Fees for fiduciary management increased in 2025, a new survey suggests, with £50m schemes seeing the steepest rise, reversing a trend of falling fee levels in 2024.  

IC Select’s Fiduciary Management Fees Survey 2026 published today, which is based on data as at 31 December 2025, found that median base fees increased for £50m, £100m and £500m schemes, while the median total fee held steady year on year.  

The survey of quotations by Aon, BlackRock, Brightwell, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Legal & General Investment Management, Mercer, Russell Investments, Schroders Solutions, SEI, VLK and WTW found that the median base fee has increased by 14% for schemes of £50m, by 5.3% for £100m schemes, and for those with £500m has gone up by 9.1%. Median investment management fees rose by 4%, after a 17% hike in 2024.  

In the 2024 survey, median base fees had fallen by between 6.3% and 16.7%. Despite the recent upward move in base fees, they are still below 2021 levels, according to IC Select. The  median total fiduciary management fee is unchanged since 2024 and has even reduced slightly since 2020. 

Peter Dorward notes that the survey should prompt trustees to look again at a common perception: “Fiduciary management is often seen as the more expensive option, but that isn’t necessarily the case. It should be considered on a scheme-by-scheme basis.” 

There is considerable variation depending on scale, provider and return target, the fiduciary oversight provider has found. Bigger schemes tend to pay less, while the spread between the highest and lowest quoted base fees is at its widest since 2022 for schemes in the £50m, £100m, £250m and £1bn brackets, and is widest of all for £50m schemes.   

Meanwhile, new market entrants have put some pressure on investment management fees. Management fees are higher where schemes target a better return. For example, for £500m schemes targeting labilities +2% per annum, the median investment management fee rose by circa 33% between 2022 and 2025.