Investment Company Non-Executive Directors’ Fees Survey 2025
- Trend of steady annual increases in investment company NED fees continues
- Increases in the average fees paid in the year to 31st March 2025 compared with the previous year were:
- Chair +5.1%
- Audit Chair +4.7%
- Director +4.4%
- 68% of the companies in our survey have increased their fees over the year
The average fees paid to non-executive directors in the investment company sector rose by 4.4% in the year to 31st March 2025, somewhat above the 2.6% CPI rate of inflation over the same period and also slightly above the rise in average fees of 3.9% seen in our report last year.
Over the ten years from April 2015 to March 2025 directors’ fees have risen by an average of 50.3%, audit chairs’ fees by 54.6% and chairs’ fees by 58.2%. These figures compare with a CPI increase over the same period of 36.6%. We believe that these increases are justified by the increasing complexity of the non-executive director’s role and the ever-growing workload. The only two years in the ten-year period when increases were below CPI were 2022 and 2023 when inflation was exceptionally high.
The table below shows the average and median fees for all the London-listed investment companies in our database for the year to 31st March 2025, and the percentage increases over the comparable figures for the year to 31st March 2024. The figures have been collected from the published annual reports covering company years ending between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025.
As in previous surveys, we have excluded any remuneration that we believe to be for executive or semi-executive roles. We have also excluded companies below £20 million in total assets and companies that don’t provide a breakdown of how much individual directors are paid.
|
All companies in our database at 31st March 2025 |
Average % increase over previous year |
|||
|
Average |
Median |
Range |
||
|
Chair |
£58,752 |
£49,000 |
£25,000 to £170,000 |
5.1% |
|
Audit Chair |
£44,947 |
£40,000 |
£23,750 to £112,500 |
4.7% |
|
Director |
£37,817 |
£33,747 |
£11,250 to £112,500 |
4.4% |
The number of companies in our database has fallen again from 288 last year to 264 this year as a result of companies merging or being wound up. Only one new company, launched in 2023, joined the database this year. 68% of the companies in our database increased their fees this year, marginally higher than the 67% that raised their fees last year.
The following table shows that where fees were increased, the majority fell into the 5% – 9.99% range. As always, the average rises hide some very significant variations.
|
Percentage increase |
Number of companies (last year in brackets) |
|
0% |
84 (96) |
|
Up to 4.99%% |
59 (61) |
|
5% – 9.99% |
94 (91) |
|
10% -19.99% |
17 (31) |
|
20% and above |
8 (9) |
This year, 171 companies announced their fees for the year ahead, down from 189 last year. Of those that announced their fees for the coming year, 83% intend to raise their fees compared with 77% last year.
The number of chairs who receive £100,000 remained unchanged at eighteen. However, two companies where the chair received £100,000 or more have left the database and have been replaced by one company that increased the chair fee to £100,000 and one that has been added to our database. The number of audit chairs who receive an additional fee for their role has risen marginally to 95.8% compared with 94.8% last year and the number of SIDs who receive an additional fee has again risen significantly from 41% last year to 49%. The average premium over the directors’ fee level for audit chairs was 18.9% and 6.1% for SIDs (both percentages including those where there is no premium).
Despite the steady increase in fees, many directors still feel they are paid relatively modestly for the work and responsibility of the role. The very significant increase in workload associated with corporate activity without additional compensation may drive some experienced directors away from the sector at a time when they are most needed. We have only been able to identify about five companies where additional payments have been made to cover non-standard work, although the way this is reported is not always clear.
Of the 262 companies in our database this year, 247 (94% unchanged from last year) had at least one woman on their board. The percentage of boards with more than one woman has risen marginally to 77%, compared with 75% last year.
Almost all companies complied with the requirement to report on ethnic diversity representation on their boards with all UK-registered companies complying. Of those reporting, 133 have at least one director of an ethnic minority background. Most that do not have ethnic minority directors stated that they are cognisant of the requirement and will take it into consideration when recruiting new directors, although a handful continue to say that small board size would make the requirement challenging and that appointments will always be made on merit.
The tables below show the differences in fee levels between the boards of listed equity investment companies and alternative investment companies, as well as the impact of size and geographical location on fee levels.
|
UK-registered companies |
|||
|
Below £500m |
Between £500m and £1bn |
Above £1bn |
|
|
Chair |
£45,463 |
£52,341 |
£73,661 |
|
Audit Chair |
£37,214 |
£41,933 |
£49,802 |
|
Director |
£31,482 |
£35,447 |
£40,453 |
|
Channel Islands-registered companies |
|||
|
Below £500m |
Between £500m and £1bn |
Above £1bn |
|
|
Chair |
£55,218 |
£79,469 |
£99,041 |
|
Audit Chair |
£45,082 |
£57,851 |
£71,693 |
|
Director |
£38,819 |
£50,142 |
£59,248 |
|
Listed equity investment companies |
|||
|
Below £500m |
Between £500m and £1bn |
Above £1bn |
|
|
Chair |
£44,408 |
£47,628 |
£69,264 |
|
Audit Chair |
£36,558 |
£39,400 |
£48,022 |
|
Director |
£31,168 |
£32,990 |
£39,066 |
|
Alternative investment companies |
|||
|
Below £500m |
Between £500m and £1bn |
Above £1bn |
|
|
Chair |
£57,054 |
£78,096 |
£98,954 |
|
Audit Chair |
£46,277 |
£56,689 |
£66,313 |
|
Director |
£39,316 |
£49,251 |
£54,488 |
It can be seen that the size of company, nature of the assets and geographical location all have a very significant impact on fee levels. The bar chart below shows the ten-year history of NED fee averages from our surveys. The figures are to 31st March in each year. It should be noted that the fees paid to chairmen of more than £110,000 were excluded up to 2019 but no cut-off has been applied since 2020.
Trust Associates LLP
September 2025