Written by Steve Watters, Head of Impact
A Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) survey of 20,000 consumers identified that 81% would like their investments to do good as well as deliver a financial return.
With this in mind, Paradigm Norton joined forces with other financial planning firms, to use our collective voices to influence corporate behaviour by joining the AdviserAction initiative launched by sustainable investment pioneer CCLA in 2023.
The aim of the group is to try to use our collective power to engage directly with corporates. This sits alongside our efforts to press fund managers to use their shareholder power more effectively to hold corporates to account. The AdviserAction initiative started with direct engagement of the Frasers Group and IBM to improve their low rankings in the CCLA Mental Health Benchmark.
We are very proud to be a signatory and as Farida Hassanali, Investment Committee Deputy Chair, Paradigm Norton, said: “We strongly believe in the potential of engagement and are delighted to join this collaborative approach to help evidence this in action.”
Paradigm Norton also joined a group of investors, managing £1.6 trillion in assets, who are responding to investor demands for visible action as signatories on a letter sent to 76 FTSE 100 companies. This direct engagement launched by CCLA in September 2024 requests that each company puts their climate transition plan up for a shareholder vote at their 2025 AGM.
In the recent letter, we noted that while about a fifth of FTSE 100 companies have already allowed shareholders to vote on climate plans, the companies we wrote to haven’t done so in the past three years.
We emphasised the importance of having Paris-aligned targets and detailed transition strategies, requesting companies to submit their plans for shareholder approval every three years. The letter requests a response, or an explanation if they don’t plan to do so.
Acknowledgements and in some cases detailed responses were received from 49 of the 76 companies within the one-month deadline with one company committing to an AGM vote this year and another expecting to include this in 2026.
It is easy to think that big companies will not take note of a single letter. However, these initiatives demonstrate that change can be created by using our collective voice to show the strength of our conviction. Therefore, if you believe a change is required, do not be afraid to speak up – it’s by working together that change will come.
If you would like to find out more about how we actively encourage better corporate accountability, and how we are changing how clients think about financial planning please get in touch.
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