EX-99 5 ft_proxyguidelines.htm PROXY VOTING GUIDELINES

FIRST TRUST ADVISORS L.P.

PROXY VOTING POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

First Trust Advisors L.P. (“FTA” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to open- and closed-end investment companies, and other collective investments (“Funds”), as well as separately managed accounts (collectively, “Clients”). As part of these services, the Adviser has, in most cases, agreed to or been delegated proxy voting responsibility on such Clients’ behalf (“Proxy Clients”). FTA is required to adopt and implement policies and procedures reasonably designed to ensure proxy voting on behalf of Proxy Clients is conducted in a manner that is in their best interests and addresses how conflicts of interest between FTA’s interests and Proxy Clients’ interests are managed. FTA has adopted the following policies and procedures to comply with this requirement (the “Policy”).

1. It is the Adviser’s policy to seek to ensure that proxies are voted consistently and in the best economic interests of the Proxy Client. The FTA Investment Committee is responsible for the implementation of the Policy.

2. The Adviser engaged Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”) to provide proxy research, recommendations, and voting services. ISS provides a password protected website which is accessible to authorized FTA personnel to download upcoming proxy meeting data, including research reports of companies held in Proxy Client portfolios. The website can be used to view proposed proxy votes and to enter votes for upcoming meetings for Proxy Client portfolio securities.

3. FTA will generally follow the First Trust U.S. Proxy Voting Guidelines and First Trust International Proxy Voting Guidelines (collectively, the “Guidelines”), as appropriate, to vote proxies for Proxy Clients’ accounts, so long as such Guidelines are considered to be in the best interests of the Proxy Client, and there are no noted or perceived conflicts of interest. FTA’s use of the Guidelines is not intended to constrain FTA’s consideration of any proxy proposal, and there are times when FTA deviates from the Guidelines, including but not limited to when required by Rule 12d1-4 agreements between Fund Proxy Clients and certain acquired funds, if applicable. When FTA deviates from the Guidelines, FTA will consider such proxy voting decisions in light of merit-based considerations which it believes may impact shareholder value. The Guidelines are posted on the “News and Literature” page on the website (ftportfolios.com) for each Fund for which FTA votes proxies.

4. FTA will also vote against shareholder proposals that are not related to a company’s core business and/or do not appear to be an appropriate use of a company’s resources to maximize shareholder value.

5. FTA may vote against the Guidelines in other circumstances as it has final authority and fiduciary responsibility for proxy voting.

6.In certain circumstances, where FTA has determined that it is consistent with Proxy Clients’ best interests, FTA will not vote a proxy on behalf of one or more Proxy Clients. Such circumstances include:

(a) Limited Value. Proxies will not be required to be voted on securities in a Proxy Client’s account if the value of the Proxy Client’s economic interest in the securities is indeterminable or insignificant (less than $1,000). Proxies will also not be required to be voted for any securities that are no longer held in Proxy Client’s account(s).

(b)Securities Lending Program. When Fund portfolio securities are out on loan, they are transferred into the borrower’s name and are voted by the borrower, in its discretion. In most cases, FTA will not recall securities on loan in order to vote a proxy. However, where FTA determines that a proxy vote, or other shareholder action, is materially important to the Fund Proxy Client’s account, FTA will make a good faith effort to recall the security for purposes of voting, understanding that in certain cases, the attempt to recall the security may not be effective in time to meet voting deadlines. In certain instances, in FTA’s discretion, disclosure regarding FTA’s process for determining whether or not to recall Fund portfolio securities on loan for proxy voting purposes may be provided as part of the Funds’ annual Form N-PX filing.

(c)Unjustifiable Costs. In certain circumstances, based on cost-benefit analysis, FTA may choose not to vote when the cost of voting on behalf of a Proxy Client would exceed any anticipated benefits of the proxy proposal to such Proxy Client (e.g. foreign securities).

(d)International Markets Share Blocking. Share blocking is the “freezing” of shares for trading purposes at the custodian/sub-custodian bank level in order to vote proxies. While shares are frozen, they may not be traded. Therefore, the potential exists for a pending trade to fail if trade settlement falls on a date during the blocking period. In international markets where share blocking applies, FTA typically will not, but reserves the right to, vote proxies due to the liquidity constraints associated with share blocking.

7. On a regular basis, FTA Research reviews ISS recommendations on matters determined to have a potential impact of shareholder value to decide whether to vote as the Guidelines recommend and advises the FTA Investment Committee of its determination.

8. FTA may determine voting in accordance with the Guidelines is not in the best interests of a Proxy Client. If there is a decision to vote against the Guidelines, the FTA Investment Committee will document the reason and instruct ISS to change the vote to reflect this decision.

9. Whenever a conflict of interest arises between ISS and a target company subject to a proxy vote, the Adviser will consider the recommendation of the company and what the Adviser believes to be in the best interests of the Proxy Client and will vote the proxy without using the Guidelines. If FTA has knowledge of a material conflict of interest between itself and a Proxy Client, the Adviser shall vote the applicable proxy in accordance with the Guidelines to avoid such conflict of interest. If there is a conflict of interest between a Fund Proxy Client and FTA or other Fund service providers, FTA will vote the proxy based on the Guidelines to avoid such conflict of interest.

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10. If a Proxy Client requests the Adviser to follow specific voting guidelines or additional guidelines, the Adviser shall review the request and follow such guidelines, unless the Adviser determines that it is unable to do so. In such case, the Adviser shall inform the Proxy Client that it is not able to honor the Proxy Client’s request.

11. FTA periodically reviews proxy votes to ensure compliance with this Policy.

12. This Policy, the Guidelines and votes cast for Proxy Clients are available upon request and such Proxy Client requests must be forwarded to FTA Compliance for review and response. This Policy is also provided with each advisory contract and described and provided with the Form ADV, Part 2A.

Shareholders of Fund Proxy Clients can review the Policy and a Fund’s voted proxies (if any) during the most recent 12-month period ended June 30 on the First Trust website at www.ftportfolios.com or by accessing EDGAR on the SEC website at www.sec.gov.

13. FTA provides reasonable ongoing oversight of ISS. FTA, or ISS on behalf of FTA, maintains the following records relating to proxy voting:

(a) a copy of this Policy;

(b) a copy of each proxy form for which it is responsible to vote;

(c) a copy of each proxy solicitation, including proxy statements and related materials with regard to each proxy issue it votes;

(d) documents relating to the identification and resolution of conflicts of interest, if any;

(e) any documents created by FTA or ISS that were material to a proxy voting decision or that memorialized the basis for that decision; and

(f) a copy of each written request from any Proxy Client for information on how FTA voted proxies on the Proxy Client’s behalf, and a copy of any written response by FTA to any written or oral request for information by a Proxy Client on how FTA voted proxies for that Proxy Client’s account.

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These records are either maintained at FTA’s office or are electronically available to FTA through access to the ISS Proxy Exchange portal.

Adopted: | September 15, 2003
Amended: | December 10, 2007
Amended: | September 21, 2009
Amended: | September 12, 2016
Amended: | March 9, 2020
Amended: | June 7, 2021
Amended: | January 19, 2022
Amended: | May 13, 2022
Amended: | September 22, 2022
Amended: | July 3, 2023
Amended: | January 10, 2024
Amended: | February 8, 2024
Amended: | March 9, 2025

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