FitzGerald's record £850,000 pension

FORMER Unilever boss Niall FitzGerald is in line for a record-busting pension. He will pocket £852,000 a year from September, when he reaches 60.

The huge retirement income will flow from the biggest pension fund of any director of a stock market-listed company. His giant nest-egg is worth £16.9m. He also receives £500,000 a year as non-executive chairman of information group Reuters.

Unilever, with a £1.7bn deficit in its £9.4bn pension fund, paid an extra £3m into FitzGerald's pension in his final year, according to the annual report just published. That took him ahead of former Vodafone chief Sir Christopher Gent, who has a £15.5m pension fund, and BP's Lord Browne, whose fund is worth £15.2m.

FitzGerald quit the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant last year after the failure of his Path To Growth recovery strategy. In his final year, FitzGerald was paid £3.7m, which included a £1.2m pay-off, compared with £1.4m in 2003.

Standard Life boss Sandy Crombie, 55, saw his pension fund swell £2.7m to £6.7m last year, according to the mutual's accounts. This reflected his pay rise in January 2004 when he succeeded Iain Lumsden. Crombie earned £682,000 last year. Lumsden's pension fund, worth £6.9m, will give him £374,000 a year.

Meanwhile, chairman Sir Brian Stewart has broken his pledge not to hijack members' votes without their explicit permission at the annual meeting on 26 April.

Financial Mail on Sunday revealed that attempts by independents to stand for the board could be foiled by Stewart, who had the power to cast unused votes as he saw fit. But he said: 'It has never been the case I could use members' votes as I see fit without instructions from members.'

But voting forms soon to arrive with 2.6m members make clear this is not the case. The wording of the form entitles Stewart to hijack unused votes unless members instruct him not to, by ticking a box.