Airlines Boeing 737 passenger plane taxis from a gate to the runway at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images) Getty Images A pilot has sued American Airlines, Fidelity Investments, and others alleging that they violated ERISA by offering 401(k) plans that include environmental, social, and governance factors. If ...

The Labor Department’s new rule sets forth a principles-based approach to regulating ESG investing. In March, President Biden used his first presidential veto to uphold a federal rule laying out investing guidelines for retirement plan fiduciaries. President Biden’s veto stopped Congress’s attempt to nullify the rule under the Congressional Review Act. The U.S. Department of ...

Fiduciaries should account for participant preferences in designing ESG-friendly 401(k) retirement plans. Socially responsible investing. Sustainable investing. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing. The terms have changed over time. What has not changed in nearly 30 years is the regulatory controversy over the extent to which retirement plans should consider ESG-related factors when making investment-related ...

getty Jason R. Escamilla, founder and CIO of ImpactAdvisor LLC in San Francisco, has seen it all before. It was nearly 30 years ago when he initially tried Socially Responsible Investing (“SRI”), the predecessor of ESG. And he was cool with it. Until everything changed. “ESG/SRI used to be about selectivity and choice,” says Escamilla. ...

ERISA fiduciaries may now consider ESG in investment decision making. “A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool?” Twelve trillion dollars. That is the amount of money that the U.S. Department of Labor estimates is held in pension plans regulated under the Employee Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). According to the Labor Department, ...