

































!is paper defends the validity of ESG Investing (Environmental, Social, Governance Investing) as an advisor’s 
"duciary responsibility.# !e "nancial industry is increasingly including ESG considerations when calculating the 
intrinsic value of a stock. In opposition to this valuation trend, nineteen state attorney generals (the Nineteen) have 
attacked ESG, challenging its legality by claiming that it violates state and federal law and the "duciary responsibilities 
that hold investment advisors accountable to their clients.# A$er identifying key elements of "duciary responsibility 
that are being ignored by the Nineteen’s position, several key and relevant United States statutes are reviewed and 
applied to their argument.# In doing so, it becomes evident that the Nineteen do not have the best interest of investors 
in mind not only because they violate key "duciary elements but also because their position would prevent investors 
the opportunity to bene"t from higher yielding Return on Equity portfolios.

Aisthesis      Volume 14,  202333

Defending ESG Fiduciary Duty

by Katherine Held

1. Introduction
 Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) 
investing is a method of investment screening that 
factors in sustainability and the societal impacts 
of a business. !e “E” captures factors of natural 
resources; “S” includes management of human 
capital, treatment of non-human animals, and the 
impact on external stakeholders; and “G” pertains 
to stakeholder well-being and how well a business 
follows local, national, and international laws. 
Although the term “ESG” is relatively new, valuing 
how a company impacts stakeholders traces back 
several centuries ago. Starting with religious groups 
to now in%uencing mass audiences, this buildup of 
ethical investing has carved ESG into what it is today. 
Despite this build, nineteen Attorney Generals are 
arguing against ESG. In 2022, these “Nineteen”1have 
argued that ESG hinders the best possible return 
and is acting against a client’s best interests. !rough 
evaluating the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, 
the Employee Retirement Income Securities Act 
(ERISA) of 1974, and the Dodd Frank Wall Street 
Reform and Securities Act, these laws specify who 
an investment adviser is and how an investor ful"lls 
"duciary duty.

1 Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, 
Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Mon-
tana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, 
Utah, and West Virginia 

 Many other papers have focused on the 
environmental, social, governance impacts of 
a business. ESG has the potential to mitigate 
several staggering outlooks. !e World Economic 
Forum anticipates that the top 5 risks to the global 
community are 1) climate action failure, 2) weapons 
of mass destruction, 3) biodiversity loss, 4) extreme 
weather, and 5) water crises.2 !e “E” in ESG 
reduces 1,3,4, and 5. For the “S,” ESG can incentivize 
companies to humanely source their labor. Globally, 
there are an estimated 168 million people involved 
in child labor, and over half of the 168 billion are 
engaged in hazardous work that puts their health and 
safety at risk. !rough global supply chains, these 
business risks are attributed to 12 million deaths 
every year.3 For “G,” the McKinsey & Company 
found that large portions of Earnings (EBITDA) 
are at risk for the following sectors: banks (50%), 
automotive, aerospace and defense, tech (50%), 
transport, logistics, infrastructure (45%), telecom 
and media (40%), energy and materials (35%), 

2 World Economic Forum, “!e Global Risks Report 
2020,”www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-risks-
report-2020. 
3 Charter for Compassion, “Human Rights in Supply 
Chains (Human Rights Watch),” 2022, charterforcompas-
sion.org/human-rights-in-supply-chains-human-rights-
watch-cci.



Defending ESG Fiduciary Duty

Aisthesis      Volume 14,  202334

resources (30%), and consumer goods (25%).4 Other 
papers have dived deeper and have demonstrated the 
environmental, societal, and governmental necessity 
for ESG. 
 Nevertheless, this paper does not revisit a 
more comprehensive rationale for pursuing ESG 
investments but focuses on rebutting the claims 
of the Nineteen.  Speci"cally, ESG aids investors 
by mitigating risk and diversifying investment 
portfolios.  !e discussion of ESG with clients does 
not con%ict with the "duciary duties of investment 
advisers.  Most importantly, by analyzing data from 
the S&P 500 index, this paper shows how ESG not 
only bolsters a portfolio for long-term success but 
does not produce lower returns than a standard5 
portfolio. Rather, a portfolio that includes ESG 
criteria has the potential to earn higher returns. 
 !e rest of the paper is organized as follows.  
Section 2 discusses the Anti-ESG coalition and the 
actions of the Nineteen in greater detail.  Section 
3 discusses how ESG coheres with an investment 
adviser’s "duciary duty.  Section 4 then examines how 
stocks scoring highly on an ‘ESG’ index perform in 
terms of their Returns on Equity, showing that they 
generally do not perform worse and o$en perform 
better. A conclusion follows.  

