The cornerstone of responsible investment is an active and considered approach to proxy voting. Shareholders are part owners of the companies in which they invest. This makes voting at shareholder meetings an important means of exerting influence with companies on behalf of our clients.

In 2022, we voted on 13,071 resolutions at 1,013 company meetings. We voted against management 971 times.

• Proxy voting at Rathbones is overseen by a committee of investment professionals from across the business. This Voting Committee is supported by our stewardship team and an external proxy voting consultant. We vote according to our own bespoke policy.
• Where we hold assets directly for you, we actively vote across all holdings, unless these are very small.
• Voting is undertaken on our most widely held holdings and on any company if requested by a client who is a shareholder of that company.
• We are prepared to vote against management to help drive positive change.

In 2022 we voted against management on resolutions about:

• Environmental issues such as climate change
• Social issues such as racial justice
• Governance issues such as executive pay that wasn’t linked rigorously enough to performance
• Diversity on boards

We ensure any vote against management is followed up by direct engagement. To learn more about our voting see our responsible investment report.

View our current voting policy.