International Women’s Day: Our five pensions heroines

After much consultation, here is our selection…

Ros Altmann

Pensions minister

Altmann can divide opinion but she’s a tenacious campaigner and an expert in her field.

As pensions minister, she is one of the biggest hitters in the industry male or female.

She describes her work as that of ‘championing people’ and successfully spearheaded a campaign on behalf of 150,000 workers and their families following the failure of their employers’ final salary pension schemes.

In 2009, she campaigned against the sudden, short notice increases in women’s state pension age, and reduced the planned rises.

Altmann received a first-class degree in economics from University College London and a PhD from the London School of Economics, she is also adviser to the International Longevity Centre, UK. Altmann was awarded a CBE in 2014 for services to pensioners and pension provision.

Claire Trott

Talbot and Muir head of technical support

Trott has worked in the pensions industry for 15 years and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of pensions.

She has worked as head of technical support for Talbot and Muir since 2013 but became known as an industry spokesperson in her role of technical manager for leading SIPP provider Suffolk Life where she worked for eight years.

A regular speaker on pension and retirement issues at national conferences she is the go-to-woman on SIPPs and drawdown for many. Trott is well known and highly regarded among advisers in the industry.

Caroline Rookes

Money Advice Service chief executive

Like Altman, Rookes was awarded a CBE (this time in 2010) following an impressive career in the civil service where she oversaw developments such as the introduction of automatic enrolment, the new NEST pension scheme, and simplification of the pensions regime.

With all this experience of improving people’s personal finances she was appointed chief executive of the Money Advice Service on 1 February 2013.

A controversial figure among advisers, she has public admitted she has concerns regarding their ethics. She has also stated that guidance of the sort given by the MAS may help bridge the advice gap.

Gina Miller

True and Fair Campaign founder

Gina Miller is founder of the True and Fair Foundation which set up the True and Fair Campaign. Both aim to expose and eliminate hidden charges in investments and savings.

The campaign was set up in 2012 and has lobbied for the publication of all fees in a simple, standardised way; publication of the total cost of investing; for all company holdings to be published online; and for an industry code of ethics.

Miller also founded investment management company SCMDirect, and website MoneyShe, which aims to help women look after their financial health and future.

Self-described as feisty and passionate, Miller believes in “sharing success and helping those less fortunate”. Her mantra, “generosity can heal communities and that we can all make a difference,” is one few people would argue with.

Fiona Tait

Royal London business development manager

Tait has worked as business development manager at Royal London for 12 years where she has helped communicate technical pensions issues during a time when pensions have seen more upheaval than ever before.

Like Trott, Tait is a go-to person for the intricacies of pension management. She served her apprenticeship as ‘Steve Bee’s warm up act,’ according to her Linkedin profile, and has been delivering technical pensions seminars to IFAs and their professional introducers single-handedly since 2010.

Tait is a well liked and highly respected member of the financial services industry.

Have we missed anyone? Tell Professional Adviser which industry women would make your top five. Find us on Twitter @retire_planner or email Nicola.Brittain@incisivemedia.com

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