Pioneering through more than three decades of meeting client needs with index strategies
Index fund management is at the heart of our business strategy. We were appointed by our first external index client in 1986 and in March 1987 we were the first UK company to offer pooled index portfolios for UK pension funds.
With the majority of our revenues coming from managing index strategies, our commitment to index investing is unequivocal. As of 30 June 2024, we managed €598 billion of index assets.*
LGIM’s approach to index investment
We believe that three pillars of our indexing business will help us remain a trusted partner to those seeking to use index strategies in their portfolios:
Our scale
With £507 billion* of index assets under management (AUM) and product breadth across more than 400 index portfolios to meet any client’s needs, we use our size to both glean insights to improve client outcomes and to generate efficiencies that we can pass on to clients.
Our responsibility
As well as helping our clients reflect their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) views in index strategies, we use our scale as one of the world’s largest shareholders to raise standards across the entire market.
Our expertise
Having run index strategies for more than three decades, we have developed resources, methodologies, and technologies to manage indices efficiently. These include a dedicated index research and strategy function. We pass all the benefits – the cost savings and the added value – along to our clients.
Each of these pillars supports one purpose: providing our clients with everything they are entitled to as asset owners, not just an index’s returns.
Pragmatic replication
At LGIM, we have developed our own philosophy on the management of index strategies that we call ‘pragmatic replication’, an approach that is focused on delivering the best value for our investors. The overarching objective is to track the benchmark index as tightly as possible, using our in-house expertise, resources and technology to undertake comprehensive research aimed at enhancing investor returns when managing index changes.
Through such techniques, we believe we can reduce turnover and costs when trading and seek to maximise returns by exploiting any short-term mispricing or inefficiencies.
How do we embed responsibility and ESG in our index strategies?
Clients trust us to manage, safeguard and grow the value of their assets. We take this responsibility seriously, and we manage our index strategies responsibly. As part of this commitment, we integrate rigorous ESG criteria into our index strategies where our clients give us the mandate to do so. Fundamentally, we believe that companies that appropriately manage their ESG profile generally deliver better investment value over the long term.
We seek to meet these obligations in our index funds through the combination of three approaches:
01
Through company engagement: as a major global investor, we can have meaningful dialogue with corporate boards and executives on matters that impact long-term financial returns. We take a truly long-term view and use our scale to influence decisions.
02
Through a broader corporate governance lens: we address emerging issues, escalate concerns, and collaborate with other stakeholders, regulators and policymakers.
03
Through ESG integration: we can use our proprietary scoring tool to deliver meaningful improvements in our index strategies’ ESG profiles. Our ‘tilting’ approach allocates more capital to companies with higher ESG scores and less to companies with poor ESG scores, which we believe provides a compelling blend of impact, transparency, and market exposure.
Whilst LGIM has integrated Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations into its investment decision-making and stewardship practices, this does not guarantee the achievement of responsible investing goals within funds that do not include specific ESG goals within their objectives.
Find out more about our range of index funds
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*Source: LGIM internal data as at 30 June 2024. The AUM disclosed is shown on the basis of client direct investments and excludes any double count from fund of fund holdings.
Key risks
The value of an investment and any income taken from it is not guaranteed and can go down as well as up, you may not get back the amount you originally invested. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Whilst LGIM has integrated Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations into its investment decision-making and stewardship practices, this does not guarantee the achievement of responsible investing goals within funds that do not include specific ESG goals within their objectives.
The risks associated with each fund or investment strategy should be read and understood before making any investment decisions. Further information on the risks of investing in this fund is available in the prospectus at. http://www.lgim.com/fundcentre