The number of professional trustee appointments increased by 8 per cent last year, but growth is slowing across the market as it matures.
WTW’s 2025 professional trustee survey showed that there were a total of 2,711 professional trustees (PT) across the industry last year — an 8 per cent rise. This is less than the 11 per cent increase seen the year before, withWTW predicting just a 5 per cent increase last year.
There was a similar trend seen in when it comes to sole trustee appointments, with an 8 per cent increase last year, down from 14 per cent the year before, with future expectations of 6 per cent growth over the next three years.
WTW says that sole trustees make up around 50 per cent of total PT appointments mostly focused on small schemes. Overall, sole trustees make up 70 per cent of PT appointments to schemes with assets of less than £25m.
At the other end of the market, 94 per cent of PT appointments to large schemes with assets over £1bn have been to a trustee board, either as trustee chair (36 per cent) or as a co-trustee (58 per cent).
WTW says this slowdown is due to the market maturing as well an increase in the number of schemes looking to move to buyout and wind up om accelerated timescales, due to improved funding levels.
The report identified some key trends in the market, including the rise of the sole trustee. It said that with many smaller schemes moving from a trustee board model to a sole trustee (often as they approach buy-in or buyout), knowledge transfer from the existing board to a sole trustee model, and effective communication between the sponsor and the board, are seen as the most important factors in a successful transition to sole trustee.
The report also noted a widening diversity of roles for PTs, expanding from purely DB scheme appointments. WTW said its survey found that 5 per cent of PT appointments were to defined contribution (DC) own trusts. Professional trustees have recently also been appointed in the Superfund market and the first Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) scheme.
The journey to settlement, or endgame planning, for defined benefit (DB) pension schemes is seen as a key driver of demand for professional trustees, with 89 per cent of firms naming this as the most important priority that schemes have for appointing a PT.
This becomes increasingly relevant as TPR’s recent annual funding statement estimated 54 per cent of schemes are in surplus on a buyout basis. This also has an impact on the net growth in PT appointments as the increased number of full de-risking buyouts in the past year drives higher rates of professional trustee appointment ‘exits’, as schemes transition away from a trustee-board to an insurance company.
WTW’s professional trustee group director Mustafa Bharmal says: “The professional trustee market is still growing at a very healthy rate. Following a flurry of PT appointments over the past few years, rates of growth have started to stabilise as around half of all defined benefit pension schemes now have a professional trustee in place.”
Given the significant growth and change in the PT market over recent years, the Pensions Regulator has recently announced extended market oversight and engagement with PT firms.
He adds: “Appointing professional trustees to prepare a scheme for settlement is becoming increasingly common, with smaller pension schemes sometimes moving to a sole trustee model as the scheme gets nearer to buyout.
“However, trustees warn that sudden cliff-edge transitions from a board to a sole trustee are to be avoided due to the importance of knowledge transfer and communication between the sponsor, the outgoing board and the incoming sole trustee.”
Bharmal adds: “Professional trustee backgrounds are broadening, reflected in the range of professions that PT firms are recruiting from. These include HR, legal, general finance and business expertise, as well as a growing number of ‘career trustees’, in additional to traditional actuarial and consultancy backgrounds.”
TPR CEO Nausicaa Delfas says: “We welcome the valuable insight and perspectives provided by this and other surveys in a fast-changing pensions market.
“Professional trusteeship has experienced huge growth over the last few years, bringing new risks and opportunities. We expect all new appointments to have followed a robust process, and to protect savers we have extended our market oversight approach to the 11 largest firms.”
