Evenlode's Peters: Why Stewardship will take centre stage in 2016

Ben Peters, co-manager at Evenlode Income, analyses how improved stewardship is helping the investment management profession take the criticisms levelled at it seriously for the first time.

A common criticism of investment managers is they are too myopic; often caught up in their own short-term performance targets (and perhaps their own career paths), which means they ignore the bigger picture realities of long-term investment. However, for a large and growing number of fund managers this view is simply not an accurate label. By owning businesses we assume responsibilities. We need to ensure a business continues to be managed in the best interests of shareholders, a task now known as stewardship. That statement has many facets. Part of the current zeitgeist is, rightly, ...