ESG and fiduciary duty risk at center stage for governmental plans

Governmental plans largely operate at the behest of their respective state legislature. It is, therefore, unsurprising that state governmental plans will take disparate approaches to ESG. Interestingly, various plans have pushed back against new legislation that requires a certain action be taken, as the case with Maine. Further complicating the analysis are state constitutional provisions that impose broad fiduciary duties, similar to those in ERISA.