Pensions - Articles - UK trustees dont have resources to focus on social factors

 However, it says the majority of schemes currently rely on fund managers to integrate their house views on the social factors to take into account rather than having a scheme specific view.

 ACA Investment Committee Chair, Vanessa Hodge, commented: “Unlike climate change, which is a systemic environmental financial factor, there are many different social factors that can be considered. The trustee boards that have an explicit focus on a social factor will tend to do so because of a specific investment belief or ethical belief of the trustees or their corporate sponsor. This makes it challenging for asset managers to be able to integrate all their client’s social investment beliefs into pooled funds.

 “Most UK pension trustees do not have in-house teams with a responsible investment function and therefore do not have the resource to be able to specifically focus on social factors. They will rely on asset managers to integrate their beliefs through investment products and via asset managers’ stewardship activity.”