Independent Governance Committee

What are Independent Governance Committees?

Independent Governance Committees (IGC's) were established by workplace pension providers in April 2015, following the introduction of new rules from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Their purpose is to ensure that your pension with Aviva provides value for money.

Aviva and the Independent Governance Committee

The Independent Governance Committee act solely in the interests of scheme members and operate independently of Aviva.

We assess and, where necessary, challenge Aviva on the value for money of workplace personal pension schemes.

Our role is to:

Assess the the value for money of your workplace pensions on an ongoing basis, using a 'Value for Money Framework'
Assess the quality of benefits and services and minimum governance standards
Consider whether costs and charges are fair and appropriate for the services provided and improve transparency
Raise any concerns we have to the Aviva Board in the first instance, and ultimately, to the FCA should we feel our concerns have not been adequately addressed

Read our full terms of reference (PDF 183 KB)

We'll produce an annual report telling members about the work we’ve done to ensure value for money.

Read our latest report (PDF 11.2 MB)

Read our annual disclosure of workplace pension costs and charges here (PDF 33 KB).

We want to hear your views. If you’d like to get in touch with us, email us at IGC@aviva.com

Members of the Independent Governance Committee

Colin Richardson

Colin is a trained actuary and worked as an employee benefit consultant before becoming a professional trustee. Colin has a wealth of experience of DC master trusts, single employer trusts and hybrid schemes.

Georgia Stewart

Georgia is co-founder and CEO of Tumelo, a company which inspires and enables pension members to engage with companies they are invested in on issues they care about, such as gender equality, human rights, and climate change. Her passion for Environmental, Social and Governance considerations and member engagement will help the IGC monitor Aviva’s ambitious net zero carbon targets, both from a corporate and investment perspective.

Marcia Campbell

Marcia is an independent non-executive director with over 25 years' experience in the financial services industry, encompassing strategy, IT, operations and international development.

She is currently on the Board of Canada Life, Sainsbury’s Bank; CNP Assurances, (France’s leading life assurer), and Murray International Trust, a FTSE 250 Investment Trust.

The main part of her executive career was with Standard Life plc, where, latterly, she was a member of the Group Executive Committee responsible for group operations and CEO Asia Pacific.

Gurmukh Hayre

Gurmukh is a professional independent trustee and governance adviser. He has been involved in pensions for over 35 years, having worked for 2 leading pensions providers and in KPMG’s pensions practice for 28 years. He served as a KPMG pensions partner from 2000 to 2016.

He led KPMG’s DC pension practice for over 10 years, advising employers/trustees on all aspects of pension scheme design, governance, communication and investment.

He brings deep cross-sector experience, having advised employers ranging from SMEs, mid-Corporates through to FTSE 100 organisations.

He is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute and has been an FCA authorised adviser for over 30 years.

Ian Baines

Ian is an experienced pension professional who has helped manage a number of workplace pensions for several large UK employers.

He was formerly head of pensions at Nationwide Building Society where his team won team of the year at Nationwide’s annual awards for their work in promoting employee pension savings.