ERISA Requires ESG Considerations, U.N. Report Says

By Barry B. Burr

Pension fund fiduciaries under ERISA are “arguably required” to integrate environmental, social and corporate governance factors into their regular investment decision-making process, Paul A. Hilton, director of advanced equities research, Calvert Investments, said today at a teleconference on a new United Nations report on such fiduciary responsibility.

“These ESG issue are increasingly becoming very real and material issues that have bottom-line impacts on companies,” Mr. Hilton said at the teleconference. “And so with that understanding, it’s clear, unlike (using only) a simple value approach, an approach that integrates these (factors) as part of the regular investment process is arguably required by any major fiduciary and that certainly holds true” under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, Mr. Hilton said at the teleconference.

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4 Comments

  1. More secular value system ideology being passed from the top down. This trend is wrought with dangers.I’m not buying it.

  2. John:

    My take is that integrating these factors into lending and investment decision in the manner being done/proposed, shifts regulatory control out of governments and into the financial leadership. It is another way to move out of national sovereignty to a world ruled by banks and corporations.

    Catherine

  3. Catherine.

    What would be a better way of integrating these controls? Is this a case of the oligarchy co-opting regulatory control for themselves?

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