Webinar: Integrating Sustainable Investment Options Into Retirement Plans – Fiduciary Duty Considerations
Date: November 18th, 2020, 1:00 p.m. ET
Nonprofit institutions offer limited ESG investing options in their retirement plans, despite substantial evidence that these strategies can reduce risk and enhance long-term investment performance. Concerns about fiduciary duty are often cited as a barrier for these institutions to offer these options, particularly considering recent Department of Labor ESG rule changes.
This webinar is intended to help clarify how plan sponsors and trustees can consider sustainable investing strategies related to their fiduciary duties. Implications of the ESG rule changes on integration of material ESG factors into investment analysis and potential for additional rule changes after January 20 will be discussed. To address these issues, the Intentional Endowments Network (IEN) launched the Sustainable Retirements Initiative to close this gap.
Join us for an informative and interactive webinar comprised of top experts on the state of fiduciary duty for defined contribution plans in the United States to learn how your institution could provide retirement funds that provide prudent returns and better reflect both the mission of your organization and the values of your employees.
Recording:
Resources:
- Final ERISA Rules Circle Back to Allow ESG Investing | Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c., November 2020
- ESG & Passive Investment Strategies | PRI, March 2020
- A New Dawn for Reform, Cooperation and Sustainability Under Biden? | PRI, November 2020
- PRI Research - Private Retirement Systems and Sustainability
- PRI Policy - Briefings and Letters
- PRI Asset Owner Resources - Guides on ESG Selection, Appointment and Monitoring
Presenters:
Keith Johnson, Partner, Head of Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren’s Institutional Investor Legal Service
Keith L. Johnson is Chair of the Institutional Investor Services Group at Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c. and counsels institutional investors globally on fiduciary, investment, governance, and litigation matters. He is co-editor of the Cambridge University Handbook of Institutional Investment and Fiduciary Duty, holds the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board’s Level I Credential and is listed in Best Lawyers in America for corporate governance law. He serves on the Intentional Endowments Network Steering Committee and chairs the Network's Policy and Fiduciary Duty Working Group.
Prior to joining Reinhart, Mr. Johnson was Chief Legal Counsel for the Wisconsin public pension fund’s Investment Board, President of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys, and Program Director for the University of Wisconsin Law School's International Corporate Governance Initiative. He regularly speaks and publishes both in the United States and internationally on institutional investment and fiduciary duty matters.
Mr. Johnson has a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School and is a member of the Wisconsin and Texas State Bars.
Susan N. Gary, Professor Emerita at the University of Oregon School of Law
Susan N. Gary is Professor Emerita at the University of Oregon School of Law. She researches, writes, and speaks about the fiduciary duties and the prudent investor standard, and recently published Best Interests in the Long Term: Fiduciary Duties and ESG Integration, 90 Univ. of Colorado 731 (2019) (SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=3426845). She served as the Reporter for the Uniform Law Commission’s Electronic Wills Act and the Reporter for the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA). She is a member of the American Law Institute, a Commissioner on the Oregon Law Commission, an Academic Fellow and former Regent of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a Director of the ACTEC Foundation, and a member of the Steering Committee and the Policy and Fiduciary Duty Working Group of the Intentional Endowment Network. She served as the first faculty member trustee on the University of Oregon Board of Trustees. Before entering academia, she practiced with Mayer, Brown & Platt in Chicago and with DeBandt, van Hecke & Lagae in Brussels. She received her B.A. from Yale University and her J.D. from Columbia University.
Christine Pishko, US Relationships Manager, Principles for Responsible Investing
Christine Pishko is a US Relationship Manager with the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) responsible for Signatory Relations and Outreach. Prior to joining PRI, Christine held the role of Managing Director and lead Client Portfolio Manager for responsible investment strategies at Nuveen, a TIAA company. Previously, she held various investment product specialist roles, including director in the Retirement Services Group at New York Life Insurance Company, director and alternatives product specialist covering private equity, hedge funds, real estate and timber with Morgan Stanley’s Global Wealth Management Alternative Investment Group, and assistant vice president at Credit Suisse Asset Management, focusing on fixed income separately managed account strategies. Christine holds a Bachelor of the Arts in English from the State University of New York at Potsdam and a Masters of Business Administration in financial management from Pace University.
Kary A. Moore, Senior Vice President, Senior Corporate Counsel, Federated Hermes
Ms. Moore is Federated Hermes' senior counsel responsible for all legal, regulatory, and fiduciary matters impacting product distribution and operations, as well as all corporate and product-related litigation matters. In addition to her work with Federated, Ms. Moore has extensive fund industry experience having worked for the investment management group of Reed Smith LLP and as Senior Vice President and Compliance Team Manager for Hardin Compliance Consulting LLC/Hardin Law Group LLC. Ms. Moore received her B.A. from Miami University and her J.D. from Duquesne University School of Law where she acts as an adjunct professor teaching “Regulation of Investment Companies and Investment Managers.” She is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar.
Max Messervy, Senior Investment Consultant, Responsible Investment at Mercer
Max Messervy joined Mercer in February 2018 and is a Responsible Investment Consultant in the North American Responsible Investment team. Max provides advice on sustainable investment strategies, integration of ESG factors, and sustainability trends throughout investment processes. Max is responsible for advising institutional investors and provides advice to a broad range of clients, including pension funds, endowments, insurers and other stakeholders in the investment value chain. Max was a lead co-author of recent papers on increasing institutional investors’ allocations to African infrastructure, as well as a guide for integrating responsible investment approaches into corporate retirement plans in a project with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
Prior to joining Mercer, Max spent nearly four years working in the Insurance practice at Ceres in Boston, a leading non-profit sustainability advocacy organization. In that role, he worked with a range of stakeholders across the industry in making the business case for the sector to address climate and ESG risks and opportunities both as underwriters of weather risk and investors in physical infrastructure. This involved engagement with re/insurers, regulators, non-re/insurer investors and NGOs. Previously, Max worked in various capacities with Canadian federal and provincial governments, and with other environmental and sustainability entities as an independent consultant. Max holds a Master of Public Policy from the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA, and an Honors Religious Studies degree from McGill University.