Charity trustees on Love Island
If you’re a UK charity trustee, you may feel like the investment management world has suddenly turned into Love Island. Everyone is coupling up, changing names while insisting it’s “for the right reasons.”
Cazenove, part of Schroders is being sold to Nuveen, CCLA is moving to Jupiter, Brewin Dolphin became Canadian being absorbed by RBC, Rathbones merged with Investec Wealth, Waverton now identifies as W1M and Evelyn Partners is heading into NatWest’s embrace. It’s enough to make even the calmest trustee clutch the Statement of Investment Principles and whisper, “Are you still you?”
So what’s going on?
Scale is fashionable in financial services. Regulation is heavier, technology is pricier, margins are thinner thanks to passive investment and clients expect champagne service on lemonade budgets. Bigger firms can spread the costs, invest in systems and negotiate better deals. The result is fewer managers, larger logos, more rebranding pens and tote bags than anyone actually needs.
For trustees, this raises a sensible question. If our manager changes, does our charity’s money change too?
The answer is often no, but it is wise to check. Consolidation isn’t automatically bad. Bigger groups can mean stronger balance sheets, better risk management, and improved resources. Your portfolio isn’t suddenly packed into a cardboard box marked ‘miscellaneous’.
But culture matters. A charity-friendly, values-led team can feel very different once absorbed into a banking or foreign owned giant with 47 management approval layers and a fondness for acronyms. Your relationship might survive, but it may need counselling.
You must also consider that risk isn’t just investment risk anymore, its service, governance and alignment risk. Who makes decisions now? Has the investment process changed? Are charities still a priority, or a footnote on page 97 of the new firm’s strategy document?
So what should trustees actually do?
There is no need to panic but do upgrade from polite interest to constructive curiosity.
Ask questions: What has changed? What hasn’t? Who is running your money now?
Check alignment: Does the new owner still understand charities, spending needs, and ethical policies?
Review fees and service: Consolidation sometimes brings ‘efficiencies’ that mysteriously don’t reach your management fees!
Test the relationship: Are you still getting access, transparency and the advice you need?
Document everything: Regulators love evidence that trustees didn’t just shrug and hope for the best.
Consolidation is a bit like moving house without packing. The furniture looks familiar, but the rooms feel different. Trustees don’t need to redecorate immediately but they should definitely walk around, open the cupboards and check the plumbing. After all, your charity’s capital deserves more than ‘they got bought, seemed fine’. It deserves active, curious, slightly sceptical trustees, preferably with a sense of humour and a very good set of questions.
At Yoke, we spend considerable time with all these firms to get under their covers, metaphorically at least, to constantly assess the subtle changes to the investment processes and culture.