Independent Governance Group: remarkable growth for the UK’s leading pension trustee and governance firm

Independent Governance Group (IGG) is the UK’s leading provider of professional pensions trusteeship and governance services.

Invest for growth

LDC backed the creation of IGG following the merger of Ross Trustees and Independent Trustee Services in February 2023. This created a singular destination for best-in-class professional pensions trusteeship, scheme secretarial, pensions managerial and governance services.

With LDC’s support, CEO Andrew Bradshaw and his leadership team continued to grow IGG’s regional footprint, invest heavily in people and technology, and explore complementary acquisitions to further strengthen its service offering to clients.

This included the acquisitions of:

• Clarity Trustees, which was founded by accredited professional trustee Karein Davie and further expanded IGG’s client base and professional team;
• Creative communications agency like minds, which specialises in employee engagement, specifically in relation to pensions and benefits, as well as financial wellbeing, reward and branding; and
• IC Select, the Edinburgh-based specialist consultancy which expanded the range of services IGG provides to clients to now include the selection and oversight of investment consultants and fiduciary management providers.

A commitment to innovation and sustainability

IGG has also continued to demonstrate its commitment to innovation and sustainability.

During the partnership with LDC, it launched IGGiQ, a proprietary SaaS platform that provides holistic, real-time analysis of a scheme’s investment performance, and IGGnite, its consolidated governance model for small pension schemes. Both help trustee boards fulfil their responsibilities to scheme sponsors and members.

It also launched its Sustainability Charter, setting out commitments to work with schemes and industry to promote and drive responsible investment, as well as ensuring the long-term interests of members are best served.

The Charter includes promises to members as well as wider asks of advisers and asset managers, all designed to help drive real-world change and act as a force for good within the industry.

Remarkable results and continued support

During the partnership with LDC, IGG grew revenues and headcount by more than 300%.

Today, IGG employs more than 200 people and provides professional services to 386 pension schemes with total scheme assets of £324bn.

In October 2024, LDC exited IGG to ECI Partners (ECI) in a transaction that generated a return of 2.8x.

LDC also reinvested to support the continued growth of the business.

Andrew Bradshaw, CEO, IGG: “IGG has rapidly grown into one of the leading providers of trusteeship and governance services in the UK. This is due to the hard work of our skilled and diverse team, which ensures pension schemes of all shapes and sizes look to IGG to deliver the knowledge, experience and perspectives essential for strong governance.