Principle 7 - How we report on stewardship to our clients

We recognise the importance of being accountable to our clients and their advisers on stewardship and voting activities. We aim to provide transparency on our stewardship activities through our regular client reports and other information reported publicly online.

Our segregated pension fund clients receive quarterly reports detailing how we have voted their shares and, upon request, we provide our clients with customised reports on our engagement activities. On occasion, our engagements with investee companies relate to matters which are extremely confidential and/or where disclosure of our engagement activities might be counterproductive or harm our clients' best interests. In such circumstances, which are exceptional, confidentiality is paramount to achieving the stewardship objective and therefore, the engagement is not reported to our clients.

We are aware of the importance our clients and their advisers attach to our engagement and voting processes operating effectively. Therefore, we intend to obtain and publicly disclose appropriate independent assurance about these processes and, in doing so, we shall have regard to the applicable professional standards and guidance governing such assurance.