Download or read book Fiduciary Law and Responsible Investing written by Benjamin J. Richardson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-08-21 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about fiduciary law’s influence on the financial economy’s environmental performance, focusing on how the law affects responsible investing and considering possible legal reforms to shift financial markets closer towards sustainability. Fiduciary law governs how trustees, fund managers or other custodians administer the investment portfolios owned by beneficiaries. Written for a diverse audience, not just legal scholars, the book examines in a multi-jurisdictional context an array of philosophical, institutional and economic issues that have shaped the movement for responsible investing and its legal framework. Fiduciary law has acquired greater influence in the financial economy in tandem with the extraordinary recent growth of institutional funds such as pension plans and insurance company portfolios. While the fiduciary prejudice against responsible investing has somewhat waned in recent years, owing mainly to reinterpretations of fiduciary and trust law, significant barriers remain. This book advances the notion of ‘nature’s trust’ to metaphorically signal how fiduciary responsibility should accommodate society’s dependence on long-term environmental well-being. Financial institutions, managing vast investment portfolios on behalf of millions of beneficiaries, should manage those investments with regard to the broader social interest in sustaining ecological health. Even for their own financial self-interest, investors over the long-term should benefit from maintaining nature’s capital. We should expect everyone to act in nature’s trust, from individual funds to market regulators. The ancient public trust doctrine could be refashioned for stimulating this change, and sovereign wealth funds should take the lead in pioneering best practices for environmentally responsible investing.

Download or read book Fiduciary Law and Responsible Investing written by Benjamin J. Richardson and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book takes a broader look at the issues facing SRI & fiduciary duties. It evaluates how the fiduciary duties & some related legal rules governing financial institutions shape the prospects for socially responsible investment, & theorises how to reform this area to promote investment that supports sustainable development.

Download or read book Company Law and Sustainability written by Beate Sjåfjell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-21 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book advances an innovative, multi-jurisdictional argument for the necessity of company law reform to reorient companies towards environmental sustainability.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Fiduciary Law written by Evan J. Criddle and published by Oxford Handbooks. This book was released on 2019-05-27 with total page 1028 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Fiduciary Law provides a comprehensive overview of critical topics in fiduciary law and theory through chapters authored by leading scholars. The Handbook opens with surveys of the many fields of law in which fiduciary duties arise, including agency law, trust law, corporate law, pension law, bankruptcy law, family law, employment law, legal representation, health care, and international law. Drawing on these surveys, the Handbook offers a synthetic analysis of fiduciary law's key concepts and principles. Chapters in the Handbook explore the defining features of fiduciary relationships, clarify the distinctive fiduciary duties that arise in these relationships, and identify the remedies available for breach of fiduciary duties. The volume also provides numerous comparative perspectives on fiduciary law from eminent legal historians and from scholars with deep expertise in a diverse array of the world's legal systems. Finally, the Handbook lays the groundwork for future research on fiduciary law and theory by highlighting cross-cutting themes, identifying persistent theoretical and practical challenges, and exploring how the field could be enriched through empirical analysis and interdisciplinary insights from economics, philosophy, and psychology. Unparalleled in its breadth and depth of coverage, The Oxford Handbook of Fiduciary Law represents an invaluable resource for practitioners, policymakers, scholars, and students in this essential field of law.

Download or read book Cambridge Handbook of Institutional Investment and Fiduciary Duty written by James P. Hawley and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-07-02 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cambridge Handbook of Institutional Investment and Fiduciary Duty is a comprehensive reference work exploring recent changes and future trends in the principles that govern institutional investors and fiduciaries. A wide range of contributors offer new perspectives on dynamics that drive the current emphasis on short-term investment returns. Moreover, they analyze the forces at work in markets around the world which are bringing into sharper focus the systemic effects that investment practices have on the long-term stability of the economy and the interests of beneficiaries in financial, social and environmental sustainability. This volume provides a global and multi-faceted commentary on the evolving standards governing institutional investment, offering guidance for students, researchers and policy-makers interested in finance, governance and other aspects of the contemporary investment world. It also provides investment, business, financial media and legal professionals with the tools they need to better understand and respond to new financial market challenges of the twenty-first century.

