United StatesIn this report, we have aligned our disclosures with the updated UK Stewardship Code 2026. By doing so, we streamline our reporting, strengthen transparency and offer clients and stakeholders a clearer line of sight into how our stewardship and advocacy activities support long‑term value creation across all asset classes.
A key development this year is a clearer articulation of our four priority stewardship and advocacy themes – Climate, Nature, People and Governance. Alongside these four priority stewardship and advocacy themes, which relate to our investments, we also actively participate in advocacy activities relating to sustainable finance. Here, we are focused on issues that affect the financial sector, such as sustainability reporting and sustainable investment product labelling.
The report explains how and why these themes are prioritised, the objectives we pursue under each, and the criteria that guide our focus: materiality to investment outcomes, exposure to systemic risks, relevance across asset classes and the potential for real‑world impact. Expanded detail on sub-themes provides deeper insight into the issues shaping decision‑making across our portfolios.
These enhancements reflect our commitment to the continuous improvement of our stewardship and advocacy approach as client expectations and sustainability challenges evolve. They also reaffirm our deep-rooted conviction that rigorous, well evidenced stewardship – integrated across investment processes and responsive to systemic risks – remains central to delivering long-term, sustainable value for our clients.
Chart footnotes
1 Outreach: Targeted contact with a company on a specific sustainability issue.
2 Dialogue: Discussion with, or response from, a company
3 Sentiment: A measure of how engagement has influenced our overall view and conviction in a specific company.