Fiduciary Duty, Social Conscience, and ESG Investing by a Trustee
By Max M. Schanzenbach, Robert H. Sitkoff This chapter, prepared for the 2021 Annual Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, examines the law and economics of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing by a trustee. Trustees of pensions, charities, and personal trusts invest tens of trillions of dollars of other people’s money subject to a sacred trust known in the law as fiduciary duty. Recently, these trustees have come under increasing pressure to use ESG factors in making investment decisions. ESG investing...