Standard Life appoints Mike Ambery as Retirement Savings Director

id

• Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group, has appointed Mike Ambery in the new role of Retirement Savings Director.

In this role, he will lead on the delivery of Standard Life’s thought leadership programmes and act as spokesperson for the business both in national and trade media. The position will build on his extensive experience of helping both individuals and professional audiences make sense of the savings landscape and changes in the economic and regulatory environment. He will be responsible for Standard Life’s Thinking Forward programme which looks to bring insights from other countries’ pensions systems to the UK and includes the company’s Joint Research Initiative with the OECD. His appointment will take effect from 26th February 2024.

Mike is a prominent figure in UK pensions with over 20 years’ experience in the industry. He joins from Hymans Robertson, where he was a Partner and DC Consultant leading on DC and Firmwide Pension Proposition delivery. He has extensive expertise including pension scheme design and benefits management; change and implementation, automatic enrolment; salary sacrifice; Pension Dashboard preparedness and pension scheme risk mitigation/ transition to DB buy-out and DC transition. Mike has consistently focussed on better outcomes for members and most recently has been active with DC consolidation and pension exit strategies with this focus in mind.

He also spent four years as a consultant in the tax and pensions team at KPMG and before that worked at the Co-operative Insurance Society as a Securities and Investments Board (SIB) Review Technical Analyst. He is a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute.

Announcing the appointment, Sangita Chawla, Managing Director at Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group said: “I am delighted to welcome Mike to our team, at a time when customers face increased levels of uncertainty in their lives. With more than two decades experience and a depth of practical and technical knowledge, Mike’s insight will shape how we communicate with customers and employers to provide reassurance and understanding at every stage of the retirement journey and to help them achieve greater certainty around their financial futures.”

Commenting on his appointment Mike Ambery said: “Standard Life is an incredible brand with a long heritage of looking after people’s savings. The business undergoing a significant transformation, steadily growing its presence in pensions and adviser markets, with significant levels of investment in both its products and services for consumers. With numerous developments in the pensions and savings landscape over the last few years, I’m pleased to be part of such a dynamic business, and to be able to help shape its voice and policy as it supports consumers achieve their best possible retirement outcomes.”

ENDS

Enquiries

Notes to editors:

About Standard Life

• Standard Life is a brand that has been trusted to look after peoples’ life savings for nearly 200 years.
• Today it proudly serves millions of customers who come to Standard Life directly, through advisers and through their employers’ pension scheme.
• Standard Life is part of Phoenix Group, the largest long-term savings and retirement business in the UK. We’re proud to be building on nearly 200 years of Standard Life heritage together.
• Our products include a variety of Pensions, Bonds and Retirement options to suit people’s needs, helping our customers to invest and save for their future. We’re proud to offer a leading range of sustainable and responsible investment options.
• We support our customers on their journey to and through retirement with comprehensive, easy-to-understand guidance so they can invest in the right way for their needs and plan a future they feel confident about.
• The value of investments can go down as well as up and may be worth less than originally invested.