Download or read book Fiduciary Law written by Tamar Frankel and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Fiduciary Law, Tamar Frankel examines the structure, principles, themes, and objectives of fiduciary law. Fiduciaries, which include corporate managers, money managers, lawyers, and physicians among others, are entrusted with money or power. Frankel explains how fiduciary law is designed to offer protection from abuse of this method of safekeeping. She deals with fiduciaries in general, and identifies situations in which fiduciary law falls short of offering protection. Frankel analyzes fiduciary debates, and argues that greater preventive measures are required. She offers guidelines for determining the boundaries and substance of fiduciary law, and discusses how failure to enforce fiduciary law can contribute to failing financial and economic systems. Frankel offers ideas and explanations for the courts, regulators, and legislatures, as well as the fiduciaries and entrustors. She argues for strong legal protection against abuse of entrustment as a means of encouraging fiduciary services in society. Fiduciary Law can help lawyers and policy makers designing the future law and the systems that it protects.

Download or read book Socially Responsible Investment Law written by Benjamin J Richardson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-06-30 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental harm is commonly associated with companies that extract, consume, and pollute our shared natural resources. Rarely are the 'unseen polluters,' the financiers that sponsor and profit from eco-damaging corporations, placed at the forefront of the environmental debate. By focusing on these unseen polluters, Benjamin Richardson provides a comprehensive examination of socially responsible investment (SRI), and offers a guide to possible reform. Richardson proposes that greater regulatory supervision of SRI will help ensure that the financial sector prioritizes ethically-based investments. In Socially Responsible Investment Law, he suggests that new governmental reforms should encourage companies to participate in socially responsible investments by providing a better mix of standards and incentives for SRI through measures that include redefining the fiduciary responsibilities of institutional investors to incorporate environmental concerns. By doing so, Richardson posits that corporate financiers, including banks, hedge funds, and pension plans, will become more accountable to the goals of ensuring sustainable development.

Download or read book The Fiduciary written by Christian D. Rahaim and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2005 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For any company or person considering or currently serving in the capacity of an ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) fiduciary, author Christian D. Rahaim's The Fiduciary: An In-depth Guide to Fiduciary Duties--From Studebaker to Enron, is an invaluable resource. The Fiduciary contains essential material--from the evolution of the fiduciary concept to its adaptation in ERISA and its continued evolution in the workplace. The clear and concise chapters build the framework for the reader to develop an understanding of the content, operations, and issues with the fiduciary obligation, such as: - An overview of pension plans - Responsibilities of a fiduciary - Investment management for defined contribution and benefit plans - Plan fees and expenses - Administration and compliance Christian Rahaim relies on more than twelve years of human resource management experience to guide employers through the processes related to employee benefits and fiduciary responsibilities. Citing the classic example of the Studebaker Corporation and the high-profile debacle of Enron, he details major factors that should be considered in fiduciary roles. The Fiduciary is an employers' guide for updated information on the increasingly controversial, legislated, and litigated topic of employee benefit plans.

Download or read book The Next Generation of Responsible Investing written by Tessa Hebb and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-11-09 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the face of the recent financial crisis there is increased focus on long-term investment strategies. This is particularly true for institutional investors who manage our retirement savings. Simultaneously there is increased demand that financial assets be invested with an understanding of long-term environmental and social sustainability. Responsible investing provides a long-term sustainable investment strategy that values environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in investment decision-making. Responsible Investing has always had a broad mandate. Put simply, it is a long-term sustainable investment strategy that seeks to reduce risk in investment portfolios through managing ESG issues in today’s corporations. The Next Generation of Responsible Investment explores this topic in an edited volume intended for those with an interest in finance and business.

Download or read book Values at Work written by Daniel C. Esty and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-10-26 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainable investing is a rapidly growing and evolving field. With investors expressing ever greater interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics and reporting, companies face a sustainability imperative and the need to remake their business models to respond to an array of pressing issues including climate change, air and water pollution, racial justice, workplace diversity, economic inequality, privacy, corporate integrity, and good governance. From equities to fixed income and from private equity to impact-investing, investors of all kinds now want to understand which companies will be marketplace leaders in a business future redefined by sustainability. Thus, investment strategies, risk models, financial vehicles, applications, data, metrics, standards, and regulations are all changing rapidly around the world. In an effort to better understand the current status and movement of this dynamic field and to provide a practical reference for the growing pool of investors, financial advisors, companies, and academics seeking information on sustainable investing and ESG reporting, this edited book covers the latest trends, tools, and thinking. It showcases the work of authors from leading companies and academic institutions across a range of vital topics such as financial disclosure, portfolio assessment, ESG metrics construction, and law as well as regulation. Readers of the book will be better able to identify and address the hurdles to moving mainstream capital toward more sustainable companies, investments, and projects.

