By Lee Barney
Source: Plan Sponsor
U.S. Senators Tina Smith, D-Minnesota, and Patty Murray, D-Washington, and U.S. Representative Suzan DelBene, D-Washington, have introduced legislation in both chambers of Congress that they say would provide legal certainty to workplace retirement plans that choose to consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in their investment decisions or offer ESG investment options.
The bill, called the Financial Factors in Selecting Retirement Plan Investments Act, would amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to make it clear that plans may consider ESG factors in their investment decisions—provided they consider such investments in a prudent manner consistent with their fiduciary obligations. The legislators note that this is the same legal standard that ERISA already applies to non-ESG investment factors.