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Standard Life plc's Stewardship Report 2025 — published by the entity formerly known as Phoenix Group Holdings plc — sets out the firm's stewardship activities as a £317 billion AUA insurer and pension provider for 12 million customers across the UK, Ireland and Germany. Aligned to the updated 2026 UK Stewardship Code (a UK Stewardship Code signatory since 2022), the report covers both Standard Life's in-house stewardship and activities carried out on its behalf by 13 asset management partners ('AMPs'). Its four ESG priority themes are climate change, nature, human rights, and UNGC controversies.

Sustainability issues in focus

• Climate change — Climate Aligned index series adopted for default equity and credit portfolios, embedding annual decarbonisation pathways; 63% of tailored climate objectives partially or fully met (up from 57% in 2024 and 38% in 2023)
• Nature — TNFD LEAP framework applied to assess tropical deforestation and water scarcity risks; Nature Action 100 engagement; early improvements in disclosures noted
• Human rights — portfolio-wide assessment identified 157 companies for focused engagement; PRI Advance collaborative initiative participation with six focus companies
• UNGC controversies — focused engagement with six companies; objectives tracked twice yearly; third-party engagement provider used where needed
• Corporate governance — directed votes deployed at selected companies for the first time in 2025, specifically within Sustainability Improvers™ labelled equity funds; voting alignment assessed across six AMPs covering 300 companies

Engagement highlights

• Climate engagement — 158 engagements completed across 25 focus companies, accounting for 40% of financed emissions in high-emitting sectors; 63% of tailored climate objectives partially or fully met, improving year-on-year for the third consecutive year.
• AMPs climate engagement — 2,249 companies engaged on climate by AMPs through 3,300 meetings, covering an additional 43% of financed emissions in high-emitting sectors (up from 38% in 2023).
• Private credit — £1.3bn originated in sustainable, transition, and productive shareholder private credit assets in 2025, accounting for 67% of total private credit origination; in-house shareholder credit ESG integration advanced.
• Fund labelling — FCA Sustainability Improvers™ label secured for eight core funds with £41bn in assets; updated reporting, educational materials, and improved ESG disclosures produced for customers.
• Human rights — second year of PRI Advance engagement; 74% of human rights engagement objectives met or partially met (up from 63% in 2024); strongest progress in human rights policies and strategies, and due diligence approaches.
• UNGC controversies — 73% of engagement objectives achieved or partially achieved (up from 54% in 2024); will review target list twice yearly.
• AMP oversight — three-year review of 13 priority managers (96% of AUM under investment management agreements) showed sustained progress; 49% of AMP engagement meetings now linked to explicit engagement objectives (up from 29% in 2024); managers conducted 6,400 meetings with over 3,100 companies in 2025 (13% increase).

Other highlights

• Private markets engagement: 42 delegated engagements recorded for the first time in 2025; 42% had formal objectives; 83% showed progress.
• Customer insight: 73% of Standard Life customers expect their pension provider to take responsible investment decisions on their behalf; 60% are personally taking steps to live more sustainably despite cost-of-living pressures.
• Real-world emissions trend: small rise in emissions intensity across the portfolio cohort (2022–24) but a decline in absolute emissions; companies have advanced on capital allocation and transition disclosures, though Scope 3 targets and sector-specific transition plans remain less developed.
• Voting: most frequent areas of voting misalignment with AMPs are climate-related proposals, director elections, and executive remuneration; improved alignment with two managers, divergence widened with two others.

Report parameters

• Publication date: 2026
• Period covered: Year ended 31 December 2025

[Selected by Mike (54) | Summarised by Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Human-directed; AI-powered]

Focal points of the report

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• UK Stewardship Code disclosure covering the 12-month period to 31 December 2024, setting out EdenTree’s sustainable investment approach and stewardship framework.
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• Highlights enhancements to engagement tracking and reporting, and sets thematic engagement priorities including a Just Transition, Climate Transition, Water Stress, Social and Financial Inclusion, and (new) Good Governance.
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• Summarises 2024 voting activity: 5,106 proposals eligible, 99.8% voted, 87% supported, 11% opposed, across 328 meetings (249 meetings with at least one vote against management).
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• Describes escalation practices including pre-declaring votes on the PRI Resolution Database and publishing refreshed Corporate Governance and Voting Policy.
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Sustainability issues of focus

The following sustainability issues feature significantly within this report:

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• Just transition
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• Climate transition
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• Water stress
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• Social inclusion
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• Financial inclusion
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• Good governance
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Sector of focus

The following sectors issues feature significantly within this report:

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• Information Technology
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• Health Care
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• Financials
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• Real Estate
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• Industrials
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Engagement highlights

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• Enhanced stewardship reporting via a proprietary engagement tracking and research database to increase transparency on objectives, timelines, progress and outcomes.
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• Added Good Governance to core thematic engagement priorities, alongside Climate Transition, Water Stress, and Social and Financial Inclusion themes.
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• Continued to pre-declare voting intentions publicly via the PRI Resolution Database as a form of escalation.
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• Reported achieving five stars across all modules in the latest PRI assessment for responsible investment signatories.
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Other content of note

In addition to the points noted above, this report addresses:

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• Published a Diversity & Inclusion policy and commitment in 2024, including targets and monitoring against progress.
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• Provides ‘votes of interest’ examples linked to thematic priorities, including AI-related shareholder proposals at Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft.
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• Describes partnerships and collaborative initiatives used to raise standards and support collective action.
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• Explains the firm’s investment beliefs and how engagement and voting are used throughout the investment process.
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Data points

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• Publication date: Not clear
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• Period covered: From 01-01-2024 to 31-12-2024
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