Download or read book ESG and Responsible Institutional Investing Around the World A Critical Review written by Pedro Matos and published by CFA Institute Research Foundation. This book was released on 2020-05-29 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This survey examines the vibrant academic literature on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing. While there is no consensus on the exact list of ESG issues, responsible investors increasingly assess stocks in their portfolios based on nonfinancial data on environmental impact (e.g., carbon emissions), social impact (e.g., employee satisfaction), and governance attributes (e.g., board structure). The objective is to reduce exposure to investments that pose greater ESG risks or to influence companies to become more sustainable. One active area of research at present involves assessing portfolio risk exposure to climate change. This literature review focuses on institutional investors, which have grown in importance such that they have now become the largest holders of shares in public companies globally. Historically, institutional investors tended to concentrate their ESG efforts mostly on corporate governance (the “G” in ESG). These efforts included seeking to eliminate provisions that restrict shareholder rights and enhance managerial power, such as staggered boards, supermajority rules, golden parachutes, and poison pills. Highlights from this section: · There is no consensus on the exact list of ESG issues and their materiality. · The ESG issue that gets the most attention from institutional investors is climate change, in particular their portfolio companies’ exposure to carbon risk and “stranded assets.” · Investors should be positioning themselves for increased regulation, with the regulatory agenda being more ambitious in the European Union than in the United States. Readers might come away from this survey skeptical about the potential for ESG investing to affect positive change. I prefer to characterize the current state of the literature as having a “healthy dose of skepticism,” with much more remaining to be explored. Here, I hope the reader comes away with a call to action. For the industry practitioner, I believe that the investment industry should strive to achieve positive societal goals. CFA Institute provides an exemplary case in its Future of Finance series (www.cfainstitute.org/research/future-finance). For the academic community, I suggest we ramp up research aimed at tackling some of the open questions around the pressing societal goals of ESG investing. I am optimistic that practitioners and academics will identify meaningful ways to better harness the power of global financial markets for addressing the pressing ESG issues facing our society.

Download or read book Pension Fund Politics written by Jon Entine and published by A E I Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book shows that pension funds and mutual funds that screen investments according to social and ethical preferences frequently harm those people and causes (for example, the poor and the environment) that they are designed to help.

Download or read book Cambridge Handbook of Institutional Investment and Fiduciary Duty written by James P. Hawley and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-10 with total page 756 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cambridge Handbook of Institutional Investment and Fiduciary Duty is a comprehensive reference work exploring recent changes and future trends in the principles that govern institutional investors and fiduciaries. A wide range of contributors offer new perspectives on the dynamics that drive the current emphasis on short-term investment returns. Moreover, they analyze the forces at work in markets around the world which are bringing into sharper focus the systemic effects that investment practices have on the long-term stability of the economy and the interests of beneficiaries in financial, social and environmental sustainability. This volume provides a global and multi-faceted commentary on the evolving standards governing institutional investment, offering guidance for students, researchers and policy-makers interested in finance, governance and other aspects of the contemporary investment world. It also provides investment, business, financial media and legal professionals with the tools they need to better understand and respond to the new financial market challenges of the twenty-first century.

Download or read book Investing and Managing Trusts Under the New Prudent Investor Rule written by John Train and published by Harvard Business Review Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the next few years, the world's senior generation will pass on some ten trillion dollars--more than the value of all the companies listed on today's stock exchange--to their heirs. Much of this unprecedented transfer of wealth will take the form of trusts. But the old Prudent Man Rule that trustees have followed for generations has been scrapped, and the new Prudent Investor Rule, which now applies in most states, drastically changes the way trusts must be operated. Trustees cannot hope to learn "on the job": today's investment principles and portfolio management techniques are too demanding. With Investing and Managing Trusts under the New Prudent Investor Rule, Train and Melfe show trustees how to manage trusts according to this important new Rule. Many current and future trustees are unfamiliar with the far-reaching provisions of the new Prudent Investor Rule, which should soon govern trust investing in all fifty states. Investing and Managing Trusts under the New Prudent Investor Rule explains the investment and administrative obligations--as well as the new liberties--imposed by this stringent Rule. John Train, an authority on building wealth, brings his deep knowledge and dry wit to this thorough guide, in collaboration with Thomas Melfe, eminent New York trusts and estates attorney. Train and Melfe also highlight the various forms of trusts and the major suitable and unsuitable types of investments, so that family trustees, as well as readers in the investment and trust business, law, and financial planning can understand the key strategic and managerial considerations. This practical, straightforward guide--the first comprehensive discussion of the new Prudent Investor Rule for private trustees-comes complete with useful sample forms, management guidelines, checklists, and a glossary. It is an essential reference for all professional and family trustees as well as their legal and financial advisors.

