The AIC Shareholder Engagement Awards 2024

The right to vote is among the major benefits of investing in an investment company. Unlike investors in other collectives, shareholders get a say in how their company is run, and have the chance to make their voice heard at annual general meetings (AGMs).

More investment company shareholders than ever hold their shares through investment platforms. Platforms have been successful in expanding investment company ownership, providing a cost-effective and convenient way for individual investors to hold shares in investment companies, receive or reinvest dividends, and buy and sell their investments. However, not all investors realise how to vote or attend AGMs when they hold their shares through a platform.

To encourage and reward the investment platforms who do the best job of enabling shareholders to exercise their rights, the AIC launched its Shareholder Engagement Awards in 2021.

The awards are open to direct-to-consumer (D2C) investment platforms and are judged by platform consultancy, the lang cat. The judging focuses 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?

Platforms that enter the award are scored in each of these areas based on their submissions. These scores are loaded into a scoring matrix and this is used to inform the final decision.

In 2024, there are two Shareholder Engagement Awards. The Shareholder Engagement Champion award is for the platform with the highest overall score across the four judging areas mentioned above. The Shareholder Engagement Innovator award is for a platform that has launched a successful new initiative, or initiatives, during the past year, while delivering a good service across the four core areas.

The winners of the Shareholder Engagement Awards 2024 were announced on 17 September.