Scottish Widows hires former regulator as master trust chair

So where did it all begin?

Mr Warwick-Thompson read law at Sheffield University but found pensions more alluring. He joined Bacon & Woodrow, the forerunner to Aon, in 1986 and became something of a rarity – one of its only four non-actuary equity partners – in 1997. 

An innovator, he says that as early as 1998 “we had set up the first [defined contribution] team supporting employers in the conversion of defined benefit to DC schemes”.

He adds: “A lot of high-profile people in the market now were there at that time from the late 1990s to early noughties. It kind of lost its way thereafter and we all drifted off to do different things.”

Master trust work a highlight

In 2013, Mr Warwick-Thompson joined TPR. His final role was the executive director for regulatory policy, for formulation of policy across the piste, DB, DC and public service pensions. 

He was particularly proud of introducing its first DC codes and laying the foundations for the framework of the supervision and authorisation of master trusts.

He says: “It was clear that master trusts were going to be important players in the DC market, and the approach to regulation needed to be different. Persuading [the Department for Work and Pensions] that we needed new powers in that area stood out for me as an important contribution to the development of the regulation of pension schemes.”

In July 2017, Mr Warwick-Thompson joined LGPS Central as chief executive – the sole employee. The period was very intense. “We needed to have a fully functioning asset management and asset pooling structure up and running for receipt of the first tranche of assets by the following April,” he says.

“By the time I left in March 2019, we had £20bn of assets on the platform. We went from zero to £20bn of fully functioning assets in less than two years.” 

Much of the work was in the central Midlands, which meant a weekly commute. “I really need to reconnect with my family I hardly ever saw,” Mr Warwick-Thompson says.

As “we had reached the stage where we had created the platform, created all the infrastructure and we were moving on to a phase that was more focused on client serving and business as usual”, it was time to move on, he continues.

Widows moves into master trust space

He became a professional trustee at Capital Cranfield in 2020 where, as its representative, he is two weeks into chairing the Scottish Widows Master Trust, an acquisition from Zurich (comparatively small with 21,000 members and fewer than a dozen employers). 

Meanwhile, Covid-19 has impacted everything. “We meet virtually with Scottish Widows weekly” to ensure that member servicing, and admin is up to scratch.

Despite the lockdown, so far there has been no spike in complaints, although he says: “Scottish Widows generally has seen a big spike in calls from members over volatility.” 

Mr Warwick-Thompson probably has no need to earn a daily crust, but emphasises: “I have an absolute need to keep myself interested and Scottish Widows interests me enormously.

“The master trust at Widows has huge potential and the next few years could be transformational. I am really relishing the challenge.”