Customer Outcomes

Our Mission

Our Group was founded on the belief that all stakeholders are better served as part of an active and growing franchise. The provision of good customer outcomes remains front and centre of our strategy. Our overall purpose is to build a brighter future for our customers and better serve all stakeholders.

Our mission is to secure our customers’ financial futures through the delivery of life and pension solutions, which result in greater prosperity for present and future generations.

Customer Outcomes

In order to support our mission of providing good customer outcomes, Utmost Group:

• Provides products which are suitable for customers across each socio-economic group
• Continually develops our proposition in order to provide suitable outcomes to our customers
• Provides excellent customer service and communicates openly and honestly with customers
• Supports customers with the provision of data which helps them understand the ESG scores of their investments. Utmost Group is actively working to provide additional sustainable investment options to our customers

Projected population ageing in our society has far-reaching implications including an increased requirement for individuals to provide for their own retirement. Our business is particularly sensitive to the relevance, needs and consequences of an ageing global population and our solutions help support individuals in saving for their own retirement.

Customer Service

Our responsibility to our customers stretches throughout their lifetimes and in some cases through multiple generations. The provision of good customer outcomes is front and centre of our strategy. We look to provide excellent customer service at every stage of the customer journey. All our servicing is performed in-house so that we can maintain our high standards and controls and our customer service teams are continually focused on maintaining customer service excellence.

Our employees are committed to providing excellent levels of service through clear communications and ensuring our staff are appropriately trained and engaged to support our customers. Given the demographics of our client base, our staff are specially trained in dealing with vulnerable customers in order that they are treated appropriately and with empathy.

Client confidence in our business is recognised through strong new business figures and high customer retention rates.

Responsible Investments

The Group recognises the importance of its role as a long-term allocator of capital and considers Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors as part of its investment activity. Sustainable investing is a key issue in our industry and facing wider society, as well as an important factor to our customers when allocating funds. The Group takes its responsibility seriously. Utmost Group aims to make sustainable investment decisions and considers the sustainability impact of its investment decisions on clients, partners, employees and the wider society in which we operate.

The Group is committed to taking a pro-active approach to sustainable investing. The Group is undergoing an exercise to evolve our Responsible Investment framework. Our first area of focus is our shareholder assets and our managed fund ranges. The Group monitors the ESG scores of its shareholder assets and has introduced targets to maintain the measurable ESG risk within our portfolios below a set maximum level. The Group has also introduced Standards around its guided architecture range managing which funds are eligible for inclusion based on their measurable ESG risk. The Group is working to provide additional sustainable investment options to our customers.

The Group aspires to:

• Increase the proportion of our investments in sustainable assets
• Provide increased sustainable investment options to our customers
• Align our investment portfolio with the beliefs of our stakeholders on sustainability

Responsible investing is a rapidly evolving area with new regulations being developed and customer and societal expectations increasing over time. Our strategic approach to sustainable investing will be regularly reviewed in line with the Group’s sustainability vision.

Environmental Impact

The Group has a responsibility to reduce its environmental impact and to protect the environment. Our business and our employees take this responsibility seriously.

As an insurance business, our environmental impact is lower than other industries. Nonetheless, Utmost Group is committed to reducing and minimising the environmental impact of our operations and embedding a sustainable mindset into our corporate philosophy.

Our Carbon Footprint

Our business has delivered various initiatives in order to lower the carbon footprint of our offices. These include enabling our employees to reduce their impact on the environment, for example through encouraging the “reduce, reuse, recycle” philosophy and discouraging the use of single-use plastics. As a business operating across locations, we encourage the use of virtual meeting software, and the Group offsets the carbon footprint of our employees’ business travel.

The Group is also working with Carbon Footprint Limited to achieve a net zero carbon status in our operations. Through a Tree Buddying Scheme we have been able to achieve this by planting a tree for our 960 employees. For each tree planted a tonne of carbon is offset through Carbon Footprint Limited’s VCS project, protecting trees in the Brazilian Amazon through avoided deforestation. So not one but two biodiversity’s benefit from this great scheme. Find out more here.

