The government has long been encouraging pension schemes trustees to consider the environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and stewardship approaches in their investment decision making.
Occupational schemes with more than 100 members already need to prepare a Statement of Investment Principles (SIP) which set out their investment policies and report annually on the extent to which they have followed their policy.
Trustees are being encouraged to vote their shares at company meetings to support the policies set out in their SIP and influence how companies respond to ESG and climate change issues.
Proxy voting is easy enough for large schemes which invest through segregated portfolios and can vote their shares directly. It’s somewhat harder though for schemes which hold their assets in pooled funds to influence voting – which is generally undertaken by the asset manager on their behalf. The fund managers’ stewardship approach may or may not reflect the ultimate owner’s SIP.
Late last year a government Taskforce on Pension Scheme Voting Implementation reported on the issue. It wants to see pension schemes trustees empowered to vote their shares, even when they are held in a pooled fund structure.
At least one major asset manager is already enabling institutional investors in pooled funds to cast votes in proportion to their share of the fund.
At Mobius Life we want to support all our clients invested in pooled funds on our platform to be able to vote their shares. We have already taken steps to enable asset owners to set out their voting intentions and to vote on their behalf on some of the pooled funds held on our platform. Looking forward we are also working to extend this range further.
Proxy voting of pooled fund assets enables trustees to live up to the promises set out in their SIP and empowers and engages scheme members in the decisions their schemes’ take.
At Mobius Life, we’re ready to make proxy voting of pooled assets a reality for trustees. If you’d like to find out more about our approach, please give us a call today.
