Topic: Business Announcement

The People’s Pension strengthens its expectations of fund managers in new Responsible Investment Policy

Leading master trust The People’s Pension1 has strengthened the expectations of its investment managers in its new Responsible Investment policy.

The £26 billion pension scheme’s newly published Responsible Investment policy2 sets out the minimum requirements and ongoing expectations that it has for its fund managers.  As part of its minimum requirements, fund managers are expected to have a commitment to net zero and adequate stewardship resourcing.  If these minimum requirements are not met, the Scheme’s Trustee has warned it will put their relationship under review, which could result with them moving their 6.7 million members’ assets to other managers.

The new policy also underlines The People’s Pension’s commitment to working with industry-wide groups such as Nature Action 1003 and Climate Action 100+4. The Scheme believes these groups are the best way to collaborate with others, to improve stewardship and engagement levels on behalf of retirement savers and other investors, and most importantly, expects the same commitment of its fund managers.

As part of the policy, the Scheme’s Trustee has set out clear objectives regarding its Responsible Investment approach. The policy sets out specifically how The People’s Pension plans to use its scale and influence as one of the largest UK asset owners toward this objective and the areas that it has prioritised.

The Scheme’s Trustee has said that climate change, nature and human rights are its three stewardship priorities going forward.

Fund managers will be expected to support The People’s Pension in achieving their emissions reduction targets, which are set out over the short, medium and long term:

• Net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050.

• Halving its GHG emission intensity by 2030 for the Scheme’s growth assets.

• 30% GHG emissions intensity reduction by 2025 for the developed equity portion of the portfolio.

The document also includes new net zero voting guidelines which The People’s Pension expects its fund managers to implement5. It details when to vote against company directors in fossil fuel reliant sectors on both the supply and demand side, and on deforestation.  The guidelines represent a targeted approach to voting and company engagement, to achieve the maximum potential for impact. 

Leanne Clements, Head of Responsible Investment at People’s Partnership, which provides The People’s Pension to 6.7 million UK members, said: 

“Our new Responsible Investment policy has both our members’ views and interests at its very heart. With stewardship firmly under the microscope and the clock running down on critical issues such as climate change, now is the time to be bolder and braver in terms of what we expect of our fund managers. 

“Gone are the days of “tea and cake” engagement – what we want from our fund managers is evidence of a targeted approach to engagement, routed in a robust theory of change to achieve maximum impact.  We want to see evidence that limited stewardship resources are being employed in the most effective way possible, and that fund managers execute robust voting escalation strategies.  As an important complement to our portfolio construction approach on climate change6, we recognise the need to achieve real-world emissions reductions in priority sectors through targeted engagement.” 

Mark Condron, Chair of the Board of Trustees at The People’s Pension, said:

“The main objective is to drive better investment outcomes for our members and our stewardship objective is to encourage investee companies to behave in more responsible and sustainable ways. Hard working pension savers expect asset owners such as us to ensure that their money is invested responsibly, and this report outlines how we are doing just that. Our approach is to ensure both financial value and resilience of our members’ savings, which is why the requirements we have of fund managers are so robust.”

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People’s Partnership staff raise more than £12,000 for Crawley Open House in year-long fundraising drive

Staff at People’s Partnership have helped raise a record breaking £12,993 to Crawley Open House over the past 12 months.

The 900 workers at the leading workplace pension provider have helped raise much needed funds for the town’s homeless shelter after they nominated it as their charity of the year for 2023/24. During this time, they’ve arranged a series of fundraising events such as a raffle to win a week of holiday that had been donated by the CEO Patrick Heath-Lay, which raised £4,682.

Patrick and his colleagues Nyree McGowan and Teresa Brown raised a further £2,674 when they spent a night on the streets of Crawley last autumn as part of the Big Sleep Out initiative.

Throughout the past year, teams of staff at People’s Partnership, which is based in Manor Royal, Crawley, have cooked £1,500 worth of meals for a total of 440 people using the centre after volunteering their time to work in the kitchen. Funds have also been raised via initiatives such as a bingo night, a guess the number of sweets in a drive competition and a collection of food vouchers.

Commenting, Nicola Sinclair, Head of Responsible Business at People’s Partnership, said: “As an organisation which was founded for social good, we pride ourselves on demonstrating these beliefs through supporting our local community, of which we’ve been part of for the past 60 years. Crawley Open House is a remarkable charity which not only offers food and shelter to the most vulnerable in society but also provides them with hope and a purpose.”

