NEAM is dedicated to supporting our insurance company clients as they navigate the requirements of their relevant constituents; board of directors, shareholders and regulators in the implementation of ESG within their investment portfolios.

As part of our fiduciary duty to our clients, we are dedicated to understanding the impact of ESG issues on long-term economic growth and ultimately the impact on the resilience of companies, capital markets and our clients' portfolios.

NEAM’s fundamental approach to ESG is an "integrated" approach whereby ESG considerations are used to complement the traditional quantitative and qualitative research completed by our corporate credit analysts. Third party ESG data together with traditional financial factors are identified and assessed to form investment opinions.

We have increasingly integrated ESG factors into our investment process and formalized our commitment to this investment approach in becoming a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment (“PRI”) in June 2019. We have been guided by these principles in defining how ESG factors are integrated within our firm. As of September 2021, 21% of NEAM’s Investment Professionals have completed the PRI Academy’s Foundations in Responsible Investment course. 

NEAM has established an ESG Risk Management Committee which is chaired by our ESG Risk Manager and includes members of Senior Management. This committee has responsibility for high level, strategic decisions in ESG implementation within the firm. In addition, the firm has established a cross functional ESG Group which monitors and implements aspects of the topic that impact our insurance company clients. 

As part of NEAM’s partnership-like approach, we support our clients in the implementation of their business’s ESG objectives and strategy within their investment portfolio.

We welcome dialogue with our clients in determining how we can most effectively assist them in reflecting their ESG preferences within their specific investment objectives and guidelines, taking into account the requirements of their relevant stakeholders.

NEAM provides clients with portfolio analytics and investment reporting that illustrate their investment portfolio’s ESG profile and outlines contributors to these ESG metrics.

We leverage a proprietary Climate Risk Stress Testing Module to assess the potential impact of climate change scenarios on our clients investment portfolios and can provide scenario analysis for clients who are in the process of evolving their ESG preferences and need to understand the potential impact on their portfolios.

NEAM acknowledges the importance of climate change and we support the goal of the UNFCCC 2015 Paris Agreement of limiting the increase of global temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius (preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels. We commit to supporting those of our insurance company clients who aim to play a role in achieving this goal.

ESG is a fast evolving landscape and NEAM is committed to keeping abreast of the aspects of this topic that impact our insurance company clients.
 
We proactively assist our clients in responding to increasing requirements of regulators, ratings agencies and insurance markets.