Proxy voting

Shareholders of a company have the right to vote on certain aspects of the company's business, such as the election of the company's directors and the appointment of auditors. A proxy is the document that companies send to shareholders to get their voting instructions.

Equity mutual funds and exchange traded funds with an equity component hold shares of companies and are entitled to exercise the voting rights attached to those shares.

RBC Global Asset Management Inc. exercises the voting rights attached to securities held by RBC Funds, PH&N Funds, RBC Private Pools, RBC Alternative Funds, RBC ETFs (“Funds”)1, and segregated client accounts where we have been granted voting discretion.2

We believe that issuers with good governance practices generally are able to focus on long-term sustainable growth, and are more likely to effectively manage conflicts and material environmental and social risk factors. These issuers are also more likely to access fixed income markets when needed, and pose less risk for equity investors due to proper alignment of shareholder and management interests. As such, we believe that communicating with an issuer’s management or board through the exercise of voting rights is an effective way of addressing issues that are material to our investments and can help protect and enhance the long term value of the portfolios we manage. We make our voting decisions independently and in accordance with our custom Proxy Voting Guidelines.
We have established the RBC GAM Proxy Voting Guidelines (the “Guidelines”) to govern the exercise of our voting rights. We review and update our Guidelines on an ongoing basis as our view of corporate governance best practices evolve and with the view to enhance the long-term value of our portfolios. Our Guidelines are published for the information of our clients and to assist issuers in understanding the message we have sent or intend to send through the exercise of proxy voting rights. The Guidelines are applied for issuers in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. In all other markets, RBC GAM utilizes the local benchmark voting policy of Institutional Shareholder Services Inc.(ISS).

Proxy voting guidelines

The RBC GAM Proxy Voting Guidelines (“Guidelines”) summarize the corporate governance principles which we will generally support through the exercise of votes on these issues.

Proposals, including those on business issues specific to the issuer or those raised by shareholders of the issuer, are addressed on a case-by-case basis with a focus on the potential impact of the vote on shareholder value.

The Guidelines are applied in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. In all other markets, RBC GAM utilizes the local proxy voting guidelines of Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”).

For more information, please refer to the Guidelines.

1. We refer to all of the RBC Funds, PH&N Funds, RBC Private Pools, RBC Alternative Funds, and RBC ETFs as the “Funds”. For more information, please review the prospectus.

2. In the case of certain sub advised funds, RBC GAM has delegated the investment management responsibility and the related obligation to exercise a fund’s voting rights to the sub advisor of the fund. RBC GAM’s affiliated sub advisors have adopted the Proxy Voting Guidelines. For information, please review the prospectus.

This webpage and embedded links include information related to RBC GAM’s approach to responsible investment, which does not apply to certain funds, investment strategies, asset classes, exposure or security types that do not integrate ESG factors. Examples of what would not integrate ESG factors include, but are not limited to, money market, buy and maintain, passive, and certain third-party sub-advised funds/strategies or certain currency or derivative instruments. ESG factors are considered by our investment teams to varying degrees and weights, depending on the investment team’s assessment of that ESG factor’s potential impact on the risk-adjusted, long-term performance of the security and/or the fund. For funds where ESG factors do not form a part of their investment objective, ESG factors are generally not likely to drive investment decisions on their own, and in some cases, may not impact an investment decision at all. RBC GAM has a general approach to active stewardship, proxy voting, and engagement that addresses ESG matters among other matters. References to active stewardship do not apply to certain investment strategies where proxy voting and/or engagement are not used. Examples of what would not conduct certain active stewardship activities include, but are not limited to, quantitative investment strategies that do not conduct engagements, passive, and certain third-party sub-advised strategies. RBC GAM does not manage proxy voting for certain third-party sub-advised strategies. For clarity, RBC Indigo Asset Management Inc. and its fund products are not covered by the information presented on this webpage, unless otherwise indicated.