Welcome to Scottish Widows Adviser Site

This site is designed and intended for UK authorised and regulated financial advisers and intermediaries only.

If you are not a financial adviser or intermediary, please visit our personal site

Continue to our website

Responsible Investment

SCOTTISH WIDOWS RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT AND STEWARDSHIP FRAMEWORK

We’ve introduced our Six Principles of Responsible Investment and Stewardship Framework to guide our decisions on asset allocation, manager selection, fund research and engagement activity.

As environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities become better researched and understood, it’s clear that these factors can have a financial impact on investment portfolios. So where we believe ESG factors pose downside risks, or offer potential upside opportunities, we will incorporate them into our decision-making.

Our principles define how we will do this to help secure our customers’ long-term financial futures.

They are underpinned by our Stewardship Commitments to:

  • be responsible stewards of the assets we oversee,
  • influence investee companies to engender positive change, and
  • exercise strong governance over the fund managers we partner with.

Our support for you

To help you understand more about our Responsible Investment Approach we’ve developed some useful material.

Read our Responsible Investment And Stewardship Framework

Read our Stewardship Policy

Read our Exclusions Policy

OUR APPROACH TO CLIMATE CHANGE - achieving net zero in our investments

We know there’s an urgent need to transition to a low-carbon future and to grow the green economy, both for the prosperity of the UK and to safeguard our customers’ investments and financial futures. Climate change has far-reaching implications in all areas of our lives, including our savings and investments.

This presents us with opportunities to participate in, and influence, this transition for the long-term benefit of our customers.

 

Read more (PDF)

Our apporach to responsible investment

Watch our video with Maria Nazarova-Doyle, Head of Pension Investments, answering some useful questions about our approach to responsible investment.

Watch now

INTEGRATING ESG CONSIDERATIONS INTO OUR PENSION FUNDS

We’re taking our next step towards integrating ESG considerations into our pension funds by supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy.

We’ll be achieving this by allocating 10% of the equities exposure in our Pension Portfolio Funds and Retirement Portfolio Funds to a new fund – the BlackRock ACS Climate Transition World Equity Fund.

We’ve collaborated with BlackRock on the design of the fund and it delivers on the ESG investment themes that most resonate with pension savers according to research we carried out among 18-60 year olds.

Through this fund, we’ll be focusing on companies that decrease carbon emissions, increase clean technology revenue, reduce water consumption and improve waste management. These businesses are likely to better manage the risks and opportunities of climate change, improving environmental outcomes.

Integrating ESG Considerations into our Pension Portfolios 

ESG – what resonates with pension investors

Scottish Widows 2020 Retirement Report: Investing Responsibly for the Future

In addition to this years main Retirement Report we have published a focused study which looks at peoples attitudes towards environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, including responsible investment in pension funds.

Read the full report here

What do you want to do next?

Search for funds

Find the right funds for your clients.

Fund searchTakes you to our Funds Search tool

Look at fund information

Get more details about the funds we offer.

More on funds

Investment Perspectives

Investment news and insight.

Find out more