Our approach to stewardship ranges from active monitoring of all holdings, through the use of active proxy voting and external ratings, to focussing on key issues. The majority of our stewardship activity is conducted in-house by our portfolio managers and/or our specialist ethical and responsible investment team. External stewardship providers are used from time to time to provide extra capacity on key CCLA projects. All stewardship is overseen by our quarterly Ethical and Responsible Investment Committee, attended by the Head of Ethical and Responsible Investment, the Chief Investment Officer and the Chief Executive.
Stewardship is an integrated part of our approach to allocating our clients’ capital. Where this is conducted by our specialist ethical and responsible investment team activity is routinely communicated to our portfolio managers. In extremis, poor responses to engagement can lead to divestment.