The UK Stewardship Code 2021
Becoming a stewardship code signatory
06 Sep 2021
Following on from our climate vision and pledge earlier this year we are pleased to announce that we have been successfully accepted as a signatory to the FRC UK Stewardship Code. The UK Stewardship Code 2020 sets high stewardship standards for those investing money on behalf of UK savers and pensioners, and those that support them. You can read more about the code here.
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As we headed into our 100th year, we made our climate pledge. Within our pledge we stated that “our greatest potential impact is through the way we influence the stewardship of £300bn of assets”. We committed to helping our clients to manage their investments more successfully by treating climate risks as an integral part of our advice and services and to create positive change by raising awareness of the implications of climate risk on financial planning.
Climate change is not the only issue that our clients need to be aware of in exercising stewardship over their assets but it is the most important, with the potential to affect all aspects of our lives and the lives of those whom our advice and services will ultimately benefit. Changing what we do is important – but telling others what we are doing and the impact that we have had is how we demonstrate leadership.
We have an important responsibility, and duty, to our clients, our employees and to the wider market to demonstrate leadership on issues including diversity and inclusion, and climate change.
Simon Jones - Head of Responsible Investment
The 2020 UK Stewardship Code sets a high standard for the financial services industry and a standard that we will strive to meet. In this report we set out the actions that we have taken over the course of 2020 in fulfilment of the six principles for Service Providers and the outcomes that have arisen. Our work in this area is ongoing, but 2020 was a year in which we continued to embed responsible investment into our day-to-day activities. You can find out more about what we have been doing in the full report.
2021 presents a year where we strive to do more. Whilst regulatory change will inevitably mean that the focus on climate change continues, we continue to work with our clients at all levels to ensure that they address climate risk. We will continue to challenge investment managers and providers on issues such as climate change, diversity and working practices so we can hold them accountable for their stewardship practice. We will focus our research on a broader range of potential solutions, recognising that our trustee DB clients are continuing to move capital away from equity investment.
As we grow our business to work with the retail market, we will ensure that our thinking is embedded in how we build portfolios for this market.
Read more on our responsible investment work here.
Hymans Robertson Stewardship Code Response
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The 2020 Code set a high bar for organisations to demonstrate their ongoing commitment to stewardship and we are delighted that the work that we have undertaken in recent years to embed responsible investment practices into our day-to-day activity has been recognised by the FRC. We have an important responsibility, and duty, to our clients, our employees and to the wider market to demonstrate leadership on issues including diversity and inclusion, and climate change. Being able to illustrate the positive steps that we have taken both internally and in working with our clients will hopefully catalyse others to take further action.
Simon Jones - Head of Responsible Investment
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Our objective now is one of continued improvement. We recognise that the world of responsible investment is evolving quickly, making it essential that we ensure that our clients and consultants are not only equipped with the right knowledge and skills, but that there is a clear focus on the change we can help to create. The climate emergency and the need to realise real-world emissions reductions remains an area of focus, we hope that our own climate impact initiative impact will help actively drive change.
Simon Jones - Head of Responsible Investment
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