Our approach to stewardship

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

When it comes to the money your members invest in their pensions, it’s about talking to the companies we invest in (on their behalf) to manage risk and deliver value, as well as driving positive change. This is achieved using engagement and voting and in partnership with investment managers.

What is stewardship?

In the UK Stewardship Code 2026 the Financial Reporting Council says:

Stewardship is the responsible allocation, management and oversight of capital to create long-term sustainable value for clients and beneficiaries.

We've committed to measure ourselves by this standard, and we believe that it is the responsibility of ourselves and of our asset management partners to engage with the companies we invest in to drive better behaviour and influence positive change. It's why good stewardship is such an important part of our responsible investment approach.

Routes to stewardship

There are three main routes to carrying out stewardship (and often these will overlap):

By our in-house team

Our stewardship team engages and votes directly on selected companies based on our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) research.

In collaboration with other investors

Joining forces with other peer shareholders to raise concerns with the companies in which we invest.

Through our asset managers

Our asset management partners conduct stewardship activities on our behalf.

How do we carry out stewardship?

In terms of actually influencing decision-making and actions which affect company activities, there are two main ways of doing this: voting, and engagement.

  • Voting

    As shareholders in a company we, or our asset management partners on our behalf, can vote1 for or against proposals at meetings.

  • Engagement

    Along with our asset managers, we meet with business leaders to talk about what could drive positive change.

Our approach to stewardship is based on dialogue, feedback, relationships and clear objectives.

When it comes to voting, your members can't vote directly with companies that they have exposure to through their workplace pension plan investments. This is a responsibility which lies primarily with the asset managers who manage the fund. So, where voting rights exist, our asset managers will vote on your members' behalf. This is with the exception of a small number of execution-only funds and selected sustainability-focused funds, for which Standard Life instructs the votes directly.

We go further than this; we make sure that all of our asset management partners have a voting policy in place and vote in line with this policy. Part of our due diligence exercise is to make sure that this policy reflects our philosophy and our approach to responsible investment.

We have also developed a set of Global Voting Principles summarising our expectations of companies on sound corporate governance practices in addition to the management of social and environmental risks and opportunities. We are using these principles as a framework of reference to assess the voting performance of asset management partners.

What we ask our asset managers to do

We expect asset managers to use stewardship to influence the <strong>performance</strong>, <strong>corporate governance</strong> and <strong>sustainability</strong> of the companies we invest in

  • Sign up

    Be a signatory to the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment and adopt the 2026 UK Stewardship Code (or an equivalent in their jurisdiction) and respond to the Asset Owner Diversity Charter questionnaire.

  • Focus

    Define criteria to identify a list of specific companies to engage with.

  • Research

    Use internal and external ESG research to monitor and assess the companies they invest in on our behalf.

  • Vote

    Managers place votes on our behalf, applying a proxy voting policy that takes our views into consideration.

  • Engage

    Set engagement objectives and escalate if progress isn't made. Drive better performance from the companies they invest in on our behalf.

  • Report

    Update us regularly on all engagement and voting activities.

Target net zero

Support our journey to net zero strategy and implement our exclusion policy.

As a business we’re on a journey to net zero by 2050 and we have started taking actions to achieve this. While we currently invest in high emitting companies and sectors, we have developed a climate action plan to transition to net zero across our business. We believe we can help our customers reduce their exposure to climate related risk and help them take advantage of the opportunities presented by the net zero transition. It’s important to note that the data shown in the net zero transition plan is for all the Standard Life brands combined.

Our priorities for engagement

We’ve listened to customers and colleagues as well as carrying out our own analysis to identify key themes to address with our stewardship activity. These are our current priorities:

  • Climate change

    Climate change presents both risks and opportunities for the companies we invest in.

  • Human rights

    We believe that the responsibility to respect human rights applies to all companies.

  • Nature

    We recognise the need for companies to protect and restore the planet’s natural resources

  • United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) breaches

    We expect companies to follow international standards on human rights, labour rights, environmental and climate change issues, and anti-bribery and corruption efforts.

Learn more about stewardship

For more information about how stewardship supports the long-term outcomes for members, read our Stewardship Report. It’s important to note that the data shown is for all the Standard Life brands combined.

You can also explore the documents below for further information on specific aspects of our stewardship activity:

Standard Life Approach to Stewardship

Standard Life plc Stewardship Policy

Standard Life plc Global Voting Principles

Our Views on Key Sustainability Themes

Standard Life plc Voting Records

Standard Life plc Responsible Investment Philosophy

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. Standard 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.

1Standard Life only votes across a small number of execution-only funds and directs specific votes within selected sustainability focussed funds.

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