The Wolseley Group – a UK-based merchant in plumbing, heating, cooling and infrastructure – has chosen the Aon MasterTrust as its pension provider for its £230m (€276m) defined contribution (DC) scheme with more than 13,000 members.

The scheme opted to move to the Aon’s master trust after a thorough and detailed bid process overseen by Vidett.

Aon now provides the group with master trust services along with integrated life cover broking, administration and claims settlement.

Ant Donaldson, reward manager at The Wolseley Group, said: “We really wanted to focus on optimising outcomes for our members, so we spent a lot of time on comparing investment performance and strategies, supported by specialist consultants. We also looked at the support given, plus the range and accessibility of the different options available when members come to access their benefits – together with ongoing engagement with members throughout their pension journeys.”

He noted that “Aon stood out in those analyses and then followed through by supporting every step of our transition, including working alongside us throughout our all-colleague consultation, providing clear and engaging communications, including a series of presentations and webinars”.

Aon then put in place a joint post-implementation communication plan to deliver a step-change in members’ engagement with their Wolseley pensions, Donaldson said.

He added that the scheme monitors the progress through a series of monthly and quarterly meetings and he is “delighted” by how well all aspects of the transition and subsequent bedding-in have gone.

Louise Wheeler, head of clients for Aon DC solutions in the UK, added: “Wolseley’s values are built around exceptional service for their customers and nurturing their employees. This matches Aon’s approach to caring for our clients and their members, and so we were thrilled that we were able to work with Wolseley and work so closely together to deliver fantastic engagement levels in the Aon MasterTrust.”

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Pamela is IPE's UK correspondent. Before joining IPE in May 2023, she spent five years writing about the insurance industry. During her career so far she won awards for Most Promising Newcomer in 2020 and Best Investigative Article in 2022 from the British Insurance Brokers Association, and was also highly commended at the WTW Media Awards for Insurance Features Journalist of The Year.View full Profile

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