Sustainability issues
Adding sustainable funding will take some time, but could improve retirement readiness for many participants.
The US Department of Labor has made it easy for US workers to invest in sustainable funds with 401(k) plans. New rules, finalized in November, make clear that those implementing 401(k) plans can consider environmental, social, and corporate governance factors and approaches, including climate-related risks. increase. Employer sponsoring a 401(k) plan explains how her ESG is incorporated into the plan’s menu structure and how it responds to requests from participants interested in sustainable investing.
Research shows that retirement plan participants want their 401(k) menu to include a sustainable fund option, which allows them to increase their contribution rate.
Schroders 2022 US Retiree Survey: For example, 87% of plan participants said they want their investments to align with their values, and 78% said companies with a strong focus on ESG are more likely to be successful over the long term than those without. 74% said they believed they would get better results. Alternatively, the overall 401(k) contribution rate may increase if ESG options are offered. These results suggest that including his ESG options in the plan menu could improve retirement readiness for many participants.
New rule: The 401(k) plan administrator said: We may consider ESG factors as part of our fiduciary duty to plan participants. This means, for example, that funds in your lineup can be asked to consider climate risk and other material ESG issues as part of their normal investment process.
In addition, Department of Labor regulations encourage system administrators to go beyond financial interests by either avoiding investments in companies that produce negative outcomes or emphasizing investments in companies that produce positive outcomes for people and the planet. We make it clear that you can choose a sustainable fund that seeks to provide impact benefits. Such funds may be selected as long as their risk-adjusted return profile is consistent with that of other funds investing in the same asset or sub-asset class. For example, a core large cap ESG fund should have a competitive performance profile compared to the core large cap fund as a whole. So, the plan can choose ESG funds. This rule also allows the plan to designate her ESG fund as the default her option for participants who do not wish to select the fund themselves.
Labor Department removes regulatory hurdles to add sustainable funding to 401(k) menu, but many 401(k) plans will take time to add sustainable funding to lineup. And we’re starting with a low base: Vanguard estimates that currently only 13% of the plans we serve as plan administrators offer sustainable options.
Considerations when adding ESG to a 401(k) plan
If you are the plan manager making decisions about investment menus and default options, consider the following three steps for integrating ESG considerations into your 401(k) plan.
1. Require all funds on the menu to consider climate and other ESG-related risks. Plans may now require all funds on the menu to at least consider climate and other ESG-related risks, even those not explicitly marketed as ESG or sustainable funds. To do this, the plan is to ask him three questions and evaluate all the funds on the menu.
- Is the fund company/asset manager managing the fund a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment? Signing up to the Six Principles demonstrates the company’s commitment to integrating ESG analysis into its overall investment process. As of November, he has over 4,000 asset managers worldwide and approximately 1,000 US-based asset managers. PRI signatories so there is a lot of funding to consider plans from these asset managers.
- Can the fund itself explain and demonstrate how ESG analysis is considered in the investment process? ESG need not be a central feature of the fund, but funds on the menu should consider ESG factors and explain how they do so.
- Does the fund have a Morningstar Sustainability Rating of 3 globes or higher? A ‘global’ rating is a measure of the ESG risk of a fund’s portfolio relative to its peer group. Requiring a Sustainability Rating of 3 or higher excludes the bottom third of funds within the category, i.e. those with the highest levels of ESG risk.
These are reasonable requirements for plans wishing to implement minimum ESG standards in their fund menu. These are intended to exclude funds that have little or no commitment to ESG issues. Even if the plan wants to continue offering ESG-free fund offerings, it should be willing to let participants know how each fund on the menu answers these three basic questions of his.
2. Consider ESG as the default option. If a Participant does not wish to make fund allocation decisions themselves, the Participant’s contributions will default to the designated “Default Option”. Most default options are target date funds. It is a collection of funds (known as a “fund of funds”) that allocates assets based on when participants retire and adjust as retirement approaches. A target date fund may be a mutual fund or collective mutual fund specially put together for planning purposes.
