In an industry characterised by a few large trustee firms and many sole traders, Woodley Trustees is different. Uniquely, we combine the expertise and experience of a leading actuary and a senior McKinsey partner. While we have the technical knowledge and qualifications you’d expect, what makes us different is the breadth of our combined commercial, finance, investment and actuarial know-how. This combination enables Woodley Trustees to bring an unusual amount of strategic insight into the challenging range of issues trustees face today, not least the complex interactions between sponsor covenant, funding plans and investment strategy.

While one of us chairs each trustee board, the other is always involved behind the scenes, helping to develop creative solutions to the issues facing each scheme and providing appropriate back-up where needed.

With Woodley Trustees you get one highly effective Chair but the expertise of two very experienced professionals.

Our style working with trustee boards is very inclusive, open and straightforward with a strong degree of thought leadership. We develop highly collaborative relationships with sponsor management. Our positive style builds trust with everyone we work with over a short time.

We run meetings in a friendly, informal manner, bringing the independent leadership many trustee boards now require. We bring a high degree of rigour but you’ll soon think of us as long-familiar colleagues. We enjoy our work and aim to make trustee roles interesting, enjoyable and rewarding for all involved, even when dealing with challenging issues.

Our extensive experience – both in pensions and more broadly – makes us highly effective board members and Chairs, keeping everyone focussed on the key issues. We are able to quickly build the trust, alignment and strategic direction that underpin an effective trustee board – see Why an independent Chair is good for business. As a result our boards quickly deliver substantive impact whether that’s by materially reducing advisor costs, building sponsor alignment around a creative long term journey plan, or designing a more robust investment strategy – for more on this see our Case Studies.