UK SDR labels provide a clearer starting point for sustainable fund assessment, but they are not a substitute for allocator judgement. A label frames the claimed sustainability objective. Selectors must still test the formal objective, portfolio alignment, evidence standard, KPIs, stewardship, risks, trade-offs and monitoring triggers, and connect these to the fund’s intended portfolio role.

A fund’s performance number only becomes useful when the comparator is understood. Benchmarks can sharpen fund review, but they can also mislead when they are mismatched, too broad, too narrow, style-insensitive or used without challenge. The question is not simply whether a fund has beaten its benchmark. It is whether the benchmark is the right yardstick, what the comparison proves, and what it leaves unanswered.