This week, staff at People’s Partnership, which provides The People’s Pension to more than 6.5 million workers across the UK, voted for Age UK to be their staff charity of the year for the next 12 months.

Ian Wilkins, Head of Relationships and Fundraising at Crawley Open House, said: “We have been so blessed to have been People’s Partnership’s Charity of the Year for the last 12 months. Staff from across the Company have stood with us in all sorts of ways, especially by raising a fantastic amount of funding towards our vital work, and spending hundreds of hours volunteering in our hostel kitchen. We can’t thank them all enough and wish them all the best in working with the fantastic cause Age UK in the coming year.”

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The People’s Pension Trustee Board announces appointment of a new director

The People’s Pension has appointed Dr Sheila Doyle, a senior executive with experience at large organisations, to serve on the Trustee Board.

Sheila joins the six existing Trustee Directors to oversee the running of the leading workplace pension scheme, which currently has assets under management of £26 billion and serves more than 6.5 million members, which is one in five of the UK workforce.

Sheila has more than three decades of experience in executive and board positions across organisations including Deloitte, BP, Royal Mail, IBM, and Deutsche Bank and is a specialist in delivering transformational change through the application of innovative digital solutions. As well as her extensive experience in professional services and other sectors, she also serves as a non-executive director for both NHS Supply Chain and London Ambulance Service

Commenting on her appointment, Sheila said: “I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to serve of as a Trustee at The People’s Pension, which has helped change the face of retirement saving in the UK. I am joining a very experienced team of Trustees and I look forward to being able to help make a difference to the futures of our members.”

Mark Condron, Chair of Trustees at The People’s Pension said: “Sheila’s appointment to the Trustee Board is fantastic news for our membership as she comes with an impressive record of innovating and implementing change. She will help us fulfil our purpose of helping people build stronger financial foundations for the future.”

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People’s Partnership appoints new Marketing Director

People’s Partnership, provider of The People’s Pension, has announced the appointment of Alice Leighton as Marketing Director, to drive forward engagement with its 6.5 million members.

Alice will join the leading workplace pension provider in April from RSA, where she is currently Head of Brands, Direct and Customer and responsible for brand strategy, marketing campaigns, content, and customer experience.  She has more than 20 years’ experience in financial services marketing and has held various marketing and distribution roles across RSA’s broker, consumer (MORE THAN), and partnership brands including Nationwide, Tesco, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer.

Commenting on her appointment at the profit-for-people organisation, Alice said: “I’m delighted to be joining because it’s a rare opportunity to develop a brand and marketing for a financial services organisation with a heart – the member is central to everything it does.

“I’m passionate about brand and communications, and this always starts for me with a clear organisational purpose. I’m therefore really excited to be leading the marketing function at People’s Partnership on their mission to help its members build stronger financial foundations across the UK.”

David Meliveo, Chief Commercial Officer at People’s Partnership, said: “I’m thrilled to be able to welcome Alice onboard to lead the vital marketing team for The People’s Pension. Her vast experience in this field will only serve to help us further grow our brand as one of the UK’s leading workplace pension providers.”

In February, The People’s Pension was the first UK master trust to announce £25 billion assets under management. The business continues to build its proposition with the recent introduction of a new set of retirement planning tools, a financial wellbeing offering, and a member app set to be launched later this year.

The People’s Pension moves £15bn of assets into climate aware investment strategies

The People’s Pension1, the leading workplace pension scheme, has today announced the move of £15 billion of its assets under management into climate aware investment strategies – the biggest single move of its kind by a UK master trust.

This means 70% of the Scheme’s main investment fund2 will be aligned to the Paris Agreement goal of keeping warming below 1.5°C3.

The change means the carbon footprint of the investments for the majority of its 6.5 million members has reduced by 30 per cent. This change also results in divestment from companies that produce thermal coal within the assets covered by this new strategy.

The new investment approach4 is designed to adjust the level of investment in companies based upon their exposure to climate risks and opportunities, and tracks regional indices, which aim to exceed the minimum standards of the European Union’s Climate Transition Benchmark5. This means it will have at least a 30 per cent reduction in emissions initially and will further reduce by 7 per cent each year, to be aligned with the target of reaching Net Zero by 2050.

The primary aim of the change is to manage the long-term risks posed to members’ investments by climate change and a green transition, that aren’t currently being priced by the market.

It also means that members can be confident their investments are working toward the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Commenting, Dan Mikulskis, the Chief Investment Officer for People’s Partnership, provider of The People’s Pension, said: “We believe the changes we have announced mean that The People’s Pension is now one of the greenest master trusts in the UK, which is great news for our members. Asset owners like us are uniquely positioned to use our size and influence to ensure our members’ savings are allocated and managed responsibly, and that the companies in which we invest are acting in responsible and sustainable ways.

