The AIC Shareholder Engagement Awards

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 were open to direct-to-consumer (D2C) investment platforms and judged by platform consultancy, the lang cat. 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?

Platforms that entered the award were scored on each of these areas based on their submissions. These scores were loaded into a scoring matrix which was used to inform the final decision.

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