Zurich Financial Services Group has appointed Bill Robertson to the position of chief life actuary, effective 1 September 2010.

He succeeds Nigel Masters, who left Zurich at the end of 2009 to concentrate on his UK-based duties as president of the Institute of Actuaries.

Robertson will be responsible for continuing the evolution of group-wide life actuarial toward becoming a global function.

He will report to Dieter Wemmer, chief financial officer Zurich, and Joachim Masur, chief financial officer global life, and will be located in Zurich.

Robertson joins Zurich from Aegon UK where he currently serves as finance director with responsibility for financial reporting and the associated controls. He has spent the past ten years in a number of key roles in Aegon Group, including group chief actuary and actuarial director.

Prior to working for Aegon, Robertson was head of actuarial at Scottish Equitable and at Scottish Amicable.