Legal & General (‘L&G’) has launched a new ‘Expression of Wish’ digital service in partnership with Tumelo, allowing trustees to identify the ESG issues that matter most to their members and encouraging direct dialogue between trustees, members and the industry-leading Legal & General Investment Management (‘LGIM’) Investment Stewardship team.
11 Oct 2022
The first of its kind service is being launched via the Tumelo platform with NatWest, one of Legal & General’s largest trust-based clients with almost 70,000 members. The expectation is that after an initial three-month period, the service will be available to LGIM’s DC trustee client base, which represents 2.15m scheme members in the UK, as well as other interested LGIM clients.
This follows the launch of the Tumelo partnership in September 2020, when LGIM was the first corporate pension provider to officially roll out their platform across its DC pension schemes. The service currently enables hundreds of thousands of members to see which companies they have in their pension, as well as have a say on issues they care most about such as diversity and inclusion, biodiversity and climate change, executive remuneration and human rights.
Georgia Stewart, Chief Executive at Tumelo: “We are already seeing the benefits of better member engagement on various issues since we launched, with data across members demonstrating a significant increase. The new service will allow Trustees to engage more directly with LGIM’s Stewardship team and better represent members views through an expression of wish.”
The latest development, initially aimed at DC pension schemes, will enable pension scheme trustees to express their views* and trustee policies on upcoming AGM votes - informed by the views of their members - directly to the LGIM stewardship team and streamline the dialogue between the two. The service - specifically designed for trustees - will facilitate two-way communication, allowing them to feed views into LGIM’s voting experts and understand how and why LGIM voted. The creation of a digital feedback loop provides trustees with real time updates of how LGIM voted and detailed rationale of why, shortly after the vote.
Stuart Murphy, Co-Head of Defined Contribution at Legal & General: “Expression of wish makes feedback seamless and will support pension scheme trustees with their additional regulatory reporting and decision-making responsibilities in an easy, navigable way. Most exciting is that it allows for a more direct dialogue with the LGIM investment stewardship team, ensuring they can feed in members’ views into their voting and engagement process.”
The implementation of the new product has been driven by an increasing public and member interest in the underlying holdings of their pensions but also due to the direction of new regulation1 that requires pension schemes and their trustees to have better oversight of the voting implementation process.
Alison Robb, Trustee at the NatWest Group Defined Contribution Scheme, which will be the first client to use the service: “This service will enable us as Trustee to engage more closely with LGIM’s stewardship team and understand how they are voting in practice. This will help us develop our voting policies and communicate with our pension scheme members who are increasingly engaged with what companies are in their pension but also the issues that they care most about.”
The value of an investment and any income taken from it is not guaranteed and can go down as well as up; you may not get back the amount you originally invested.
Reference to a particular security is on a historic basis and does not mean that the security is currently held or will be held within an LGIM portfolio and is for illustrative purposes only. The above information does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any security.
Andrew Gates
Senior PR Manager
Legal & General Investment Management
T: +44 (0)20 3124 4363
Established in 1836, Legal & General is one of the UK's leading financial services groups and a major global investor, with over £1.2 trillion in total assets under management* of which a third is international. We also provide powerful asset origination capabilities. Together, these underpin our leading retirement and protection solutions: we are a leading international player in pension risk transfer, in UK and US life insurance, and in UK workplace pensions and retirement income. Through inclusive capitalism, we aim to build a better society by investing in long-term assets that benefit everyone.
*at 31 Dec 2022
Legal & General Investment Management
Legal & General Investment Management is one of Europe’s largest asset managers and a major global investor, with total assets under management of £1.29 trillion1. We work with a wide range of global clients, including pension schemes, sovereign wealth funds, fund distributors and retail investors.
For more than 50 years, we have built our business through understanding what matters most to our clients and transforming this insight into valuable, accessible investment products and solutions. We provide investment expertise across the full spectrum of asset classes including fixed income, equities, commercial property, and cash. Our capabilities range from index-tracking and active strategies to liquidity management and liability-based risk management solutions.
1Globally, we manage assets of £1.42 trillion or CHF 1.75 trillion as at 31 December 2021 (source: LGIM internal data as at 31 December 2021). The data combines assets under management by LGIM in the UK, LGIMA in the US and LGIM Asia in Hong Kong. Assets under management include securities and derivatives positions.
*at 11 Jan 2023
KEY RISKS
Past performance is not a guide to the future. The value of an investment and any income taken from it is not guaranteed and can go down as well as up, you may not get back the amount you originally invested. For illustrative purposes only. Reference to a particular security is on a historical basis and does not mean that the security is currently held or will be held within an LGIM portfolio. The above information does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Views expressed are of LGIM as at 3 January 2023.
IMPORTANT LEGAL NOTICE
In the European Economic Area, it is issued by LGIM Managers (Europe) Limited, authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland as a UCITS management company (pursuant to European Communities (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) Regulations, 2011 (S.I. No. 352 of 2011), as amended) and as an alternative investment fund manager with "top up" permissions which enable the firm to carry out certain additional MiFID investment services (pursuant to the European Union (Alternative Investment Fund Managers) Regulations 2013 (S.I. No. 257 of 2013), as amended). Registered in Ireland with the Companies Registration Office (No. 609677). Registered Office: 70 Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin, 2, Ireland. Regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland (No. C173733).
LGIM Managers (Europe) Limited operates a branch network in the European Economic Area, which is subject to supervision by the Central Bank of Ireland. In Italy, the branch office of LGIM Managers (Europe) Limited is subject to limited supervision by the Commissione Nazionale per le società e la Borsa ("CONSOB") and is registered with Banca d'Italia (no. 23978.0) with registered office at Piazza della Repubblica 3, 20121 Milan, (Companies' Register no. MI - 2557936). In Germany, the branch office of LGIM Managers (Europe) Limited is subject to limited supervision by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority ("BaFin"). In the Netherlands, the branch office of LGIM Managers (Europe) Limited is subject to limited supervision by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets ("AFM") and it is included in the register held by the AFM and registered with the trade register of the Chamber of Commerce under number 74481231.Details about the full extent of our relevant authorisations and permissions are available from us upon request. For further information on our products (including the product prospectuses), please visit our website.