A recent Ignites article discusses an Allianz survey on ESG interest among retail investors. As we have seen for a while, interest in ESG across demographics has increased, leading manufacturers to offer more ESG products. This has occurred in the place space, too. Yet, 73% of respondents report difficult in assessing the funds for one or more E, S and/or G factors. One well-known reason for this gap between interest and understanding is the still nascent methods portfolio companies have to report ESG risks, thereby inhibiting a uniform approach by the funds and managers to synthesize that data, invest accordingly and report to investors the data is incorporated. Simply, there is not perfect information yet. Frustration by asset owners will persist until there is a consensus on reporting.