Download or read book Responsible Investment Banking written by Karen Wendt and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-06-15 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides evidence on the relevance of environmental and social factors in decision making. It discusses the Gold Standard Frameworks for integrating extra-financial risks into the philosophy, culture, strategies, products and value chain management procedures of investment and banking and highlights the current emergence of global administrative law. New emerging topics like positive impact investing and finance, climate friendly markets, human rights, the enhanced role of fiduciary duties and shared values are approached with a lot of examples for practical application. Steps towards a new banking culture, a new climate for double loop learning and sustainable financial innovation are outlined and the additional benefits of robust stakeholder engagement explained. The anthology paves the way from robust impact and risk management to positive impact creation and a new investment culture. As well, challenges for the implementation and ways to overcome them are broadly discussed. The book is rooted in the fact that institutions and investors which fail to professionally integrate the management of extra-financial risk into their whole lending and investment chain and fail to move to positive impact creation may well loose positions and mandates and finally the trust of their clients, partners and stakeholders. The contributing authors of this anthology are internationally renowned experts in the field of ESG and impact investing. The compendium brings together practitioners and academics to allow a confluence of thoughts, concepts and viewpoints. This huge variety of perspectives and approaches makes this volume a comprehensive compendium on responsible investment and banking.

Download or read book The Trustee Governance Guide written by Christopher K. Merker and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-06-25 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 80% of the financial assets in the United States fall under the purview of a trustee. That's a big responsibility for an estimated 1% (around 1.5 million people) of the U.S. working population charged with overseeing investments for millions and millions of beneficiaries, public sector, and non-profit organizations. In a world proliferated by investment products, increasingly dominated by indexes, faced—particularly in the pension world—with increasing liabilities, more regulation, and a growing number of social and sustainability objectives, what's a trustee to do? The Trustee Governance Guide is here to help guide today’s board trustee through the brave new world of 21st century investing. The book focuses on the critical aspects of the Five Imperatives: Governance, Knowledge, Diversification, Discipline, and Impact. Based on more than a decade of research, practice, and discussions with many key decision makers and influencers across the industry, this book addresses the many topics related to better governance, greater mission-driven financial performance, and impact. The questions the book addresses include: · What is good governance, how do we know it when we see it, and why does it matter? · How much knowledge is necessary to be a competent board member? · How big should my endowment be? · What are the key elements of a diversified portfolio? · How much does cost matter? · What's the difference between socially responsible and ESG investing? · Can I focus on sustainability and still be a good fiduciary? This book provides a way for boards to improve and benchmark their own governance performance alongside their peers, and uniquely covers related investment topics in each chapter.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Fiduciary Law written by Evan J. Criddle and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-04-29 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Fiduciary Law provides a comprehensive overview of critical topics in fiduciary law and theory through chapters authored by leading scholars. The Handbook opens with surveys of the many fields of law in which fiduciary duties arise, including agency law, trust law, corporate law, pension law, bankruptcy law, family law, employment law, legal representation, health care, and international law. Drawing on these surveys, the Handbook offers a synthetic analysis of fiduciary law's key concepts and principles. Chapters in the Handbook explore the defining features of fiduciary relationships, clarify the distinctive fiduciary duties that arise in these relationships, and identify the remedies available for breach of fiduciary duties. The volume also provides numerous comparative perspectives on fiduciary law from eminent legal historians and from scholars with deep expertise in a diverse array of the world's legal systems. Finally, the Handbook lays the groundwork for future research on fiduciary law and theory by highlighting cross-cutting themes, identifying persistent theoretical and practical challenges, and exploring how the field could be enriched through empirical analysis and interdisciplinary insights from economics, philosophy, and psychology. Unparalleled in its breadth and depth of coverage, The Oxford Handbook of Fiduciary Law represents an invaluable resource for practitioners, policymakers, scholars, and students in this essential field of law.