Increasing governance responsibilities, pressure on time and growing interest in risk transfer (e.g. bulk annuity) projects are all reasons why the independent trustee market is expanding.

We are delighted to share exclusive insights from Barnett Waddingham’s 2025 independent trustee survey.

What it’s really like to work with an independent trustee

The independent trustee (IT) market is set to continue to grow as scheme governance and legislation becomes more complex. The increased expertise and time resource required to run a pension scheme well means a lot of schemes are looking at appointing a professional independent trustee. This is particularly common where there is less appetite for member nominated trustees and where the scheme is set to undertake significant projects such as a risk transfer transaction.

To look at what it is really like to work with an independent trustee, Barnett Waddingham conducted a survey earlier this year to uncover the benefits, drawbacks and reality of working with an independent trustee. With over 220 responses from a range of individuals including member-nominated trustees, company-appointed trustees, company representatives and pension managers, the report gives a valuable insight into the professional trustee market.

Key findings at a glance:

The results:

Over 73% of respondents were happy with their IT where one was appointed, this showed that there were minimal concerns and issues and highlights the excellent value that an IT can bring to your scheme.

The key areas where the value that an IT brought to the scheme was assessed as greater than expected were:

Value added to the board

The “value added” factor varied by respondent. Company representatives were hoping for increased knowledge from the wider market and reduced risk from ill-informed decisions. Their expectations were mainly exceeded regarding the management of key projects and the speed of decision making. For co-trustee respondents, they were hoping for increased confidence for decision making and their expectations were exceeded in the amount of knowledge that was brought to the board and how costs have been managed.

What were the problems and improvements?

Where challenges were encountered, these were in relation to specific problems or personality mismatches. Time management of meetings, too risk averse and a cultural clash with the company were noted as reasons for problems arising.

When asked where ITs could improve, the results varied by scheme size. The smaller schemes wanted simplified explanations for complex topics, the medium to large sized schemes wanted their IT to introduce new ideas.

Perceptions of those that don’t work with an IT already

For schemes that didn’t already have an IT, they hadn’t considered appointing one because they felt their trustee board already had enough experience. Some schemes felt that they were too small. For those schemes that had considered appointing an IT before, 57% of those respondents didn’t go ahead because the company was reluctant.

However, it isn’t only large schemes that have an IT appointed, nearly 60% of respondents working on schemes of less than £100m of assets have an IT and this rises to 75% for the medium-sized schemes.

For the full details of Barnett Waddingham’s survey please visit the website Independent Trustee Survey 2025 – Research | Barnett Waddingham or contact:

Leanne Carpenter

T: 0113 394 3757

E: Leanne.Carpenter@Barnett-Waddingham.co.uk

MHM Trustee Services

For details of MHM’s professional independent trustee services, visit our website at www.mhmpensions.co.uk, call us on 01423 229029 or email info@sandccarsalesharrogate.co.uk

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