BW earns fifth consecutive Investor in Customers Gold award

Barnett Waddingham (BW) has been awarded a Gold accreditation from Investor in Customers (IIC) for the fifth consecutive time, reinforcing an eight-year commitment to consistently outstanding client experience across our pensions and consulting services.

The latest assessment saw BW achieve an overall Gold score of 8.26 out of 10, with improvements in both client feedback and independent evaluation. Clients rated the firm higher than the previous rating, with their score rising to 8.57, while the independent IIC view increased to 8.69.

Gold awards were achieved across all four of IIC’s core principles: understanding customer needs, meeting those needs, delighting customers, and engendering loyalty.

"This recognition reflects the trust our clients place in us and validates our people-first approach to service delivery."

Independent validation of client experience

The IIC assessment is an independent review that measures how effectively we delivers service and support to our clients. The latest exercise covered pension scheme clients across:

• Pension Administration
• Investment Consulting
• Actuarial Consulting
• Pension Executive and Management
• Public Sector (for the first time)
• DC Consulting

"This award belongs to our knowledgeable, consistent and trusted teams who work every day to deliver exceptional outcomes for trustees, scheme sponsors and members."

Feedback was gathered from clients, BW staff and senior managers, with each group contributing to the overall score alongside IIC’s own evaluation. The process combines quantitative scoring with qualitative feedback, providing a detailed picture of performance and opportunities to improve.

Tony Barritt, Managing Director, Investor in Customers, said: “Barnett Waddingham continue to excel at delivering an exceptional and consistent customer experience to their clients. The senior leaders clearly understand the importance of delighting their clients and lead by example to instil a truly client centric culture across the organisation, where all employees understand how to ensure client needs are understood and exceeded first time and every time. Five successive IIC gold awards is a fantastic achievement.”  

Commenting on the achievement, Andrew Vaughan, Senior Partner at Barnett Waddingham, said: “Achieving Gold once is a strong endorsement and maintaining it across five consecutive assessments is testament to the consistency, dedication and excellence of our teams.

"This recognition reflects the trust our clients place in us and validates our people-first approach to service delivery. In an industry where many firms claim to deliver great service, we have independent evidence that proves we consistently do.”

BW is now part of Howden following our acquisition by the leading global insurance and employee benefits intermediary group in April 2025. Six months on, assessment feedback indicated that 98% of pension scheme clients felt that the service and support from BW has either remained the same or improved since becoming part of Howden.

Alex Pocock, Managing Partner for Pensions and Investment Services at Barnett Waddingham, added: “Our clients are at the heart of everything we do. This award belongs to our knowledgeable, consistent and trusted teams who work every day to deliver exceptional outcomes for trustees, scheme sponsors and members.

"We’re proud to demonstrate that our commitment to service excellence remains unwavering, regardless of market conditions or organisational change.”

Clients highlight trust, partnership and the “human touch”

Client feedback gathered as part of the IIC assessment highlights the importance of BW’s people, culture and relationship-led approach.

Clients frequently referenced trust, professionalism and reliability:

“Barnett Waddingham's key staff have always been effective, professional and responsive in delivering the service.”
John Greiller, Chair of Trustees, Acer

Others emphasised the personal, partnership-based nature of relationships:

“Even though BW is a big firm, they have the human touch. They explain complicated pension arrangements in layman's terms.”
Julie Mitchell, Trustee, Phoenix Dunlop Oil & Marine

“Close to customers’ requirements, proactive and pragmatic – helping us work through what’s important and working in partnership. They are excellent.”
Lyn Nicholls, Trustee Chair, Ageas Insurance Staff Pension Scheme

These comments are reflected in some of the highest-scoring questions in the survey, where clients strongly agreed that they trust our staff to behave with fairness, integrity and honesty, know who to contact when they need support, and find staff friendly and willing to help.

Gold across all core IIC principles

Barnett Waddingham achieved Gold ratings across each of IIC’s four principles:

1. Understanding customer needs.
2. Meeting customer needs.
3. Delighting customers.
4. Engendering loyalty.

Within these areas, “treating customers fairly” was one of the strongest-performing themes, reflecting our focus on clear advice, transparency and doing the right thing for clients.

Pension Administration first took part in the IIC assessment in 2017, with participation now expanded across a wide range of services. The consistent Gold performance over multiple assessments demonstrates sustained service quality through a period of significant regulatory, market and organisational change.

Tangible proof of quality for trustees and sponsors

At a time when pension scheme trustees and sponsors are seeking greater transparency, consistency and measurable quality from their advisers and administrators, IIC’s independent assessment provides a clear benchmark.

BW’s five consecutive Gold awards offer tangible evidence of:

• Long-term commitment to client service.
• Consistency across all major service lines.
• A culture built on integrity, partnership and professionalism.

We will continue to use the detailed insights from the assessment – both scores and comments – to build on this strong foundation and further enhance the experience we deliver to clients.