John Pollock, chief executive of Legal & General Assurance Society, almost left the company several times.
The most recent was when he was offered a job as chief executive at another company. Two weeks before he was due to go, he got a call to become a member of the board of L&G.
He said: “I don’t regret turning that job down, but there was a great deal of embarrassment. I thought I had hit a glass ceiling at L&G, it transpired I hadn’t.”
Now Mr Pollock, who has been at L&G his entire career, is leaving for good. Aged 56, he is planning to retire in May next year at the annual general meeting after 35 years at the company – where he started as a trainee computer programmer straight from university.
He only held off from tilting at the top job, now held by Nigel Wilson, due to a family tragedy during the selection process. “I withdrew from the group chief executive role because I lost my daughter to suicide,” he said.
Mr Pollock is now focused on his own division – the life and pensions part of the business – which produced a £444m operating profit last year, and is the main operating company at the group. He said: “I’m completely in charge. Nigel leaves me alone, and I’m running the retail business. I think Nigel is a fantastic group chief executive, he creates opportunity for the business and he works passionately hard to do the right thing.”
It has also put him in a good position to predict the future of financial services. Speaking before the announcement of the £5.6bn takeover of Friends Life by Aviva, he said: “I think it’s an inevitable consequence of the retail distribution review that consolidation will take place. There will be fewer, and bigger life offices.
“RDR has got a number of years to run before its full and final consequences will emerge. There’s only one successful strategy: ‘Serve your customer’. Serving your shareholders is a more challenging environment than serve your customers.”
But the pension rules will also have an impact, especially for those who counted on the business of moving savers in pension schemes over to annuities.
“All of those who built their business on a cross-margin basis between one product to another will find life much more difficult in the future. As many of the small pots cash out, this will favour some players over others.”
However, he is critical of those who overpriced on auto-enrolment.
He said: “I find it disappointing that my industry colleagues felt that the 50 bps for auto-enrolment was too low. I think that was difficult to defend. I believe that people just coming into a pension savings environment should be give the opportunity to maxmise their pot size.”
In fact, Mr Pollock is a passionate believer in L&G’s social responsibility policy. He said: “We have a track record as a low-cost provider – it’s an expression of our DNA to do the right thing. Are we in a position to help someone choose where to put their windfall? Rather than leaving customers to their own devices or going to an IFA, if they can’t afford the cost, we absolutely can help them.”
This assistance comes through the Cofunds platform, which L&G owns, and evolving 4G technology – unsurprising for Mr Pollock, who spent 10 years in IT, project management and software design. He even considered going to the US to work as a contractor, with the prospect of easy lucre.
But he stayed, running the customer service operations for L&G Life and Pensions before establishing the Mortgage Club, and moving abroad to run the Asian division.
As he signs off on his career, he is able to give his verdict on where the industry is heading. While he sees a “bright future” for financial services, he also has concerns.
He said: “If I look at my career I wonder whether the effort that has gone into making a better-served community by financial services has actually been achieved, or whether it hasn’t. I think with the regulators and the Financial Ombudsman Service, we have to be very careful what we wish for.”
He said there could either be no risk taken and no financial services industry, or “a financial services industry that acts responsibly with a regulator that oversees. If you want interest-only mortgages, it’s very, very difficult because the regulator said ‘We’re going to investigate interest-only mortgages.’
“The lenders are saying that if there’s risk where they’re not being rewarded, they may not do it. If you look at the accessibility over 20 years, you find the choice available and the accessibility to customers is much reduced. Is that a good outcome or not?”
In his spare time, Mr Pollock plays guitar – he owns nine and has made a couple himself. But his enthusiasm and energy for financial services remains undimmed.
His philosophy on a successful business? “It’s people and their willingness to adapt and recognise and execute changes that are rewarded. Customers sometimes change, but creating the trust between them and us is all it is ever about.”
Melanie Tringham is features editor of Financial Adviser
John Pollock’s career ladder
2013 Chief executive of Legal & General Assurance Society
2006 Executive director, L&G Risk Business, and appointed to Association of British Insurers’ Life committee
2003 Executive director, appointed to the group board, with responsibility for corporate business, bulk annuities and group protection
2000 - 2003 Operations director and appointment to the UK board of L&G
1996 - 1999 Managing director, L&G Asia
1994 Managing director, with responsibility for developing a new sales channel L&G Mortgage Club
1992 Operations director, L&G Life & Pensions – running the customer service operations
1980-1992 Joined as a trainee computer programmer, spending 10 years in IT, project management and software design