FYI: (This is a follow-up article.)
The $163 billion Florida Retirement Pension Plan had a $4 million stake in gun manufacturers as of Dec. 31. Nearly half of that comes from a low-cost index fund that tracks the broad-based Russell 3000—a perfectly fine investment. A spokesman for Florida’s State Board of Administration, which runs the pension plan, told me that it “must act solely in the economic interest” of participants.
But looking out for economic interests doesn’t have to mean tuning out social ones. Pension funds have long been at the forefront of using their considerable heft to effect change in corporate behavior or outright eschew investing in companies they find problematic. In 2013, the $232 billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the second-largest public pension, sold its holdings in manufacturers of firearms that are illegal in California. The fund now uses a customized index stripping out these companies.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.barrons.com/articles/were-all-gun-owners-and-heres-why-1519412352
