PLSA Stewardship & Voting Guidelines 2024

The PLSA’s Stewardship and Voting Guidelines 2024 provide a framework for pension schemes trustees, and investors generally, to ensure that companies are held to account on key issues in the AGM season.

This edition takes into account:

• Recent political and economic events and circumstances, which have a direct impact on the evolving topics investors engage with when it comes to stewardship;
• A brand-new section on social factors, which also contains a spotlight on workforce and well-being practices;
• Increased awareness and interest in topics such as cybersecurity, AI and biodiversity.

Significant changes in this edition

This year’s edition brings some changes to the document structure, which the PLSA has been publishing (with a yearly revision) for more than a decade:

• The static sections - which most of our readers will be familiar with by now – are now hosted below on this page (topics 4 to 8), alongside all the other chapters that make up the Voting & Stewardship Guidelines, which are now also accessible on their own.
• An extended summary, containing a table which summarises the voting recommendations, has been produced for ease.
• The main document contains a new section on developments in the area of ESG matters, drawing attention to significant changes or areas to look out for in 2024.

Stewardship and Voting Guidelines 2024

1. Introduction
2. Purpose of this guide
3. Significant developments in 2023
4. Policy framework for corporate governance and stewardship
5. PLSA’s corporate governance policy
6. A holistic approach to stewardship
7. The PLSA voting guidelines
8. Using asset managers and advisers
9. Section 1: Board leadership and company purpose
10. Section 2: Division of responsibilities
11. Section 3: Composition, succession and evaluation
12. Section 4: Audit, risk and internal control
13. Section 5: Remuneration
14. Section 6: Climate change and sustainability
15. Section 7. Social factors and workforce
16. Section 8: Capital structure and allocation
17. Section 9: Taking a holistic approach
18. Appendix 1: Voting recommendations summary
19. Appendix 2: Further reading and resources