Fidelity International has partnered with Tumelo to launch a market-first Stewardship Hub to provide governance and insights for workplace pension clients, trustees and their advisors.
The new Stewardship Hub allows pension scheme clients and trustees to view the underlying fund holdings of a scheme’s portfolios and receive information on their fund managers’ stewardship efforts.
The Hub enables trustees to meet their obligation to produce an Implementation Statement as part of their annual report by including Pension and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) statistics and copies of fund manager policies, in addition to providing greater visibility of fund managers’ stewardship decisions. The Hub facilitates communication between asset owners and fund managers by offering a single location for information, analysis, and comparison, as well as streamlining data operations and facilitating fund manager reporting.
The Stewardship Hub also shows pension plan members’ voting preferences on a variety of company topics, such as climate change and gender equality, and makes Tumelo’s Shareholder Platform available to them. Tumelo enables trustees to extend their fiduciary obligation to stewardship and ensure that voting and involvement by fund management is in the long-term best interests of members, in accordance with the Government’s Taskforce on Pension Scheme Voting Implementation.
Fidelity Master Trust clients will be able to submit input on the Hub and its features as it is pushed out in stages.
Tumelo, an impact-focused FinTech, enables individual and institutional investors to see which companies their pension funds are invested in and communicate with fund managers on ESG problems that matter to them. Tumelo is in charge of the Hub’s technological build, as well as interacting with fund managers to gather and maintain correct stewardship data and statistics, in collaboration with Fidelity.
Fidelity International platform CIO and head of products Anne-Marie Brennan says: “The creation of the Stewardship Hub in partnership with Tumelo emphasises Fidelity’s wider commitment to helping clients achieve their ESG targets while meeting their regulatory obligations via pioneering solutions. A market-first, this centralised Hub enables better visibility, analysis and communication between fund managers and trustees, ultimately benefiting the thousands of members who look to their pension providers to represent their voices.”
Fidelity Master Trust independent chair of the trustees Kim Nash says: “Tumelo is already well-known in the pensions industry for giving investors a transparent view of the companies they own and a shareholder voice on issues they care about. By working together, Fidelity and Tumelo have been able to take this one step further by creating a bespoke Stewardship Hub, giving trustees the ability to interact with the stewardship approaches of their fund managers and ensuring the prioritisation of member outcomes.”
Tumelo CEO Georgia Stewart says: “Working with Fidelity to create the Stewardship Hub has allowed Tumelo to bring a new experience for institutional investors and especially pension trustees. This innovation will enable Fidelity’s clients to align with new and enhanced policies such as the Implementation Statement, the Stewardship Code, and the latest recommendations from the United Nations and the UK Government. We are excited to evolve this product to further improve communication and collaboration between fund managers, asset owners and beneficiaries on stewardship.”