PLANSPONSOR - November/December 2017 - 64

PLAN PROFILE
Leading by Example
A
s part of its financial services
business, Bloomberg L.P. provides
insights about environmental,
social and governance (ESG) topics
for its clients through the Bloomberg
Terminal. With research such as Harvard
Business School's Corporate Sustainability
papers showing that investing in sustainability
factors correlates to better long-term
returns, the next step for this plan sponsor
was to give its employees the opportunity
to consider ESG criteria in their retirement
planning strategies.
Cathy Bolz, head of global benefits at
Bloomberg, says the company became the
first U.S.-domiciled corporate retirement
plan sponsor to join the PRI [Principles
for Responsible Investment]-an organization
supported by the United Nations
(U.N.) that encourages its international
network of investor signatories to incorporate
ESG factors into their investment and
ownership decisions.
The association provides six guiding
principles for how to do this, ranging from
keeping ESG concerns in the forefront
when analyzing and selecting investments,
to each signatory reporting on its
progress to the rest of the group.
Bloomberg became a service provider
signatory of PRI in 2009, and signing as
a plan sponsor represents an extension of
its commitment to both its customers and
employees. Additionally, taking this step
aligns the retirement plan with what the
company perceives to be an emerging best
practice in plan investment menu options.
As more of its clients were starting to
SNAPSHOT
PLAN
SPONSOR:
Bloomberg
L.P., New
York City
KEY PLAYER:
Cathy Bolz,
head of
global
benefits
PARTICIPATION
RATE:
90%
AVERAGE
DEFERRAL
RATE:
12.2%
NUMBER OF
PARTICIPANTS:
13,300
TOTAL
ASSETS:
$2.3b
ask about ESG options on the Bloomberg
Terminal, many of the company's retirement
plan participants-predominantly
Millennials-were doing the same. Of
course, a substantial number already
understood the fundamentals of ESG
investing, because these underlie one area
of Bloomberg's business, Bolz says.
She says the firm's retirement plan
education has motivated participants to
consider ESG investing. Bloomberg also
put information about the strategy on the
firm's intranet site, to give employees easy
access. According to Bolz, " As fiduciaries,
doing what's best for the participant is
always in the forefront of our mind. So,
selecting strong-performing funds that
align with certain investment objectives is
really the first priority of the committee. "
In 2015, the committee did a manager
search with an eye toward exploring firms
that specifically considered ESG factors.
As a result of that search, Bloomberg introduced
the Parnassus Core Equity Fund.
" Currently, " Bolz says, " there are about
600 active participants in the fund. And
it has about $11.3 million of plan assets-it
represents less than 1% of total assets but
has a respectable balance. " The plan menu
consists of 13 other fund options.
Bloomberg will incorporate the
Principles for Responsible Investment
into its investment practices. Bolz says,
" It's important to note that the principles
are voluntary and structured as guidance-not
rules. But the PRI principles
are something in the retirement plan
space that we completely believe in. We've
A plan sponsor introduces ESG as an option to manage retirement assets
Cathy Bolz
already taken action toward aligning our
approach with them. "
One of the principles meant updating
Bloomberg's investment policy statement
(IPS). Now, Bolz says, " [it contains]
explicit statements about ESG issues and
considering ESG factors. We did that exercise
thoughtfully before even signing the
pledge to be sure we really understood the
nature of what we were getting into. "
Bloomberg promotes sustainability
initiatives to its employees through its
internal platform called " BGreen. " The
platform also educates employees about
ESG investing and the responsible investment
options that are available as part of
their retirement plan.
Another PRI principle is: Lead. Bolz
says, " It's in our nature to drive change
in the marketplace-whether it's about
providing data to our clients about ESG or
leading change at the employee level. We're
excited to encourage other employers to
follow our lead. " -Judy Faust Hartnett
64 PLANSPONSOR.com November-December 2017 Art by Chris Buzelli
http://www.PLANSPONSOR.com
PLANSPONSOR - November/December 2017

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