What is responsible investing?

Invest in a better future

Responsible investing doesn’t have to be a trade-off between doing the right thing and achieving long-term returns.

Instead, we expect our fund managers to consider environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities as part of their investment decision making.

Our fund managers regularly engage with businesses to hold them to account and ensure they are making measurable strides towards sustainability.

Approaches to responsible investing

Responsible investing can include a number of approaches to investing, including screening and ESG integration.

ESG integration
We believe through Responsible Investment we can understand future opportunities and risks.

Our fund managers enhance their decision-making process by considering environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors as part of their investment decision making. They assess which factors pose the greatest impact to a firm and then manage investment opportunity and risk accordingly.

Responsible investment is a key consideration in our selection process of new fund managers. They must have a clear responsible investing policy, individuals considering integrating ESG into their thinking and a clear commitment to further embed ESG factors.

All of our existing, and new fund managers, must be signatories of the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). The PRI is the industry standard for assessing a firm’s overall approach to responsible investment. Signatories are assessed and scored on their approach. The behaviour of investors drives social change and that is why St. James’s Place supports the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment.

Sustainability
Through sustainable investing, we can facilitate the change needed to be ready for the future, by investing in innovative solutions such as green infrastructure, sustainable agriculture and water efficiency, taking advantage of not only the potential investment returns, but also the opportunity to improve the prospect of a healthy planet.

Engagement
We expect all our fund managers to be responsible stewards on behalf of our clients and undertake an active engagement approach wherever possible.

Our fund managers regularly engage with businesses to hold them to account and ensure they are making measurable progression material environmental and social topics, including climate change.

Every fund manager is required to engage with their underlying investee companies on a priority basis, including all financially material ESG issues.

We recognise that engagement with investees can take many forms, including face-to-face shareholder meetings, industry-wide collective action, and exercising voting rights. All these aspects are part of our monitoring process.

In 2021, we partnered with global leaders in company engagement, Robeco, to work with our fund managers and the companies they choose to invest in, encouraging them to make positive change. Robeco produce Quarterly Active Ownership Reports. These reports provide a good overview of what engagement involves and the results it can achieve.

Our Sustainable & Responsible Equity Fund

Our Sustainable and Responsible Equity fund is focused on investing in the transition to a sustainable low-carbon economy. Managed by Impax Asset Management, the fund aims to benefit from opportunities arising from this shift to a more sustainable world, such as the clean energy transition, advancement in healthcare technology and the mitigation of climate change.

How do we invest responsibly?

We approach responsible investing by aiming to embed it into what we do: our vision and strategy, our fund range and the ongoing monitoring of our fund managers.

Responsible investing is not just about the funds but involves having a ‘responsible’ mindset. This includes how we think, how we work and how we deliver great client outcomes. In our latest Stewardship and Engagement report we share our evaluation of our fund managers’ engagement with responsible investment processes.

The St. James’s Place advice guarantee

St. James’s Place Partners are among the country’s leading financial professions. St. James’s Place actively support Partners’ ongoing professional development to ensure Partners remain qualified to provide financial advice.

St. James’s Place guarantees the suitability of the advice given by members of the St. James’s Place Partnership when recommending any of the wealth management products and services available from companies in the group, more details of which are set out on St. James’s Place website.

The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds selected and may fall as well as rise.

You may get back less than the amount invested.