In a move to ensure voting consistency across its investments, the Superannuation Arrangements of the University of London (Saul) has become the first UK pension scheme to take up pass-through voting for both its DC and DB plans.
Pass-through voting empowers pension schemes to enforce voting preferences on AGM resolutions within pooled-fund investments. Saul utilises this technology to uniformly apply its voting policy across segregated and pooled funds for both DC and DB plans, enhancing stewardship impact. It enables direct influence on key issues like remuneration and climate change, aligning with responsible investment values in pooled funds.
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This move follows a similar decision by the Local Government Pension Scheme for Camden, highlighting a trend of pension schemes taking action to align their voting across their equities. Both Saul and Camden are clients of Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), which has partnered with fintech firm Tumelo to offer this voting capability.
Traditionally, votes in Saul’s segregated mandates were cast according to its values through a custom voting policy managed by Pensions & Investment Research Consultants Ltd (PIRC), while votes for its pooled funds were controlled by LGIM.
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Georgia Stewart, CEO of Tumelo, commented: “DC pension funds are growing more conscious of their ability to influence the companies their money is invested in. Pass-through voting plays a pivotal role in magnifying their influence, guaranteeing that their investments align with their objectives.”
Kevin Wade, CIO of Saul, said: “It’s great to see three of our partners, Legal and General, Tumelo and PIRC, working together to help SAUL implement its voting policy across more of our investments, giving us more influence and a stronger voice when engaging with portfolio companies.”
According to Alan MacDougall, MD of PIRC: “Our tailored voting guidelines, combined with detailed company research and risk assessments, allow us to provide Saul with precise, bespoke voting recommendations that reflect their values and expectations.”
Stuart Murphy, head of client platforms at LGIM, added: “SAUL’s decision to vote across all their assets including DC is a new development for the market – it will be interesting to see if other DC Mastertrusts also follow this path.”
