Millennial investors are twice as likely to pursue socially responsible investments, according to a new report from Morgan Stanley’s Institute for Sustainable Investing.
Socially responsible investments, or SRIs, are investments that seek to bring about social, environmental, and workplace change.
As millennials try to change the world with their money, many are avoiding funds that include businesses involved with alcohol, tobacco, and firearms. They want to invest in companies with more gender diversity. They prefer companies that make clean energy products and want to stay away from those that are “dependent on fossil fuels.” They want to support affordable housing bonds.
The number of mutual funds and exchange traded funds that included SRIs has doubled over the past few years, with assets in these funds reaching a whopping $100.2 billion. A 2014 report from the Forum on Responsible Investment estimated that about 18 percent of the professionally managed assets in the U.S. are SRIs.
Millennials continue to drive this trend. Morgan Stanley’s report found that 86 percent of millennials are interested in SRIs, and 90 percent desire sustainable investing options in their 401(k) plans.
Undoubtedly, millennials have been inspired by the example of academia and progressive corporations. Over the past decade, countless campuses across America have made the news by divesting from fossil fuel energy companies and firearm companies. Estimates show that these schools have lost money.
Aside from the transactional (or frictional) costs of divesting, the return on investment is comparatively lower. Daniel Fischel, an economist formerly with the University of Chicago, compared a portfolio containing energy-related stocks with a portfolio containing no energy-related stocks and found that over a 50-year window, the energy-included portfolio outperformed the “socially responsible” one by 0.7 percent annually. This means that on a $1,000,000 investment, the portfolio is earning $7,000 less per year.
The California Public Employees Retirement System, or CalPERS, dedicates a significant portion of its portfolio to progressive causes to advance its agenda. The American Council for Capital Formation analyzed CalPERS’ weakest private-equity investments, and revealed that four of its nine lowest-performing funds were related to renewable and clean energy. As a result, the retirement fund, which had a $3 billion pension one decade ago now faces a deficit of nearly $140 billion.
This movement also has the potential to swing in a whole different direction despite millennial investors’ good intentions. When colleges started divesting from fossil fuels and opting for more progressive investments, anti-Semitic groups on campus, like the Students for Justice in Palestine, started demanding that campuses divest from Israeli companies and other companies that do business in Israel — all in the name of social justice.
The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement could very well spread beyond college campuses as anti-Israel groups continue to disseminate propaganda through the mainstream media.
Compared to previous generations, millennials are doing a great job of stashing away money, but the financial cost of SRIs may ultimately hurt “woke” millennials in the long run and have destructive social costs.
