Federal government’s retirement plan to add ESG funds

Federal government’s retirement plan to add ESG funds
Starting in 2022, the Thrift Savings Plan will offer a new mutual fund window that will include ESG funds.
JUN 30, 2021

The nation’s largest retirement program — the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan — will begin offering ESG funds in the summer of 2022 through a new mutual fund “window” similar to a brokerage option.

As reported by Barron’s, the fund program will be run by Alight, a Lincolnshire, Ill.-based administrator, which will work with Accenture Federal Services, the plan’s record-keeper.

The plan currently offers ten target-date funds and five individual funds managed by BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors. The new window will include more than 5,000 funds.

The TSP has about $760 billion in assets and covers about 6.3 million federal employees and service members.

According to the Plan Sponsor Council of America, just 2.9% of plans that it surveys annually offer an ESG or socially responsible fund option, and only about 0.1% of total plan assets are in those funds.

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