Winners of Shareholder Engagement Awards announced
Interactive investor and AJ Bell victorious.
The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has announced the winners of its Shareholder Engagement Awards, judged by the lang cat.
The Awards recognise platforms that have done the most to facilitate shareholder voting, enabling customers to attend AGMs, handling corporate actions on behalf of customers, and providing documents and data to help investors make informed decisions.
interactive investor has been named Shareholder Engagement Champion, the fourth year in a row that the platform has been victorious in the Awards. The Champion award goes to the platform with the highest overall score on the four areas mentioned above (see below for judging criteria).
AJ Bell took the award for Shareholder Engagement Innovator. This award recognises a platform that has launched a new initiative while delivering a good service across the four areas assessed by the Awards.
“Platforms have made it much easier for individual investors to buy, sell and hold investment trusts. The challenge has been ensuring that investment trust shareholders can also exercise their rights and participate fully as owners of the trust. These awards recognise the platforms that have made shareholder engagement a priority, rather than being content to leave it on the back burner.”
Nick Britton, Research Director at the Association of Investment Companies (AIC)
Why they won
The judges noted that interactive investor (ii) had continued to lead the way in the field of shareholder engagement, delivering an all-round outstanding submission that recognised each of the four key pillars of the award and generally excelled in metrics such as processes and procedures, consumer engagement and data transparency.
AJ Bell was recognised for taking the decision to launch a dedicated investment trust show as part of their regular Money and Markets podcast series. The judges found the content engaging, enjoyable and informative and an excellent step forward in bringing investment trusts to the attention of direct investors.
Nick Britton, Research Director at the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), said: “Platforms have made it much easier for individual investors to buy, sell and hold investment trusts. The challenge has been ensuring that investment trust shareholders can also exercise their rights and participate fully as owners of the trust. These awards recognise the platforms that have made shareholder engagement a priority, rather than being content to leave it on the back burner.”
Richard Wilson, Chief Executive of interactive investor, said: “We are incredibly proud to be receiving an AIC Shareholder Engagement Award for the fourth year in a row. It means a lot and is testimony to the hard work that the ii team does every day to support the voice and informed choice of the ordinary investor. Whether it be voting, AGM attendance, or providing the best information available – the closer we can bring investment trusts together with their investors, the better for all stakeholders.”
Dan Coatsworth, Investment Analyst at AJ Bell, said: “We’re delighted to win this award. The Investment Trust Show has been a popular new feature of the AJ Bell Money and Markets podcast, with investors keen to take the opportunity to hear from leading managers and learn more about how investment trusts operate. The podcast is an easy and accessible way for investors to learn more about investment trusts and we're grateful to all our guests, presenters and producers for making it such a success.”
Steven Nelson, Insight Director at the lang cat, said: “Once again, we were encouraged by the efforts made by most of the leading direct to consumer platforms, but we have to say that interactive investor continue to set the standard as an organisation that is clearly geared towards (and can evidence) shareholder engagement being at the very core of what they do.
“It's fair to say we went into the inaugural Innovator award expecting on balance to be wooed by a technological advance, but nothing grabbed us in a way that merited the award. However, innovation comes in many forms, and AJ Bell won our hearts with their excellent investment trust podcast show, bringing informative and engaging content to an investor audience.”
Judging criteria
The award was open to direct-to-consumer (D2C) investment platforms. The judging focused on four areas:
- Shareholder voting. How well does the platform facilitate shareholder voting?
- AGM participation. How well does the platform facilitate participation in annual general meetings (AGMs) for shareholders of investment companies?
- Corporate actions. How efficiently and effectively does the platform notify shareholders about corporate actions, and enable them to respond where necessary?
- Documents and data. How well do platforms display investment company documents (such as annual reports) and data?
The Shareholder Engagement Champion award is given to the platform with the highest overall score across the four areas above, as judged by the lang cat, while the Shareholder Engagement Innovator award recognises a platform which scores well across the four areas and has also launched a successful new initiative to help inform investment company shareholders.
The award will be presented at an AIC dinner tonight.
The Shareholder Engagement Awards were launched by the AIC in 2021 to recognise the work that platforms do to help investment trust shareholders exercise their rights. More information about the Shareholder Engagement Awards can be found here.
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