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Are you a trusted advisor?

The demands on chief audit executives (CAEs) are evolving. We’ve talked about the need for internal auditors to be trusted advisors for years, but this is now critical. Push and pull are equally important – you need to be pushing to voice your opinions, using your professional judgment to inform risk awareness among senior decision-makers, and there’s the pull from management as they increasingly want and expect CAEs to provide counsel.

The Chartered IIA and ECIIA Risk in Focus 2026 (RIF) report highlighted increasing demand for advisory services and how CAEs are adapting their services to “match the speed of change”. One CAE said demand for internal audit advisory services now took up over half of his annual plan – a rise from about 20% in two years.

RIF interviewees said boards and management want CAEs to provide insights on emerging and interconnected risks, offer constructive challenge and provide advisory services on the viability of new commercial initiatives.

Fiona Case, Head of Professional Practices at the Chartered IIA, also emphasises that being a trusted advisor strengthens organisational risk resilience. Increasing internal audit influence at senior decision-making level, puts internal audit in a better position to prevent, or at least identify, issues before they become critical risks.

“One example is driving,” she says. “You can have an alert that tells you have gone over the speed limit that will prompt you to slow down, but the real issue is your self-awareness and culture that influences your driving style and how you adapt this to suit the road conditions and speed compliance, so that you don’t get into bad habits in the first place.”

“If you stay focused and drive with purpose and consideration, you can quickly adapt to situations as they change around you. You will be better at avoiding hazards, because you are driving at a level where you have left room to manoeuvre and can continue without impacting your journey.”

But the extent to which CAEs and their teams are acting as trusted advisors varies. Chris Ramsdale, Chief Audit Officer at Together Money, points out that in a business where there is no history of this level of engagement you first need to build trust and credibility, and this requires influencing skills.

Persuasion must be underpinned with solid foundations or management trust will evaporate quickly. And it can be hard to regain.

In a perfect world, every company would have experienced leadership teams who enjoy an optimal balance of assurance and advisory input from an internal audit team with a history of being in the room for important discussions, Ramsdale says.

This would create further benefits. “Leaders will begin to predict the questions that internal audit will ask and understand why. This strengthens their own thought processes around risks and decisions, benefitting the whole company.”

The role of trusted advisor is not without risk. With AI now at everyone’s fingertips, we need to use our judgment and experience to offer more than just data. As we said previously, if an executive is asking for insights from ChatGPT, they don’t need you in the loop repeating the same. There’s a need to demonstrate personal competence, interpersonal skills and have robust relationships.

Are you there yet?

If, like many CAEs, your world is not perfect here are some key indicators of progress towards internal audit being a trusted advisor.

Are you invited into the room not just for your assurance, but for your thinking? Is internal audit providing insights that are valued by those who make key decisions? Are you able to challenge the decision-making process – for example, by ensuring all voices are heard and that risks are openly debated? This is a shift from providing assurance over decisions to improving the quality of leaders’ decision-making.
Do your insights influence outcomes, even when your opinions are challenging?
Do leaders rely on your judgment on matters beyond the scope of the audit plan – for example, via requests for consultancy or advisory reviews.
Are you receiving more requests for advisory work that provides insight and supports the business? Is this shaping processes and controls before issues arise? “This suggests the business sees internal audit as a partner in shaping outcomes, and reflects trust and confidence in your ability to add value beyond traditional assurance,” says Sarah Reed, Internal Audit Manager at BAE Systems.
Are your recommendations readily accepted and do you encounter minimal resistance or challenge? “This suggests your insights are seen as practical, relevant and valuable,” Reed says.
Do your conversations with senior management move from the transactional to the relational? Steven Welsh, Chief Internal Auditor at Birmingham Bank, says that “when conversations with senior management include the sharing of more personal perspectives on organisational culture, direction and executive-level interactions, you know you are well on the way to being considered a trusted advisor.”
Does your executive team label you as a trusted advisor? “Trusted advisor is not something you can say about yourself – it’s a perception others have of you,” says Rich Clarke, CEO of SWAP Internal Audit Services. Reed agrees: “Ultimately, you may not need to ask whether you are a trusted advisor. The business will demonstrate it through why, when and how they engage with you.”

Even if you answer yes to these, the role is evolving constantly. You can’t stop there.

“It is arguably even more challenging to maintain trusted advisor status and continually evidence and sell the value you provide,” Ramsdale says.

The trusted advisor team

Welsh says the trusted advisor role is multi-faceted and “a bit of a balancing act”, requiring technical internal audit ability, wide knowledge and understanding, human aptitudes, courage, storytelling skills, a willingness to put yourself in a vulnerable position and at times “stick your neck out”.

Increasingly, CAEs are also looking for others with these skills to build a team of trusted advisors – while also balancing audit and business experience in the team.

Incorporating recruits with experience from the business can help to build credibility with management. Diversity in terms of age, experience and professional background is important.

Recruits need to acquire the skills to develop their judgment and professional opinions. They need help to transition to a fully independent mindset and understand how they can work together with management, while remaining separate – just as a sports coach is a trusted advisor to the team without being one of the athletes.

Continuity is a further consideration. If you as the CAE are the only experienced trusted advisor, the internal audit team could lose this impact and need to rebuild relationships when you leave.

How to improve

Good internal audit teams will be stuck in second gear if the leader isn’t a trusted advisor and doesn’t work to gain this credibility and understanding.

Welsh says he has had the benefit of working alongside internal audit leaders who have completely transformed the perception and positioning of internal audit as trusted advisors in the organisation – not by making wholesale changes to the existing team, but by shifting the attitudes and approaches of the individuals in the team and having a much broader vision of what internal audit can contribute.

“I’ve seen how you can change senior management attitudes and understanding of what internal audit can offer,” he says. “It’s about setting out your stall and demonstrating what a high-performing internal audit team can be, and how it can help the organisation become better.”

Welsh explains an approach that he has used to reposition internal audit teams, anchored to three key pillars: engagement, relevance and impact. “Everything we do from the internal audit strategy to the design and delivery of our work relates back to these anchor points,” he says.

Engagement across your organisation is critical as you need to know the business, its people and build strong foundations of trust, he says. “What you do, how you do it, what you prioritise and highlight for improvement all build trust and confidence that the internal audit team is laser focused on the things that matter most and continually adjusts to maintain relevance.”

“Finally, impact is maximised by bringing the engagement and relevance aspects together and using these as a catalyst for positive change. How you communicate has a massive bearing on the impact of internal audit.”

Making a positive difference and helping the organisation continually improve is a critical success measure for internal audit, which is best delivered through a mix of tailored assurance and advisory work. “What is not needed is a cookie-cutter approach to internal audit,” Welsh says.

If senior managers trust you, they do not need to know the details of the work you did to reach your conclusion. They want to focus on the “so what” and the “what next”. So ask yourself what you are doing each day to build your knowledge to provide insights – to merit your place in the executive conversations and demonstrate your value as a trusted advisor?

Ramsdale believes the profession has matured, and there are clear expectations from boards and regulators, “but there is more to be done”.

But it can’t be rushed. He believes internal audit teams leading the way have often benefited from regulatory requirements in the financial services sector that set clear expectations, strong understanding and engagement from boards and the audit committee, plus time to develop commercial and strategic understanding and build critical relationships.

“Without these foundations, internal audit risks being asked to be a trusted advisor before it has established the credibility to be one,” he warns.

“Ultimately, I don’t believe it is a status that internal audit can claim, but one that is conferred by the quality, consistency and impact of its contribution over time,” he says.