today’s value for money standards. Others would benefit from technological advances. A detailed audit is the right next step to developing industry-wide value for money principles allowing for different features and charging approaches.”
Aegon expects the DWP’s forthcoming consultation on pension charges to assess the pros and cons of the OFT’s further suggested changes against the broader objective of making automatic enrolment successful.
Angela Seymour Jackson continued: “The OFT’s review was prompted by the surge in membership of DC schemes brought about by auto-enrolment. The industry commitments to the audit and to strengthening governance will go a very long way to giving members confidence they are being auto-enrolled into good schemes. The DWP’s charges consultation needs to weigh up the pros and cons of any further detailed interventions. Critically, we must not risk undermining the broader auto-enrolment agenda.”
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