Mutual Funds Are Using Your Money to Push ESG

The mutual fund industry has gone “woke.” It’s not just the asset managers who screen socially “unacceptable” companies in industries involving, say, guns, fossil fuels, tobacco, or gambling. Those have been around for decades…

You see, when you invest in a mutual fund, you’re placing your money with an investment company that buys the shares of numerous corporations. The investment company is the owner of the corporations — it is the shareholder — and you are not. The investment company votes the corporate proxies. You do not.

You may not know it, but these investment companies are, in many cases, focusing your money on political causes with which you disagree. For instance, if you disagree with any of the three prongs of ESG — environmental, social, or governance — you may be surprised to learn that your mutual fund supports them.