Skip to main content

2026 FAMILY OWNED, PRIVATELY OWNED AND OWNER-MANAGED BUSINESS SURVEY

Click here to find out more

Education

Financial Planning & Employee Benefits

Investing in the future of your trust and your staff

Strategic financial management in education goes beyond compliance; it involves making your institution’s assets work harder and ensuring your most valuable assets—your staff—feel financially secure. In an environment of static funding, how a trust manages its reserves and supports its employees can be the differentiator between a struggling school and a thriving one.

Our financial planning team works with CFOs and Trustees to build a sustainable financial future. We bridge the gap between institutional investment and individual financial well-being, helping you align your wealth management with your educational mission.

Institutional reserves and investment policy

The Academy Trust Handbook permits trusts to invest surplus funds, but it requires a robust, risk-averse investment policy. We help you:

  • Draft ESFA-compliant policies: Ensuring your investment strategy is ethical, liquid, and strictly aligned with regulatory expectations.
  • Inflation protection: Moving beyond low-interest deposit accounts to manage "low-risk" portfolios that protect the purchasing power of your SCA or CIF funds until they are needed for capital works.
  • Endowment stewardship: For independent schools, we provide professional management of endowment funds and bursary pots, ensuring long-term yield to support scholarships and capital projects.

Contact us

Get in touch with our Sector specialists

Contact the team

Employee financial wellbeing: A recruitment tool

In the current recruitment crisis, staff retention is a board-level priority. We help you become an "Employer of Choice" by providing:

Financial education seminars

Helping your staff understand their complex TPS or LGPS benefits, plan for retirement, and manage personal debt or mortgages.

Executive protection

Arranging Key Person Insurance for CEOs and Headteachers to ensure the trust remains viable during a leadership crisis.

Alternative pensions

Advising on the transition from TPS to alternative pension models for independent school teachers.

Get in touch

Get in touch to speak to one of our specialist advisers and explore how we can help you.

Contact us

Find your local office

Visit your local office. To find your nearest office just enter your town or city below.

Find an office

Latest news

Investment market update

Our Latest Investment Market Update – Goodbye Starmer, Iran Calmer

by Justin Rourke & Richard Cole - 22nd June 2026

Female GP wearing stethoscope looking at patient notes

How can GP partners manage the challenges of the 2026/27 Contract?

by Morag Miller - 17th June 2026

Adviser working with a couple to achieve financial goals

Why financial advice still matters in the age of AI

by Stuart Smith - 15th June 2026

Father and son of family manufacturing business

Inheritance Tax reform and how this impacts plans for succession

by Craig Reid - 15th June 2026

Tax Compliance Managers and apprentices at Armstrong Watson. Sitting at a desk with laptop

Armstrong Watson named again in Sunday Times Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers, marking

by Armstrong Watson - 12th June 2026