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Welcome to the Fidelity Master Trust

The Fidelity Master Trust is designed to provide employers and their employees with a well- governed, value-for-money pension scheme.

The role of the Master Trust Board

The Fidelity Master Trust is run by a board of five Trustees, all of whom are independent. The Trustees are responsible for making sure the Scheme is run in line with the Scheme rules and the relevant legislation.

The Master Trust Board has a legal obligation to act in members’ best interests. The Scheme rules give the Trustees:

  • responsibility for managing the Scheme’s investments;
  • the power to appoint and remove advisers and service providers;
  • the right to terminate the Scheme in certain circumstances.

In addition, the Trustees have to comply with The Pensions Regulator’s Code of Practice for the governance of occupational defined contribution plans and the authorisation and supervision of master trusts. This is based on six elements that contribute to ‘good member outcomes’:

  • Appropriate contribution decisions;
  • Appropriate investment decisions;
  • Effective and efficient administration;
  • Protection of assets;
  • Value for Members;
  • Appropriate decumulation decisions.

Trustees

As Scheme sponsor, Fidelity was responsible for setting up the Master Trust Board. It's the Chair’s responsibility to make sure that the Board as a whole has the right combination of skills, knowledge and experience to fulfil its responsibilities. To this end, the Trustees, with the consent of Fidelity, may appoint or remove a trustee. Independent Trustees are required to go through a re-appointment process at least every five years, and no individual may serve as an Independent Trustee for more than ten years. 

You can read profiles of the Trustees at the bottom of the page.

By post: Fidelity Master Trust Chair, Zedra, Park House, Park Square East, Leeds LS1 2PW

Current areas of focus for the Trustees

  • Reviewing default investment strategies;
  • Reviewing the scope and content of member communications;
  • Taking account of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors when reviewing the investment choices available to members;
  • Determining the issues to be considered in assessing value for money – for example, examining charges and transaction costs, the service members receive from Fidelity and the tools they have access to;
  • Considering the ways in which members have access to their pension pots, including the introduction of Investment Pathways and regular income drawdown;
  • Considering the process for getting feedback from members.

You can read more about sustainable investing and ESG, as well as the role they play in the Master Trust’s default investment option, FutureWise, when you visit the page on sustainable investing.

Please see here for the Master Trust Board’s policy on sustainable investing.

Getting in touch with the Trustees

The members of the Master Trust Board are always delighted to hear from plan members and employers about their experience of Fidelity. They use feedback to inform their conversations and activities with Fidelity. You can contact them in the following ways:

By email: ZGL.FidelityMTChair@zedra.com

By post: Fidelity Master Trust Chair, Zedra, Park House, Park Square East, Leeds LS1 2PW

Members of the Fidelity Master Trust Board

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Kim Nash – Independent Chair

Kim Nash is a Client Director, ZEDRA Governance Limited, which she joined in February 2012. Kim is a qualified Actuary and previously worked for Willis Towers Watson as an actuarial benefit consultant. Kim brings her significant DC experience both as a Trustee and a member of governance committee to lead the Master Trust to develop the value for money framework and compare Fidelity’s performance against the wider industry.

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Roger Breeden - Independent Member

Roger Breeden is a Trustee Executive with independent trustee company BESTrustees and specialises in workplace Defined Contribution and Master Trust pension schemes. His financial services experience spans more than 40 years. The majority of this was with Mercer where, most recently as a Partner, he led the launch and successful authorisation of a Master Trust, establishing operational and governance systems and processes. He started his career as a personal financial adviser, which provided him with day-to-day experience of the needs of pension scheme members as they build and draw down on their savings.

Pavan Bhardwaj pic

Pavan Bhardwaj - Independent Member 

Pavan is a senior Trustee Director at Independent Governance Group (IGG). He has a background covering both legal and financial services and is able to draw upon a broad skill set as a trustee. Prior to joining IGG he spent over ten years working in investment banking with a range of institutional clients. He currently sits as a trustee on a number of boards, including one of the largest groups of DB and DC plans in the UK.

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Gerald Wellesley - Independent Member 

Gerald is a Professional Trustee and Client Director of Vidett Governance Services Ltd. He has over 35 years’ experience in the finance industry, 15 years as pension trustee and 3 years in HR management.

His current portfolio of trusteeships includes chair, sole trustee and subcommittee positions with DB and DC schemes and DC Master Trusts. He brings strengths in the investment and financial management disciplines together with more broadly-based trustee skills. He was previously at BNY Mellon, a leading provider of asset management, custody and collateral management services. Here he led the corporate strategy for the UK and European pensions industry.

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Jill Mackenzie - Independent Member

Jill Mackenzie has over 25 years of industry experience and more than ten years’ experience as a pension scheme trustee, working across DC and DB. She currently chairs four pension trustee boards and most recently spent seven years on the board of Nest Master Trust where she was the Senior Independent Director. She is also a Member of the Pensions Management Institute and holds the PMI Diploma in Pension Trusteeship.