Stewardship
We are committed to being active stewards and responsible owners of our clients’ assets, to enhance and protect their long-term value.
Our stewardship approach
As stewards of our clients’ investments, we aim to engage with companies and other organisations of influence to create long-term value, leading to sustainable benefits for the economy, the environment, and society. Good stewardship helps to ensure that our investee companies understand the importance of being a responsible and sustainable business, in the same way we do. Our approach aligns with the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) definition of stewardship:
“Stewardship is the responsible allocation, management and oversight of capital to create long-term value for clients and beneficiaries leading to sustainable benefits for the economy, the environment and society.”
FINANCIAL REPORTING COUNCIL
We are a proud signatory to the FRC’s Stewardship Code 2020, which sets high stewardship standards for those investing money on behalf of UK savers and pensioners.
Our Stewardship Policy
Our Stewardship Policy guides our approach, and our Stewardship Committee ensures that we protect the interests of our clients, and, where appropriate, enables proactive shareholder action to be taken.
Engagement
Engagement is a fundamental part of our stewardship approach. For core holdings, we engage with company management on high priority ESG issues as well as on issues that are the immediate subject of votes at general meetings.
We also partner with other aligned investors on specific issues through membership of initiatives such as Investor Forum and Climate Action 100+. We have partnered with BMO, which engages with some of our largest direct holdings on ESG issues using its Responsible Engagement Overlay (reo®) service.
Our online facility, Vote Your Shares, enables our clients to vote on companies’ resolutions where they are the underlying beneficiary.
And for clients who choose for their investments to be managed in line with specific criteria, such as ethical issues, we facilitate their requirements using a recognised screening database.