ESG Investing for Public Pensions – Does It Add Financial Value?
Former Connecticut Treasurer and IPFI President, Christopher Burnham, discusses the current state of the pension system with other experts, focusing on the increased use of ESG investment.
Washington, DC – The Institute for Pension Fund Integrity (IPFI) released its latest research on Tuesday, September 25, 2018. In the wake of the Trump Administration’s renewed guidance on environment, social, and governance (ESG) investing in the April 2018 Department of Labor Field Bulletin, IPFI felt it important to analyze the impact of ESG investing on public pensions. While the DOL guidance applies to private sector pensions, ESG investing is growing in popularity in both the private and public sectors, and it is important to understand the role it plays for public pensions.
Public pensions across the country face more than $6 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities. Therefore, while some investing strategies are seen as more popular than others, it’s important for public pensions to focus on the returns gained to begin closing the gap. In the latest research by IPFI, the organization details how ESG investing differs in the public sector versus in the private sector. ESG has shown to add value to private investments, but in the public sector it ultimately comes down to the question of if ESG investments add financial value. Much of the research is still undecided on the impact of ESG investing on public pensions given the propensity for ESG investments to be made based on political, not financial, decisions. In the public sector, investment decisions should never be made based on the political impact of an investment.
Christopher Burnham, President of IPFI, recently discussed this new research at a panel discussion hosted by the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. He joined other pensions experts to discuss this and other challenges facing pensions. Other participants included:
- Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Director of Retirement Security at the Economic Policy Institute
- Wayne Winegarden, Senior Fellow in Business and Economics at the Pacific Research Institute
- Michael Belsky, Executive Director of the Center for Municipal Financial at Harris School of Public Policy at University of Chicago
- Joshua Gotbaum, Guest Scholar, Economic Studies at Brookings Institute
At the panel, Mr. Burnham said, “ESG investing is valuable when it adds bottom-line performance to a pension. But it’s not the role of our public pension fiduciaries to make decisions based on what they think is good for society. Instead, they must make investment decisions based on one factor, and one factor only: does it add alpha?” This thinking supports IPFI’s other efforts given its goal to keep politics out of the management of public pension funds.
This research and discussion comes as we reflect on the 10 years since the Great Recession. Considering that public pensions were almost 90% funded before the Recession and on average are now 68% funded, the impact of all investment decisions, whether ESG or otherwise, will be felt by retirees for decades to come.
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The Institute for Pension Fund Integrity seeks to ensure that local, state and federal leaders are held responsible for their choices in investment, led not by political ideation and opinion but instead by fiduciary responsibility. IPFI is a non-partisan, non-profit organization based out of Arlington, Virginia, and spearheaded by former Connecticut State Treasurer Christopher B. Burnham.