A 2001 tobacco industry divestment ultimately cost the California Public Employees’ Retirement System $3.69-billion over almost two decades, according to aIn October 2020, the Centre for Retirement Research at Boston College reported anof 176 pension funds, roughly two-thirds of which had “a social investing state mandate or an ESG policy in place”. Plans with state mandates had them for an average of 10 years and saw a decrease in returns of almost 2 basis points a year.
Chris Ailman, chief investment officer of the California State Employees’ Retirement System, told Bloomberg this year that Calstrs has divested six times in two decades – for purely financial reasons – and the moves cost the pension fund money, without moving the needle on social issues. They’re “two sides of the same coin,” he said in an interview. “When you start meddling in pensions for any other reason than getting returns, the outcome is gonna be pretty clear – and again, it’s hard to really affect anything through just not holding someone’s stock.”
DeSantis’s office referred questions to the SBA, which said in an emailed statement that neither it nor its managers “use ESG ratings as a way to screen or limit an available investment opportunity set”.