We monitor best practices in the industry to stay up-to-date on new investment tools and activities that support RI and hedge funds, including monitoring the UN PRI's hedge fund work stream which provides guidance to signatories on ESG integration in alternative strategies. We have integrated our commitment to responsible investing in the hedge fund strategy in the following ways:
First, we employ a rigorous approach to fund governance by determining if there are any recent actions by the hedge fund's Board of Directors to be aware of. Secondly, we examin how ESG data is considered in the investment process. This is done pre-investment and then again quarterly as part of the due diligence process. Thirdly, we discuss the hedge fund’s approach to proxy voting and supplement our ongoing research by asking the manger to document exceptions to their default voting policy.
And finally, we request the manager to disclose portfolio exposure to controversial weapons (cluster munitions and landmines) companies. We ask the manager to provide us with a list of exposures they held, either long or short, at the end of the each month. All managers adhere to recommendations of proxy voting service providers.