“Key to our investment philosophy is conviction in what we do – if we really believe in something we want to make it core to our members’ retirement savings, rather than a tick to a box, and that’s what we’ve done here.”

The new investment strategy is designed to deliver even better investment returns for savers.

Commenting, Mark Condron, Chair of The People’s Pension Trustee, said:

“This is a hugely significant moment for The People’s Pension and its 6.5 million members as it reinforces our commitment to tackling climate change through investing.

“Our members can be confident their savings are working towards achieving Net Zero targets and not against it.”

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The People’s Pension becomes UK’s first independent master trust to reach £25bn assets under management

The People’s Pension1 has announced that it has passed £25bn in assets under management (AUM), making it the first independent master trust in the UK to announce the milestone.  

This reinforces its position as the largest independent master trust in the UK, which has been achieved in a little over a decade since it was launched in 2012. Today the scheme, provided by not-for-profit organisation People’s Partnership, serves more than 6.5 million members from over 100,000 employers from all sectors.

Commenting on reaching the milestone AuM figure, Patrick Heath-Lay, Chief Executive Office of People’s Partnership, said:

“Reaching £25 billion assets under management is a significant milestone for The People’s Pension, which has achieved remarkable growth over the past decade or so.

“As an organisation founded for social good, everything we do, we do in the best interests of our members, meaning this latest milestone is great news for them. Our scale enables us to deliver fantastic value, with our members receiving full benefit of our activities. From here the scheme will only continue to grow and we are on track to reach the £50 billion mark in the next five years. We anticipate that this rate of growth will be further accelerated by the steps being taken to consolidate the workplace pension market so that there are fewer, bigger and better value schemes available.

“Our increasing scale and use of our ‘profit for people’ philosophy, gives us the ability to deliver exceptional value and take advantage of a consolidating marketplace.”

Mark Condron, Chair of The People’s Pension Trustee, said: “Scale is incredibly important to pension schemes and the more The People’s Pension continues to grow, the more we can seek to provide even better value for our members.”

The master trust recently outlined its ambition to move from the auto-enrolment space to become a leading workplace pension provider, as it continues to build its proposition with the recent introduction of a new set of retirement planning tools, a financial wellbeing offering, and a member app set to be launched later this year.

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The People’s Pension gives back £50m to members

The UK’s largest independent master trust, The People’s Pension1, has given back £50 million to its membership through rebates on its annual management charge (AMC).

It’s nearly four years since the pension scheme, provided by not-for-profit organisation People’s Partnership, introduced its rebate charging structure, which rewards members for saving more over time – between 0.1% on savings over £3,000 and 0.3% on savings over £50,000.  This aligns with the organisation’s member-centric approach and highlights the impact that charging can have on a member’s retirement savings.

Currently, The People’s Pension pays back nearly £2 million every month, with this figure only set to increase as individual pots grow. It’s the only independent provider to offer a single pot to its members, regardless of how many times they are enrolled by different employers with a best price guarantee on pension charges.

Patrick Heath-Lay, CEO of People’s Partnership, provider of The People’s Pension, said:

“As an organisation founded for social good and centred around better member outcomes, we’re committed to helping our 6.5 million members build financial foundations for life. Delivering £50 million in rebates in such a short space of time is another example of how we continue to put our members first. We do not believe in the ‘set and forget‘ industry charging practices which erode a member’s pension pot value as their funds grow. As a provider we aim to deliver maximum value back to our members, not shareholders, and we see this as yet another great step towards this.”

People’s Partnership recently outlined its ambition to move from the auto-enrolment space to become a leading workplace pension provider, as it continues to build its proposition with the recent introduction of a new set of retirement planning tools, a financial wellbeing offering, and a member app, which is set to be launched later this year.

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People’s Partnership appoints new Chief Operating Officer

People’s Partnership, provider of The People’s Pension, has appointed Angela Staral as Chief Operating Officer (COO) to drive the continued improvement of the services that it offers to both its 6.5 million members and the more than 100,000 employers it serves.

Angela will join the not-for-profit organisation in February from Goldman Sachs, where she is currently COO of Investment Banking Engineering. She has previously worked for HSBC, ING, Sopra Steria and Mercedes-Benz Financial Services. She has lived and worked in Berlin, Frankfurt, Singapore, New York and London during a 20-year career in financial services.

