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Engagement

Description

With sustainability a core topic for the investment community, the impact of Voting and Engagement is ever more apparent. Being an investor confers certain rights and bestows influence, in particular through Voting and Engagement. This course looks at how these rights can be used to improve the environmental, social and governance practice of issuers.

What you will learn

Being a truly sustainable investor is not just about identifying and investing in the right issuers. What comes after is just as important. Sustainable investing is also about accompanying issuers in the improvement of their environmental, social and governance practices.

Being an active investor and steward not only influences the behaviour of issuers, it helps investors gather data and insights which can improve ESG investment analysis and contribute to alignment with new and future sustainable investment regulation.

This course will provide insights into:

What engagement covers, its various forms and most typical topics
Why engagement is important, and a developing practice
How voting operates (delegation, proxy advisors), and how asset managers are improving their practices to accommodate investors’ increasing requirements
The challenges of individual and collaborative engagement, including the specific case of engaging with bond issuers

Practical info

Free online course

2 hour estimated study time

Learn at your own pace with no deadlines

CFP Austria accredited for 2 CPD-Credits

FPSB Deutschland accredited for 2 CPD-Credits

EFPA France accredited

EFPA Italia accredited

Valid for 1.5 hours of training for the EFPA Spain re-certification

Valid for 2 PL credits for the Chartered Financial Analyst qualification and 2 CPD credits for the Certified Advisor CAd qualification, of which 2 are SER credits

CPD UK accredited

Available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Japanese

Course Outline

Module 1 – What is engagement?

Unit 1: The various forms of Engagement
Unit 2: What are the main engagement topics?
Unit 3: Why is engagement important?
Unit 4: When corporate engagement fosters sustainable development
Unit 5: Drivers of growth: support… and pressure
Unit 6: The various forms of engagement actions and their expected evolution
Module 1 questions

Module 2 – Voting and resolution filing

Unit 1: Rights and responsibilities of shareholders
Unit 2: Voting at AGMs: cornerstone of stewardship
Unit 3: The role of proxy advisers
Unit 4: Shareholder resolution filing
Unit 5: Examples of eligibility in different countries
Module 2 questions

Module 3 – Engagement in practice

Unit 1: Collaborative engagement: joining forces to achieve greater goals
Unit 2: Examples of collaborative engagements
Unit 3: How unions and investors together foster corporate engagement
Unit 4: Engaging with bond issuers
Unit 5: Do investors really engage?
Unit 6: Divestment, a solution of last resort?
Module 3 questions