Callan's Inaugural 2023 Asset Manager ESG Study Leverages Proprietary Database to Analyze ESG Approaches

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Nov 08, 2023, 07:30 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Callan, a leading institutional investment consulting firm, announced the results of its inaugural 2023 Asset Manager ESG Study, highlighting asset manager responses to ESG questions gathered in Callan's proprietary database. Reflecting input from over 1,200 unique organizations, the study reveals how asset managers integrate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into their investment processes.

"After publishing an ESG survey of asset owners for a decade, we decided to take a different tack this year," said Tom Shingler, senior vice president and ESG practice leader at Callan. "This study, which leverages asset manager responses to Callan's ESG questions about how their firms integrate ESG factors into their investment process, is the baseline in our benchmarking as we analyze trends over time."

Callan intends to produce this study every other year, with the asset owner ESG survey resuming in 2024.

Key Findings:

77% integrate ESG research across their investment platform
74% have adopted a firmwide ESG policy
69% purchase access to third-party ESG data
59% of equity managers maintain proxy voting policies that specially address ESG issues
50% identify equity as their primary asset class—the study includes public equity, fixed income, real estate, and private equity
41% employ full-time, dedicated ESG professionals
39% publish a quarterly or annual sustainability or ESG report

Study Methodology:
Callan's proprietary investment manager database includes information on over 2,600 organizations and more than 16,000 products. Over 1,200 of those organizations have included responses to various ESG-related questions about their firms. The study analyzes responses to questions by firm size, asset class, country of domicile, and ownership structure. All responses are as of March 31, 2023.

Demographics:
Reflecting the overall institutional investment industry, the response base for smaller firms (under $10 billion AUM) represents the largest percentage of respondents (63%). Organizations with $10-$50 billion AUM make up 20% of respondents, and the remaining 17% have over $50 billion. This study comprises mainly U.S.-based firms, as 83% of organizations list their headquarters as domiciled in the U.S., while 7% of the organizations are in the U.K. and 3% in Canada.

Find the summary blog post and study here.

About Callan
Callan was founded as an employee-owned investment consulting firm in 1973. Ever since, we have empowered institutional clients with creative, customized investment solutions backed by proprietary research, exclusive data, and ongoing education. Today, Callan advises on more than $3 trillion in total fund sponsor assets, which makes it among the largest independently owned investment consulting firms in the U.S. Callan uses a client-focused consulting model to serve pension and defined contribution plan sponsors, endowments, foundations, independent investment advisers, investment managers, and other asset owners. Callan has six offices throughout the U.S. Learn more at callan.com.

Media Contact:
Elizabeth Anathan
[email protected]
415-274-3020

SOURCE Callan LLC