Fiduciary management searches in the U.K. have increased, growing 10% to 946 in the 12 months ended June 30, according to KPMG's annual U.K. Fiduciary Management Survey
Last year's survey showed a 9% increase in searches. Some 17% of 5,450 U.K. defined benefit plans used fiduciary managers as of June 30, KPMG's latest survey showed.
Assets under fiduciary management in the U.K. increased 21% to £172 billion ($221 billion), up from £142 billion a year earlier.
Independent advice was used in selecting a fiduciary manager 61% of the time in 2019, down from 66% a year earlier, KPMG said.
But only 21% of pension funds use a third party to review their fiduciary arrangements on an ongoing basis, flat compared to the year-earlier survey.
Only 2% of 350 surveyed pension funds showed no environmental, social and governance-related discussions between fiduciary managers and trustees, down from 42% in the year-earlier survey. Conversely, 87% of asset owners conducted a light review and 10% of pension funds considered the subject thoroughly. The remaining 1% have selected a custom-made policy supplied by the fiduciary manager.
