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Indiana contracts with investment advisory firm opposed to ESG (2023)
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The Indiana Capital Chronicle reported on March 20 that Indiana, which is among the states trying to limit considerations of ESG in the investment of state funds, contracted with Strive Advisory last November to help its pension system “strengthen its investment policy statement and proxy voting policies”:
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Indiana’s Public Retirement System is the first known state pension system to contract with anti-ESG firm Strive Advisory, LLC and its co-founder Vivek Ramaswamy. The contract, obtained by the Capital Chronicle, is capped at $150,000 — with conservative Republican presidential candidate Ramaswamy set to earn $4,000 per hour for ad hoc work. Industry publication Responsible Investor first reported the contract’s existence after a January public hearing. Ramaswamy was not running for office when the contract was signed in November 2022. News reports say he has stepped down as CEO to focus on a White House bid. The contract is part of a crackdown on environmental, social or corporate governmental-based decision-making, dubbed ESG. “Increased scrutiny on pension fund investment and proxy voting has driven demand for proper pension oversight to an all-time high,” said a project update Strive presented at a February INPRS board meeting. INPRS told the Capital Chronicle it wanted to “strengthen” its investment policy statement and proxy voting policies, but skeptics expressed concern. … INPRS hired Strive to review its lengthy investment policy statement, which includes its pecuniary interest framework. That involves the system’s external asset managers, and how they make investments and vote on shares on the system’s behalf. Strive and INPRS drafted a definition of ESG investing and overhauled several pages on non-financial investment considerations shareholder engagement, according to the February board meeting documents. “Additional consulting services were necessary as the INPRS Board of Trustees and INPRS Staff identified opportunities to strengthen the Investment Policy Statement and applicable internal processes,” spokesman Dimitri Kyser wrote in emailed responses to the Capital Chronicle. The contract budgets $100,000 for those services but caps total compensation at $150,000. The document says that INPRS and Strive will agree on “additional project-based fixed-cost proposals” on a “project-by-project basis.”[1] |
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See also
- Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)
- Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's ESG newsletter
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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