Target date funds are an attractive option for many plan participants because they do not have to make decisions regarding stock/bond allocations and fund selection that they may have little interest or expertise in. Participants don’t have to worry about adjusting their more conservative stock/bond allocations as retirement approaches, as adjustments are automatically made by the target date fund.
Balanced funds, which typically have a static asset allocation of 60% equities and 40% bonds, are also potential default options. Also, some plans offer professional management as a default. In this case, the third party actually builds a personalized target date portfolio for the participant from the funds in the menu.
Regardless of the specific type of default option, the plan will apply the same three basic requirements as above (PRI signatory, demonstrating that ESG is part of the investment process, and a minimum sustainability rating) to the default option. Applicable.
Alternatively, your plan can specify Sustainable Funds as the default option. This can be done by using an existing sustainable target date fund, creating a collective mutual fund, or designating a traditional sustainable balanced fund as the plan’s default option.
3. Add sustainable funds to your menu. The new rule seeks to provide impact benefits beyond financial returns by avoiding investments in companies that produce negative results or by emphasizing investments in companies that produce positive results for people and the planet. Allows the addition of sustainable funds. When choosing such a fund, the plan should first ensure that it meets the same financial criteria required of similar funds.
Many sustainable funds will likely make cuts. By November, his 3-year tracked annualized return of 54% of sustainable funds ranks in the top half of the Morningstar category, although many of these funds are so far underperforming in 2022. I am performing. Annualized returns in the top half of the category. There are only 143 sustainable funds with 10-year records, but 55% of them rank in the top half of their category for annualized returns over the last 10 years. In general, finding good candidates to include in your plan is not difficult.
Most 401(k) plans that currently have ESG funds on their menu offer only one fund, usually a large blended equity fund. If you have such a fund in your plan and want to allocate to it, be sure to reduce your exposure to other large blend equity options so as not to inadvertently overweight that part of the market.
A planning best practice is to allow participants to use ESG funds to meet their desired equity/fixed-income asset allocation. That means, at a minimum, the plan should either offer a sustainable balanced fund or pair a sustainable equity fund with a sustainable fixed-income fund.
A better course of action would be to add a sustainable target date fund. The Sustainable Target Date Series may serve as a default option for some plans, especially those that are just getting started. It allows participants to sit together as an option of their choice. This requires participants to make a positive decision for the Sustainable Target Dating Fund, but like traditional Target Dating Funds, participants have the time to You will receive the same distribution benefits over time.
Currently, only two target date fund series exist. A sustainable future for Natixis When BlackRock Lifepath ESG IndexThe Natixis Sustainable Future Fund has performed well, typically in the top half of its category over three years and in the top quartile over five years. The main reason they scored Neutral on Morningstar’s analyst ratings is that they rely on a smaller asset allocation team than most Target Date series, and all of the underlying funds are his ESG is not focused on
The BlackRock Lifepath ESG Index Target Date Series funds do not have a three-year record or coverage by Morningstar analysts, but the team and asset allocation glide paths are shared with the legacy BlackRock Lifepath Index Series. . About its innovative team and top-notch resources. However, its underlying building blocks are not all sustainable funds, but also funds that take a light-touch, passive ‘ESG-aware’ approach.
In February 2023, Putnam Investments will reposition its Putnam Retirement Ready Fund target date series. As demand grows, expect more sustainable target date series to be launched or diverted from existing series.
Plan Sponsors: The Time Is Now
In short, if you are an employer and plan sponsor, how do you address ESG factors in your plan, especially if you are likely to get specific requests to do so from plan participants? Now is the time to think about In the Schroders survey, in addition to ESG motivating participants to increase their retirement savings, a significant number of respondents (40%) said that making ESG options available in their plans would be a “good choice for employers.” It is reported that the view will be improved. This suggests that many plans should be proactive rather than waiting for participants’ requests.
This article was originally published at: morningstar.com.