Angela will oversee all customer operations and servicing at People’s Partnership, which with £23 billion assets under management is one of the largest workplace pension providers in the UK.

Commenting on her appointment, Angela said: “I am delighted about joining People’s Partnership. To help people build stronger financial foundations for life is a purpose that deeply resonates with me, and I am incredibly excited to play an instrumental part not only in People’s Partnership’s growth plans but also to join in its unwavering commitment to customer-centricity.

“This is a business packed full of people who want to make a genuine difference to the millions of customers they serve, and I am looking forward to joining them to further improve that already excellent service.”

Commenting on Angela’s appointment, Patrick Heath-Lay, Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are thrilled to have Angela onboard as her experience at some of the world’s best-known companies will only benefit this organisation. Angela’s commitment to delivering excellence will enable us to continue to improve the service we offer to our growing membership.”

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People’s Partnership calls for pension industry to ensure ‘best price’ for members to help them save thousands more towards their future

People’s Partnership1, which provides The People’s Pension to 6.4 million people across the UK, is calling for pension providers to help people save more for retirement, by offering a single pension pot with the lowest available price on all savings.

While the average worker has 11 jobs during a lifetime2, it is not uncommon for savers of workplace schemes to have multiple pension pots with the same provider and, in many cases, pay different rates of charges.

The People’s Pension is the only independent pension provider to give members a single pot, regardless of how many times they leave and re-join the scheme, all charged at the lowest rate available to them.

This means that if a member joined The People’s Pension through an employer with a base charge of 0.3%3, left the scheme and then returned with another employer on 0.5%, they would continue to pay a base charge of 0.3% on all their savings.

People’s Partnership is now calling on pension providers across the industry to follow suit to help save people thousands more towards their future.

Its analysis shows that a saver with £100,000 split between two pots with a provider which does not offer one pot could pay more than £11,000 more in charges over the course of 20 years compared to someone saving through The People’s Pension best price guarantee on a single pot model.4

Patrick Heath-Lay, Chief Executive Officer at People’s Partnership, said:

“As an organisation that is committed to helping its members build financial foundations for life, our members benefit from having one pot with a best price guarantee, meaning that, not only do they pay just one set of charges, but they also have a better chance of receiving a rebate5 on the charges they pay.

“There are very real examples of savers who have multiple pension pots with the same provider, who are paying significantly differing charges for the same product. We believe that if other pension providers are really serious about putting the needs of their customers first, they should introduce the single pot model and ensure that individuals pay the lowest rate of charges available to them. This would also go some way towards reducing the number of small pots that are currently in circulation.

“Our best available price guarantee is unique to the workplace pension market and will benefit millions of our members over the long term.”

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The People’s Pension outlines ambition to become leading workplace pension provider

People’s Partnership, provider of The People’s Pension, has today outlined its ambition to move from the auto-enrolment space to become a leading workplace pension provider, as it prepares to launch key propositional developments.

Over the past decade, the provider of the UK’s largest independent master trust, has driven real growth, with £22bn assets under management and an annual cashflow of £3.5bn.

The People’s Pension is currently building its proposition to support the broader needs that employers have for their workforce, with a programme of key propositional developments which will help to provide greater financial security for its 6.4 million members.

Following the introduction of a new financial well-being hub earlier this month, it’s Chief Commercial Officer, David Meliveo, is driving forward the development of new additional capabilities to start pricing at scheme level, a new set of retirement planning tools and member app to be launched later this scheme year, while also working to grow its financial wellbeing offering.  

Commenting, Mr Meliveo said:

“This is a really exciting time for The People’s Pension. Over the past decade, we’ve driven real growth, with £22bn assets under management and an annual cashflow of £3.5bn. We’re now evolving our proposition to support the broader needs that employers have for their workforce, aiming to move from the auto-enrolment space to become a leading workplace pension provider.

“In a time of economic uncertainty, it’s important that we build a financial wellbeing offering for our members, which we’ve begun with the launch of a new hub and the recruitment of a new Employer Engagement Team, that will support over 100,000 businesses and financial advisers who have put their trust in us. Our research shows that people don’t understand their options at retirement so we will launch a retirement planner and new app before the end of the scheme year, to ensure our members have all the information they need to plan for their futures.

“There’s no doubt that The People’s Pension has been a huge success in the auto-enrolment space, but as a provider founded for social good, that’s without shareholders and truly puts its members first, we feel there’s an important space for us in the workplace pension market.” 

The organisation has also implemented a new specialist bulk transfers team and online data transfer process and introduced pre-funding to make complex cases as simple as possible and mitigate out of market risk for members.

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