2. Anti-ESG Coalition
 In 2022, the Nineteen publicly criticized ESG 
Investing on multiple occasions. In May 2022, 
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s o&ce 
published the Opinion of the Attorney General OAG-
22-05. !e document states, “!ere is an increasing 
trend (ESG Investing) among some investment 
management "rms to use money in public and state 
employee pension plans— that is, other people’s 
money—to push their own political agendas and 
force social change.”6 !e article then questions 

4 Witold Henisz,  et al., “Five Ways !at ESG Creates Value,” 
McKinsey & Company, June 23, 2021, www.mckinsey.
com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-
insights/"ve-ways-that-esg-creates-value?cid=soc-web.
5 Standard indicates that ESG criteria is not included
6 Kentucky Attorney General O&ce, OAG, and Daniel 
Cameron, “Opinion of the Attorney General,” accessed 
June 23, 2022, www.ag.ky.gov/Resources/Opinions/Opin-
ions/OAG%2022-05.pdf.

if ESG is consistent with Kentucky and federal 
law. Referring to ESG mitigating climate change, 
Kentucky speculates that it could violate the law. 
 Kentucky then joined forces with the other 
Attorney Generals to form a coalition against 
ESG. In August 2022, the Nineteen sent a letter to 
Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock Inc. !is was in 
response to a letter that BlackRock sent to various 
chief executives. BlackRock is the world’s largest 
investment management company overseeing $10 
trillion in assets. In the letter sent to executives, 
Fink stated that BlackRock will increase ESG 
considerations when evaluating and recommending 
investments. !is increase in ESG aligns with 
BlackRock’s goal to operate under the targets of 
the Paris Agreement. One of the targets is to limit 
global warming to less than two degrees Celsius.7 In 
the Nineteen’s letter, they articulate, “Based on the 
facts currently available to us, BlackRock appears to 
use the hard-earned money of our states’ citizens to 
circumvent the best possible return on investment, 
as well as their vote.”8 !ey voice that BlackRock is 
exploiting citizens’ assets to pressure companies to 
comply with international agreements like the Paris 
Agreement. !e Nineteen write that they believe 
the Paris Agreement will phase out fossil fuels, 
increase energy prices, drive in%ations, and weaken 
the United States’ national security. !e Nineteen 
believe that by aiming for the targets set by the Paris 
Agreement, investment "rms breach neutrality, their 
duty of loyalty, and their duty of care. !e Nineteen 
speculate that "duciary duty is not satis"ed since 
BlackRock is circumventing the best possible return 
on investment and not discharging their duties in 
the interests of the bene"ciaries. 
 In the same month, the Nineteen started legal 
proceeding against ESG by serving a Civil Investigate 
Demand against seven banks.9 !ey subpoenaed 
information speculating a breach of "duciary 
duty through ESG implementation. !e Missouri 
Attorney General states, “We are leading a coalition 

7 CFA Society United Kingdom, ESG Investing, 2022, pp. 
1–312.  
8 Ken Paxton, “BlackRock Letter,” received by Laurence 
Fink CEO, Aug. 4, 2022.
9 Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Mor-
gan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo 



Defending ESG Fiduciary Duty

Aisthesis      Volume 14,  202335

investigating banks for ceding authority to the U.N., 
which will only result in the killing of American 
companies that don’t subscribe to the woke, climate 
agenda.”10 !e seven banks are members of the Net-
Zero Banking Alliance. !e initiative accelerates 
and supports the implementation of decarbonizing 
strategies. Each of the seven banks signed a 
Commitment Statement agreeing to “transition 
all operational and attributable GHG (greenhouse 
gases) from our lending and investment portfolios to 
align with pathways to net-zero.”11 !e Nineteen are 
citing a breach of "duciary duty for implementing 
ESG. !is coalition believes that ESG can only 
earn lower returns and that ESG investing violates 
"duciary duty. 

