Partner Julie Stapel was quoted in a PlanSponsor article about a recent US Department of Labor proposal regarding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing.
“Reading between the lines, it’s fair to say this proposal reflects a great skepticism by the DOL over whether ESG factors will ever be ‘pecuniary,’” said Julie in the article. “I fear that, in plan examinations, fiduciaries may have to provide a negative in their use of ESG factors—not just how the ESG investments performed, but how [the fiduciaries] decided on guidelines, what the other choices might have been, and that they didn’t leave some performance on the table. But sponsors we work with firmly believe they’re using ESG constructively and are positioning themselves in the best way to demonstrate that through their decision process and documentation. Defined benefit [DB] sponsors are not running away from ESG.”
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