Corporate Governance
Supporting Decisions that Maximize Shareholder Value
Our goal in corporate governance is to support decisions that will maximize the long-term value of securities we hold in client portfolios. There are five ways that we can seek to accomplish this:
- Maintain ongoing dialogue with company management.
- Integrate corporate governance analysis into the investment process.
- Vote on matters that come to shareholders for action.
- Work with other market participants to encourage better transparency and governance responsibility.
- Sell the company’s securities if governance concerns persist.
Proxy Voting
Many of our clients ask us to vote company proxies on their behalf for their portfolios. We take that responsibility seriously. We have policies and procedures designed to ensure that we collect and analyze all relevant information for each meeting, apply our proxy voting guidelines accurately, and execute the votes in a timely manner. Ultimately, each vote must reflect the specific situation at stake, and these vary broadly. Therefore, portfolio managers and analysts have discretion to vote proxies in the best interests of each client portfolio they manage. In making voting decisions, they are supported by our Corporate Governance Committee, which represents the diverse investment views of the firm.
Engagement
We believe that engagement with company managements can be an integral element of the investment process. Our portfolio management and corporate governance teams’ decisions to engage are made on a case-by-case basis and depend on the materiality of the issue, the responsiveness exhibited by the company to past communications, and our assessment of whether such engagement is in the best interests of our clients. Dialogue can range from an agenda item on a regular investor call to a focused communication on a particular issue.
Best Practice Codes
Our approach to corporate governance is applied across all investment markets and is consistent with the aims of emerging best practice codes, including the UK Stewardship Code.
Learn more.
In April of 2012, Wellington Management became a signatory to the United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). The PRI is a network of international investors working together to put the six Principles for Responsible Investment into practice. Learn more.
We exist for our clients and are driven by their needs.
—Wellington Management Goals, Strategy, and Culture Statement