Our rules of engagement
- We prioritise engagement where we can help make a difference in addressing systemic ESG challenges.
- We are prepared to escalate our engagement activity or reduce our holdings in companies that continue to present an ongoing ESG risk.
- We don’t outsource any engagement services.
- We see engagement as fundamental to our duty to manage our clients’ investments to their benefit.
How we choose what to engage on
In deciding whether to engage, we consider:
Our engagement plans
In 2025, our primary engagements are focused on:
- Net zero
- Water
- Mining and sustainability
- Nature
- Modern slavery
- Investment trust governance
Learn more in this video or by opening our plan via the link below.
Our rates of engagement
In the first six months of 2025, Rathbones Group engaged with companies 586 times on 42 issues.
Many of these engagements covered a number of topics.
Topics we engage on
Executive pay
When we engage on executive pay, it’s often about calling for a clearer link between pay and performance. We’re happy to approve higher executive pay if our clients, for whom we hold shares in companies, are benefiting because management is doing well.
Modern slavery was the commonest social issue we engaged on. This reflects our involvement in Votes Against Slavery, an investor coalition we created to encourage UK companies to meet their legal requirement to set out the steps they’ve taken to prevent modern slavery. Two years after we set it up in 2020, it won the ‘Stewardship Initiative of the Year’ award from the Principles for Responsible Investment, a body backed by the United Nations.
Climate risk
Climate risk includes the physical risk to companies’ earnings and assets from climate change, such as damage to their infrastructure because of extreme weather. It also includes the ‘transition risk’ that companies may be harmed by the global economy’s move to net zero greenhouse gas emissions.
Company Boards
Reflecting on how well Boards work is an important part of responsible investment. We think diverse Boards might be less prone to groupthink. This is where a team of people don’t challenge decisions because their similar backgrounds and experiences mean they tend to think the same way. We’re also wary of ‘overboarding’. This is when directors sit on the Boards of too many companies, making it hard for them to devote enough time to doing a good job at all these businesses.
Engagement case studies
AB Dynamics
What’s the issue?
50mn people are trapped in modern slavery, according to research by United Nations bodies and Walk Free, an international human rights organisation.
UK companies are legally obliged to publish an annual modern slavery statement, under the Modern Slavery Act. This must set out steps taken to ensure modern slavery doesn’t happen in their businesses or supply chains.
AB Dynamics makes vehicle testing kits. Modern slavery can be found in the supply chains of a wide range of industries, including manufacturing.
AB Dynamics hadn’t complied with the rules: its statement wasn’t signed off by a director, approved by the Board or on the homepage of its website.
What did we do?
In 2024, we pressed AB Dynamics to comply with the Act.
We also met the General Counsel, its chief legal officer, to discuss how the company was tackling slavery within its supply chain.
In January 2025, the General Counsel asked if we could introduce the company to a training provider that could give modern slavery training tailored to manufacturers.
What happened?
We put AB Dynamics in touch with an anti-slavery charity, Unseen UK. It helped the company create a bespoke training programme for its management and other staff.
What next?
AB Dynamics agreed to include details of this training in its modern slavery statement – and how it was using what it had learnt from the training.
We’re delighted that the company is poised to lead its peers on modern slavery. We hope this will set a great example for them.
Investment company governance
What’s the issue?
‘Governance’ is the system of rules, practices and processes in place to manage and control a company. We think good governance can create value for shareholders, by improving companies’ long-term performance and reducing their risks.
What did we do?
In February 2025, we wrote to 131 UK investment companies to stress the importance of meeting the demands of their new corporate governance code, published by the Association of Investment Companies. We drew particular attention to Board diversity and independence, director tenure – how long people have been directors – and fees.
We sought meetings with trusts where we have large stakes and/or concerns.
What happened?
In April 2025, we met the Chair of TR Property Investment Trust. We discussed governance issues issues at the UK-based investment company, such as director recruitment, fees, diversity and the Board’s mix of skills.
We suggested changes to make the trust more attractive to investors. One suggestion was for the trust to explain better how the Board is filled with strongly independent members, willing to challenge the fund manager.
What next?
We planned to engage with the trust and see what changes it made. We decided to use the trust’s July 2025 annual general meeting to raise any governance points, if necessary.
Why engage on climate change?
We believe that engagement on ESG issues with companies in which we invest forms part of our wider responsibility, as a business, to society. One example is our engagement with companies on their plans for net zero.
Climate change threatens to affect a wide range of assets adversely, so mitigating it is in the interests of our clients as well as society as a whole.
Like other financial institutions, Rathbones has a responsibility to understand how climate change and other factors can have an impact on portfolios.
