Introducing B.E.S.T - an authentic thoughtful approach to long-term investment
As specialists in thoughtful investing, our investment approach is integral to everything we do – it isn’t just a product line or optional service.
This page aims to explain Castlefield's proprietary B.E.S.T. system, an authentic framework for assessing investment opportunities that's integral to our thoughtful approach.
Environmental, social, transparency and governance factors are an integral part of any long-term investment process and we have built our approach accordingly.
We believe the integration and application of non-financial criteria throughout our process delivers better outcomes for all stakeholders and is one of the main strengths of our investment approach.
We offer values-based investment from the perspective of being a values-based organisation.
That’s why we’re known as the Thoughtful Investor ®.
We developed our proprietary B.E.S.T. investment selection system to provide a consistent framework to assess the merits of competing investment opportunities.
It’s used across all types of assets – from investments in individual shares to collective investment funds run by us or by other carefully selected third parties.
B.E.S.T. incorporates four main criteria to assess both financial and non-financial attributes, which could affect long-term investor returns. It isn’t a scoring system but a means of consistent and qualitative evaluation.
Our investment philosophy is distinctive in that it centres around the principle that there is more to consider than simply present-day financial factors.
Non-financial factors can easily transform into financial risks, threatening permanent capital loss if they are not considered properly.
That said, the protection and growth of capital is always our starting point. No matter the quality of our assessment of an investment’s non-financial factors, if the Business & Financial analysis doesn’t add up for us, we will not invest.
Throughout our approach, ethical considerations are integrated and applied.
By that we mean that we don’t simply focus on non-financial factors as inputs, e.g. scoring companies based on a rating or screening process, or buying such scores in*.
Instead, we focus on the outputs of our approach too – so active Stewardship, voting and engagement are fundamental.
*By applying our own approach consistently, we can avoid confusion and inconsistencies found in the industry where different external providers may have very different scores for the non-financial metrics of the same company.
We want our investors to have confidence that their values are reflected in their investments. Our Thoughtful Fund Range has been designed to provide an option for investors who are seeking to align their investments with their values.
The screening of investments within the Thoughtful Fund Range seeks to avoid exposure to companies involved in controversial sectors or activities - for example tobacco, high interest lending, oil & gas.
This report demonstrates the importance of active stewardship and engagement at Castlefield, and goes some way to explain why we are known as The Thoughtful Investor ®.
You'll find details of our Thoughtful Investment approach and a comprehensive assessment of our stewardship activities, including collaborative engagement projects, voting activity and broad range of case studies during the prior twelve months.
Castlefield Annual Stewardship Report 2024
Visit our document library for a variety of brochures, reports, guides and other publications.
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