Exceptional year for Barnett Waddingham’s independent fiduciary management services

Barnett Waddingham cements its independence in fiduciary management advisory services with new clients totalling more than £7bn in assets since March 2020. 

The business has seen a significant increase in the last 12 months, with an additional 25 new clients with assets ranging from £15m to over £1bn, including the Amey OS Pension Scheme.

As one of the UK’s leading independent investment consultancies, Barnett Waddingham bucked the trend seen by many consultants following regulatory changes to the industry and remain independent rather than offer fiduciary managers itself. This position allows the business to look across the whole market and offer clients truly nonbiased advice.

The service, FM Evaluate, was designed to increase the likelihood of clients achieving their investment objectives through expert oversight of their fiduciary management arrangements. Alongside the company’s commitment to remain independent its expertise in advising on strategy, performance and governance creates an idealistic partnership with clients when evaluating:

• whether fiduciary management is an appropriate investment approach for their scheme, and if so in what form;
• which fiduciary manager(s) to appoint for their scheme;
• how to respond to the CMA’s competitive tendering and re-tendering requirements;
• ongoing and one-off investment performance, mandate and service reviews.

Amey OS Pension Scheme

Amey is a leading infrastructure services and engineering company at the heart of modern Britain. It provides support in helping the economy grow by designing, maintaining and transforming the nation’s strategic assets. The Amey OS Pension Scheme, which has c5,000 members totalling c£650m in assets, appointed Barnett Waddingham to assist the scheme with reviewing its fiduciary management arrangements. PTL Governance Limited acts as sole independent Trustee to the Scheme.

Barnett Waddingham worked in partnership with the scheme to ensure the best FM is in place to meet the investment objectives for the scheme.  

Peter Daniels, Head of FM Evaluate at Barnett Waddingham, played a key role in the continued growth of the service. He believes the role of expert, independent oversight is essential when hiring a fiduciary manager, setting its mandate and monitoring its performance. 

Peter Daniels, said: “Our approach is different from many others within the market, with all of our advice built on the philosophy of increasing our clients’ chances of investment success. Our independence provides us with the ability to think freely and provide bespoke, impartial fiduciary oversight services to trustees who are considering, or who have chosen to go down a fiduciary management route for schemes of all sizes.

“The last 12 months is a testament to the strength of our proposition and ability to work with both large and small schemes. The service we deliver goes way beyond just oversight and draws from our expertise as one of the UK’s leading independent investment consultancies. Investment performance analytics is a key part of what we do, but it is our long track record in advising on strategy and trustee decision making which enables us to critically evaluate a client’s existing or potential fiduciary management arrangements.

“Amey OS Pension Scheme, along with our other new client appointments, demonstrate that others see the value we can bring through our strategic investment consulting expertise and depth of research into the FM market. We are able to provide clarity through our free thinking and together deliver the ultimate service for each and every client.”

Kim Nash. Director at PTL, as Trustee of the Amey OS Pensions Scheme, said: “Barnett Waddingham have provided us with strong support when going through our fiduciary manager retender exercise. We value the open and constructive relationship which has been nurtured as well as their independent evaluation of the market.”