IN TIMES OF CHAOS CHOOSE TO INNOVATE Municipal fixed income, at its core, is geared toward improving essential services around the U.S. It offers investors a way to build communities by raising the education level, helping enable access to Municipal fixed-income markets are an ideal space for identifying quality resources, and reducing the negative effects that result when these services aren’t provided. securities with impact. Sustainability of this sort does not need to be an afterthought. Rather, it can be a key building block in how investors build wealth and effect change in local communities and beyond. LEADER INSIGHTS A definitive YES I met with a large pension focused in part on ensuring investment fund client that was in the managers account for the increasingly process of reviewing its obvious ESG risks we see around us. To me, investment managers. It this is good risk management. And as we was a Tuesday morning in navigate this new normal, WFAM has been Manchester, and I was the formalizing the process by which our analysts Hannah Skeates third manager scheduled to assess ESG issues that could be material Head of Global ESG present. Being third in line is concerns for investment choices. not a great spot, especially when your presentation is the last one prior to a But part of the groundswell is something much-anticipated lunch break. As I prepared to else: a different type of intention. present, the head of the fund’s board asked me a A growing number of investors are looking direct question: at the effects of our current global economy and way of life and are becoming concerned. Shouldn’t everyone be incorporating Negative environmental consequences and ESG information into their investment social pressures such as widening inequality decisions? may undermine the stability of the world in which we live and invest. Things we took for You see, he noticed that some managers in the granted in eras when much of our economic room talked about ESG, but not all. I put aside my and finance theories were written now seem notes and explained why my answer is a definitive fragile. “Yes.” This client’s desire to see ESG data considered in Continued on page 27 regular investment management is not a one-off conversation. I’ve seen a groundswell building, 10