Fund governance

Each fund has a mandate that sets out its aims and how it intends to meet them. The Fund Governance Group ratifies the mandate of any new fund to make sure it can be managed in line with expectations and is likely to deliver good customer outcomes. 

For non-insured funds, like our Risk-Managed Portfolios, it ensures compliance with MiFID II and PROD principles regarding target market, suitability, and transparency of reporting.

The Fund Governance Group uses a framework to deliver on our promises to customers and provide assurance to our stakeholders. The team operates processes and controls which identify whether funds are being invested as customers expect and highlights if they’re not delivering good customer outcomes. 

The Fund Governance Group uses a risk-based approach taking account of Aegon's strategic objectives as well as the requirements of our key stakeholders:

• Customers
• Regulators, and
• Shareholders

Our funds are generally designed to be held for five years or more, so our fund governance focuses on long-term expectations. 

If a fund persistently fails to meet the agreed criteria, and we believe these reasons are systemic, the Fund Governance Group will recommend changes, including a potential replacement fund. 

We score all our fund managers based on their ability to meet our minimum expectations across five areas of responsible investment:   

Our Responsible investment framework gives more detail on our expectations of fund managers.  

Changes to funds or managers can be made for a variety of reasons, not just performance. Our guiding principle is to make sure that any changes help us meet our Funds Promise commitment to investors.

Our Fund Governance Group may recommend changes if monitoring suggests these would improve customer outcomes for the solutions we've created, such as our default options or multi-asset solutions. For example, this could mean updating the asset mix held within funds or making changes to the funds that make up a portfolio.

The Fund Governance Group may also make changes to fund ranges, like the One Retirement fund range. These decisions consider the specific objectives of the range, so a fund could be removed from one range and retained in another.

The Fund Governance Group will also assess the materiality of any changes, and whether communications are required to those affected.

This may mean writing directly to scheme members, or for smaller changes we may post updates on our website.