Stewardship

We encourage the companies we invest in to do better

Stewardship means using our power as investors to encourage companies to improve.

When it comes to the money invested in your pension, we talk to the companies we invest in on your behalf. We do this to manage risk, deliver value for you and drive positive change. This is achieved in partnership with investment managers using engagement and voting.

What stewardship looks like at Phoenix Life

At Phoenix Life we use asset management partners to carry out some of our day to day investment management activities.

For some funds we have a contract with these partners, called a mandate, which sets out responsibilities and what our expectations are.

We believe that good stewardship needs strong relationships and clear goals. We can use three paths to get there:

Our stewardship in action

Together, our asset managers and in-house Stewardship team meet with hundreds of companies each year, ranging from big pharmaceutical suppliers to renewable energy companies. Our asset managers have placed votes at meetings on our behalf. Along with our in-house Stewardship team, they’ve talked to leaders about climate change, nature and human rights.

We consider the risks and the opportunities faced by companies in a changing world. It’s all part of managing investment risk and supporting investment returns over the long term.

How we use voting and engagement to influence change

Voting and engagement are the main ways we can influence positive change:

What we ask our asset management partners to do

When an asset management partner carries out stewardship on our behalf, we ask that they:

• sign up - to the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment and if relevant, the stewardship code for their country, for example the UK Stewardship Code 2020
• respond - to the Asset Owner Diversity Charter questionnaire every year
• target net zero - support our net zero strategy and apply our investment exclusion policy which explains what we won’t invest in

We also encourage our asset managers to:

• be focused - choosing a list of companies to engage with
• research - to monitor and assess companies
• vote - considering our views and placing votes on behalf of our customers
• engage - set engagement objectives and take action if progress isn't made
• report - update us regularly on engagement and voting activities

Who are our asset management partners?

You can find out more about our main asset management partners and their approaches to stewardship and voting here:

External asset managers

As well as our main asset management partners, we work with managers who run External Fund Links (EFLs) – which means we can offer more investment choice for customers. Phoenix Life does not have direct control over the way external funds are run, but we still encourage these asset managers to sign up to the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).

The PRI is a world leader and champion of responsible investment. It helps companies to put responsible investment into action.

You can find out which of our EFL asset managers have signed up to the PRI in the Asset Manager PRI Signatories report.

Or you can look up an asset manager on the PRI signatory website.

Learn more about stewardship:

Along with the pensions industry, we’re on a journey to become a net zero business by 2050. Our first priority is to support a better financial future for our customers, but we want to support wider, impactful change at the same time.

To do this, we’re taking actions we think can help to tackle the climate crisis and manage financial risk for our customers. We’re thinking carefully about where we invest in carbon-emitting sectors, and engaging with those contributing the most to the climate crisis to encourage real change.

Find out more about our Net Zero Transition Plan. It’s important to note that Phoenix Life is part of Phoenix Group, so the data shown is for all the Phoenix Group brands combined.