CCLA are the largest manager of Charitable assets in the UK and has £14bn assets under management. Last year, CCLA brought their responsible investment capabilities to the UK intermediary market with the launch of the CCLA Better World Global Equity Fund. CCLA’s approach to sustainable investing is very much centred around driving real world change through the power of collaborative engagement. CCLA now have £17tn of assets supporting their initiatives across the topics of climate action, modern slavery, mental health, and cost of living.

A First-of-its-kind Membership

Up until now, financial advisers have played a key role in promoting the development of sustainable finance, but the structure of the industry has made engagement with investee companies almost impossible. Realising this disconnect, CCLA launched AdviserAction – a first-of-its-kind membership organisation that has been created to empower advisers in the UK, to advance clients’ interest in improving sustainable outcomes and pool resources to “do good”.

First Initiative – Mental Health

As its initial engagement focus, AdviserAction has chosen to engage on mental health in the workplace. One in four people are estimated to have a mental health problem and research indicates that an estimated 12 billion working days are lost globally each year to depression and anxiety alone.

Meanwhile, for every US$1 invested in scaled-up treatment for wellbeing in the workplace, there is a US$4 return in better health and productivity, according to research published in The Lancet.

CCLA Leading Engagement for Advisers

AdviserAction has signed the CCLA-convened Global Investor Statement on Mental Health and following that, with CCLA acting as secretariat, will lead engagement with Frasers Group and IBM on this issue. These companies have been chosen because both are common portfolio holdings and are currently rated in the lowest tier of CCLA’s Corporate Mental Health Benchmark, designed to assess objectively how listed companies approach and manage workplace mental health.

As of April 2024, AdviserAction has 16 firms under its umbrella, with over £8bn assets under advice. We are pleased to announce that we have joined this initiative in its infancy and are incredibly excited to see our collective progress in driving real world change over time.