Legal & General is Britain’s largest asset manager, with over £1 trillion on its books. Every pound it manages should be dedicated to achieving the highest possible returns. This matters a lot: L&G manages over five million pensions in the UK.
But in recent years, the asset manager has been particularly concerned with fashionable causes, instead of being entirely focused on making sure your retirement is secure.
Individuals already fund net zero schemes via their taxes. They should not be forced to pay an effective additional tax, via lower returns, to fund net zero with their retirement savings
That is why I recently attended their AGM. I wanted to learn why the board is wedded to net zero, despite their fiduciary duty to clients, and whether they would consider reprioritising saver returns instead.
At the Q&A I highlighted that US competitors have dropped their net zero ambitions. Most have pulled out of the ‘Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance’ – a UN-led consortium of asset managers ‘committed to decarbonising their investment portfolios and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
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