Your Island Pension appoint Nest boss to chair governance committee

Helen Dean, CEO of Nest, has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Your Island Pension (YIP) Governance Committee from January 2024.

Under Helen’s watch, Nest has grown to become one of the largest pension schemes in the UK and takes care of pensions for a third of the UK’s working population. Nest are forecast to have £100 billion assets under management by the end of the next decade.

Nest is a pension scheme backed by the UK government built on the model of offering free auto-enrolment to employers for their staff. YIP, whose creation was facilitated by the States of Guernsey, and is governed independently by Sovereign Pension Services (CI) Limited, will operate on a similar model.

It is estimated that approximately 65% of the employed working age population are not making any personal pension provision. By ensuring islanders are able to count on a good pension, it will reduce the demand on tax-funded income support for those over retirement age in future years.

Sean Gillease, Managing Director of Sovereign Pension Services (CI) Limited commented, 

“We are delighted to announce that Helen Dean CBE has accepted the role of Chair for the Your Island Pension Governance Committee. Her significant experience from the design and introduction of auto-enrolment in the United Kingdom and her time since with NEST Corporation, most recently as CEO, will be invaluable to us as we embark on the same journey they set out on more than a decade ago. 

It is not an overstatement to say that Helen is the perfect person to take this role and we are excited to have her involved and looking forward to working with her in the coming years.”

Commenting on the appointment, Helen Dean said,

“I am delighted to be taking up the role of Chair of the Governance Committee for Your Island Pension. Setting up an auto enrolment scheme is an important step for Guernsey and Alderney and building on my experience of this in the UK, I look forward to working with Sovereign and the Governance Committee to ensure Your Island Pension has strong and effective governance and the best possible pension scheme for the people of Guernsey and Alderney.”

YIP will be open to all employers in Guernsey and Alderney on a voluntary basis from January 2024. From July 2024, larger employers (those with 26+ employees) will be required to enrol eligible employees into an approved secondary pension.