Rise of the social pillar of ESG and implementation in passive portfolios

The ‘S’ pillar of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) is becoming an increasingly important driver of investment decision-making, especially in light of the Covid-19 crisis. As politicians and policy makers across the world aim to ‘build back better’, we as an investment community need to take the time to fully understand the social part of ESG. We live in an age where the politics of inequality and ‘social justice’ cannot be seen as external to the investment process. Against this backdrop, Sebastian Schiele, Head of Passive Mandates Sales EMEA & APAC at DWS and Prof. Amin Rajan, CEO Create Research will discuss the findings of the Passive Investing Report 2021: Rise of the social pillar of ESG. 142 pension plans in 17 jurisdictions with collective assets under management of EUR 2.1 trillion have been surveyed. Their insights are a useful barometer of broader changes that will ultimately trickle down to all parts of the investment market. The webcast will give valuable insights of the survey and will address the following topics: • How and why has Covid-19 brought social risk to the front and center of investor portfolios? • How are pension investors investing in the social pillar via their passive funds? • What benefits are being targeted by pension investors when investing in the ‘S’ pillar and how have social-related passive funds done during and after the 2020 crash? • Looking over the next 3-5 years, how are pension investors’ allocations to social-related passive funds likely to change? And what tracking error do they target?