As the fund markets around the world are in general very crowded places, where a lot of products with similar investment objectives are trying to gather assets from the same investor pool, fund promoters need to differentiate their products from those of their competitors to gain a competitive advantage. This is also true in the segment of sustainability-oriented investment products. As the interest of investors rose for ESG-related products, an increasing number of funds claimed to integrate ESG credentials into their investment processes. In some cases, the wording on which ESG credentials are exactly used and how they are integrated

The U.S. fund business added 689 unique new funds (including ETFs but excluding share classes) in 2021. And despite the popularity of passively managed funds, 536 of these funds were actively managed. Collectively, these new funds attracted some $149.7 billion in net inflows for 2021, with passively managed funds attracting some $104.4 billion and actively managed funds taking in $45.3 billion. On the Responsible Investment (RI) funds side—which include funds with traditional socially responsible investing strategies, ESG investment strategies, impact investing strategies, and the like—fund families added 148 unique (again ignoring share classes) RI funds to their lineup. Of these,

In September 2015, 193 of the world’s governments adopted the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) as a blueprint for changing the face of the planet by 2030. They provide a universal framework for sustainable development through 17 different goals, each targeting a different aspect of a future that ensures prosperity and environmental protection for future generations. For investors, the SDGs represent both the power that the financial world can have in supporting a transition to the UN’s vision of the future and the ability to find sustainable investment opportunities. Many of the goals – for example, climate change, water quality

At the recent Thomson Reuters Lipper European Alpha Expert Forum, we asked a panel of ESG experts how sustainable portfolios can help improve investor outcomes. Trevor Allen, Product Manager at BNP Paribas Risk and Performance Division, Chris Welsford, IFA and Managing director of Ayres Punchard Investment Management Limited and Andrew Parry, Head of Sustainable Investing at Hermes Investment Management, examine how the rise of incorporating ESG data into investment decisions can have a big impact on the environment and society as well as providing growth opportunities. Topics included: Impact Investing defined Ethical vs. impact investing Sustainable investment and growth opportunities

Does bad corporate behavior lead to poor financial outcomes? Corporate governance failures have been easy to spot in recent years, with business headlines dominated by corporates that have failed to ensure they are run according to robust rules, guidelines and strategies. With companies held under much more scrutiny by their various stakeholders – not just limited to owners and shareholders, but also extending to their employees, the general public and beyond – there is more pressure on boards and management to have a watertight system of practices to achieve their objectives. Investors have been leant increasing powers to influence corporate

There has been a rapid growth in popularity of impact investing. This video shows highlights from the ‘Evolution of Ethical Investing to ESG and beyond’ panel at the recent Thomson Reuters Lipper European Alpha Expert Forum. Trevor Allen, Product Manager at BNP Paribas Risk and Performance Division, Chris Welsford, IFA and Managing director of Ayres Punchard Investment Management Limited and Andrew Parry, Head of Sustainable Investing at Hermes Investment Management, examine how a sustainable portfolio can help improve investor outcomes. The panel is moderated by Lawrence Gosling, Founding Editor of Investment Week. About Trevor Allen Trevor Allen is a product

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) data is increasingly influencing how investors look at investee companies. As Detlef Glow, Lipper’s head of EMEA research, wrote in a recent blog, though the majority of investors do not invest in sustainable products, there is an increased interest in the practice as many begin to understand the importance of nonfinancial risks to a company’s long-term health. Some institutions are leading the way here, too, like Hermes, the UK-based fund manager, which actively stewards its managed and advised assets to ensure it fulfils its fiduciary duty. The institution’s head of sustainable investing, Andrew Parry, is

Earlier this year, we laid out the top 10 reasons Wealth Advisers and Managers are following investor demand to ESG. The next question: how do ESG, or environment, social, and governance investments, perform? When do these strategies work, and why? Here’s a look at the circumstances under which ESG-related investing works the best, across different asset classes such as stocks and bonds. 10. First, there’s the elephant in the ESG research room: Friede, Busch, and Bassen’s landmark metastudy that reviewed the results of 2,200+ studies from 1970 through 2014. It’s one of the most comprehensive, authoritative looks at the subject,

Figure 1  Chart by Morningstar. Most asset managers know that ESG data are emerging mainstream finance metrics. More than half of global assets today, $59 trillion, are controlled by asset managers who consider ESG factors. The results are there too: thousands of studies since 1970 show a positive relationship between ESG criteria and corporate financial performance. But investors are even more attuned to ESG than advisors are, which makes ESG savvy a competitive advantage in today’s mnaged money world. Here’s a quick look at why and how investors are leading advisors to ESG: 10. ESG investing interest is greater among