June 3, 2019:
Q: Employees have been asking about including socially responsible options among the 401(k) plan’s investments. We want to be responsive but have some concerns. Can you share some of the basics of socially responsible investing? And how might it impact our fiduciary responsibilities?
A: When people refer to responsible investing, they often refer to ESG—environmental, social and governance. You may be surprised to learn that ESG investing has been around for more than 30 years; however, its popularity and importance have increased dramatically in the last decade. An interesting statistic from RBC Global Asset Management shows increasing confidence in performance related to ESG. Their survey in 2018 found that 38% of respondents believe integrating ESG into their investing can improve results. That’s up 14% from one year earlier, and it goes a long way toward alleviating concerns about including ESG among investment choices. In addition, more than 50% of survey respondents say that incorporating ESG into their investment approach is part of their duty as a fiduciary, double the number who said so in 2017. There is more information on this topic here: https://tinyurl.com/RBC-ESG-2018.
Provided by Doug Fletcher - Prepared by Kmotion, Inc. Copyright 2019.
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