Responsible investment principles

We are long-term investors and have a duty to be responsible stewards of our investor's assets. As such we consider strong corporate governance to be an important factor when allocating capital to managers.

We are working to ensure that ESG considerations and our responsible investment approach is meaningfully incorporated and reflected throughout our entire business and not just in activities that are directly part of the investment process. This is also something we look for in the managers we invest in and those we appoint to manage funds for us.

We believe ESG considerations can have a role across the investment process from selecting managers and portfolio construction through to ongoing monitoring.

We place particular importance on climate change in how we think about investment and recognise both the impact that climate-related risks can have on investment returns, as well as the role investment plays in the transition to a low carbon economy. We are working to prioritise climate-related factors more meaningfully in everything we do.

As a result, we seek to assess Managers individually on their integration of ESG Factors in addition to looking at the overall ESG-related exposures and characteristics of our portfolios.

When selecting managers, we look at whether responsible investment is part of their investment philosophy; whether / how ESG considerations are integrated throughout the investment process; and in the investment team's experience and understanding of responsible investment, as well as available resources for implementation. This is in addition to understanding exactly what the manager holds within the strategy itself.

Though we have minimum requirements that we apply to our managers, we are mindful that differing approaches to ESG integration can be equally valid depending on asset class, investment style, manager size or investment geography, and we adapt our expectations accordingly. This is particularly relevant when considering ESG integration in passive investing.

As far as possible, we expect managers to be fully transparent with us so that we can assess their investment capabilities as well as form a view on other important factors such as corporate culture, diversity, equality and inclusion, remuneration, training and succession plans.