Our Investments

As an asset owner of c £40bn of assets under administration, our approach to managing investments can have a positive impact on the environment. The Group takes a pro-active approach to sustainable investing and is embedding a responsible investment approach throughout our portfolio. We are introducing a target to maintain a minimum average ESG score across our shareholder asset portfolio and are working to provide additional sustainable investment options to our customers.

Our Supply Chain

Within our supply chain, we look to work with select organisations which operate in line with our corporate philosophy and help us deliver our long-term vision. We promote the use of recycled materials and look to evaluate the environmental impact of any products we source as well as considering how they are disposed of in order to reduce our environmental impact.

We continue to take committed action to reduce our environmental impact. As the business continues to grow, we continue to identify ways to work more efficiently and reduce our impact further. An example of this is our partnership with the UNESCO Biosphere Isle of Man. Please read more here.

The Group is undertaking an exercise to identify areas where we can reduce our environmental impact and promote environmental awareness to our employees with a view to having a net zero carbon emissions operational footprint within 5 years.

Community Engagement

Utmost Group aims to make a positive difference to our employees, our customers and our communities.

Our Employees

Our employees are core to the success of the Group, both individually and collectively. It is an important priority of the Group that our employees enjoy a diverse and vibrant work environment which ensures they are fulfilled and committed.

An important focus is embedding our culture and values across our business. We want each employee to embrace our value of collaboration to make a positive difference, approaching their work with a motivated attitude. We want to create an environment where our people can achieve their aspirations and reach their full potential.

It is important we are viewed as an attractive place to work and sustain an environment where we can continue to attract and retain the best talent. Our HR teams actively encourage internal mobility of our existing employees to offer career opportunities which enhance their skills and experience, as well as external hiring to enrich our skillset and provide fresh perspectives.

The Utmost Group is an accredited Living Wage Employer in the UK, ensuring a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work. Our commitment not only applies to our directly employed staff in the UK but also our third party contracted staff, which ensures that they will be paid a real living wage as a minimum. The real living wage is significantly higher than the UK minimum wage for over 23s and takes into account everyday living needs. More information can be found about our commitment and the Living Wage Foundation here.

Our Group values are set out here: http://utmostgroup.co.uk/about-us/our-values/

Diversity and Inclusion

Utmost Group is committed to promoting equality and diversity. Our culture values difference and looks to our employees to embody our ethos of making a positive impact. We are committed to a policy of equal opportunity for our employees and continue to select, recruit, train and promote the best candidates based on suitability for the role.

We look to develop diversity throughout our organization. One metric for measuring this is our gender split, which is monitored by the Board. Currently 55% of our employees are female and 45% are male. The Group has a 5 year strategy to:

• Increase diverse representation
• Strengthen our leadership focus on diversity and inclusion
• Ensure equal opportunities for progression and development for all

We treat all employees and applicants equally and recognise people from every background and experience bring valuable insights to the workplace and enhance our organisation. Discrimination has no place at Utmost Group and we engage with our employees, our partners and our local communities to promote equality and inclusivity.

Community

Utmost Group is passionate about having a positive impact not only on the lives of our employees, but also on the communities in which we operate. Local initiatives include fundraising events for local charities selected by local staff, donation matching schemes and the availability of community support leave to help local organisations.

Our businesses support local sporting events and clubs. Utmost Limited sponsors the Isle of Man Swimming Association and has provided funding for the Isle of Man junior cycling team. Utmost Worldwide sponsors the Guernsey Team for the biennial International Island Games, and Utmost PanEurope sponsors Navan Rugby Football Club, a local Irish rugby union club offering opportunities to both junior and adult players. We believe it is important to support our local sports teams and are proud to be able to contribute to their success.

Utmost Challenge

The Utmost Challenge is an exciting part of our community engagement programme. The Group has set up the Utmost Challenge to support our employees’ charitable giving, help us engage with the communities we work in and contribute towards them. Employees can apply for a donation to their chosen charity. To be selected for a donation, the employee must complete an outstanding challenge. The challenges which are selected are highly notable and have a significant “wow” factor i.e. the “utmost” achievement in their field.