ESG – TGIF 2 Minutes with Kerrie Debbs, CFP

In trying to find the most ideal title to today’s edition, there were a number of choices:

ESG has become complicated.
ESG may be complicated.
ESG is a bit complicated.

All are true, and the complications started to become more prominent in early 2022. ESG, of course, stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance which are said to be “pillars” on which companies, particularly publicly traded companies, report. The pillars of ESG have been referred to as non-financial risk factors by the consulting firm Deloitte, and the non-financial aspect is partly what brought major pushback to “blanket policies” of ESG in major pension funds and investment funds.

Continue reading “ESG is Complicated”

BIG TOPIC! ESG is in the news more and more and has made its way into the world of investing. You may already have seen ESG offered in your 401k or 403b plan!

What is ESG? It stands for: Environmental, Social and Governance. Also called “sustainable investing,” the ESG category uses its three principal criteria to guide investment decisions. Funds in the category currently hold approximately $12 trillion of assets in the U.S. representing nearly 26% of the professionally managed assets as of 2017.* The obvious audience for ESG is Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996, and aged 23 to 38 in 2019). The “millennial generation” has been known to prefer investing if “their investments [are] doing social good”* according to a survey.