3. ESG, Risk, and Fiduciary Duty 
A. ESG and Risk
 Investors utilize ESG to correctly identify, 
evaluate, and price companies. For example, if an 
investor determines that two companies have roughly 
the same expected return, the investor could turn to 
ESG to determine the risk of a company. If a company 
heavily pollutes, has high employee turnover, or 
does not follow regulations, the risk of that company 
increases. Since the investor is anticipated to earn 
the same return with a lower risk, they would opt for 
the less risky, more ESG stock. !e higher the risk, 
the more likely the stock will encounter large dips in 
stock price. Larger dips require more return to make 
it back to the “initial stock price.” In a case where 
a client cares solely about return, and not about the 
environment or the impact on people, they would 
still bene"t from the less-risky, more ESG stock. 
 Asset managers attempt to mitigate risk and build 
their clients’ portfolio for long-term success. ESG has 
revolutionized the landscape of the investment world. 
ESG recognizes the direct relationship that adequate 
natural resources, healthy human capital, and law 

10 Yudi Sherman, “19 Attorneys General Launch 
Investigation into Banks Pushing ESG,” America's 
Frontline News, Oct. 2022, americasfrontlinenews.com/
post/19-attorneys-general-launch-investigation-into-
banks-pushing-esg. 
11 United Nations Environment Programme Finance 
Initiative, “Net-Zero Banking,” www.unep".org/
wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/UNEP-FI-
NZBA-Commitment-Statement.pdf.

designed for the betterment of communities have 
on the viability of business. Before this recognition, 
many investors only considered direct and short-
term "nancial results. Now, however, investors are 
still looking at "nancial returns (short and long-
term) while also evaluating how a business builds 
itself to be sustainable and viable for the long-run. In 
2019, the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) 
published “Sizing the Impact Investing Market.” 
!eir report estimated that there is $502 billion in 
the global impact investing market. In the annual 
GIIN survey, they discovered that 66% of investment 
"rms are pursuing ESG while simultaneously earning 
competitive, market rate returns.12 From ESG’s roots 
to a multi-billion-dollar industry, ESG is anticipated 
to expand even more because of increased demands 
of clients. It is essential for an investor to understand 
how committing to the laws governing "duciary 
duty interplay with ESG.

B. Fiduciary Duty
 Fiduciary duty is de"ned as “a person or 
organization that acts on behalf of another person, 
putting their clients’ interests ahead of their own.”13 
!eir duty preserves good faith and trust. A person 
in the role of a "duciary is bound legally and ethically 
to serve in the best interest of their client. 
 Of the many elements encompassed in "duciary 
duty, the following three are particularly relevant to 
this paper’s analysis:

1) Recognition that every investor is di'erent, 
with their own set of goals, values, and desired 
outcomes. Investment should be done in concert 
with the client’s goals, not despite them.

2) Investment should be done in good faith 
with the hope that the businesses or industries 
invested in will be on-going concerns in one 
year, "ve years, ten years, and "$y years.  If this 
is not factored into the investment decision, it 

12 Global Impact Investing Network, “Annual Impact 
Investor Survey 2019,” US AID,  thegiin.org/assets/
GIIN_2019%20Annual%20Impact%20Investor%20Sur-
vey_ExecSumm_web"le.pdf.
13 Julia Kagan, “Fiduciary De"nition: Examples and Why 
!ey Are Important,” Investopedia, accessed Jan. 17, 2023, 
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/"duciary.asp.



Defending ESG Fiduciary Duty

Aisthesis      Volume 14,  202336

puts into question the abilities of the businesses’ 
management and their ability to think long-term 
for the good of the company and its shareholders.

3) It is critical to use the most accurate data 
for investment decision. Once the goals of the 
client are understood, the most accurate data for 
investment decision should be utilized.  If the 
data does not include a full cost accounting of 
doing business, it over-in%ates all Net Revenue 
and Equity calculations thereby falsely raising an 
investment’s return.

Leading the "nancial investment world is the 
Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute. !e 
CFA is the most highly respected designation in the 
"eld. Standard III.A. of the CFA Institute Code of 
Ethics requires that “Members and Candidates must 
act for the bene"t of their clients and place their 
clients’ interests before their employer’s or their own 
interests.”14 Albeit broad, the CFA Institute alludes to 
three US laws that investors must follow. !ese laws 
include the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, the 
Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 
(ERISA), and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform 
and Consumer Protection Act. 
 !e Investment Advisers Act of 1940 de"ned 
who an investor is and their required standard of 
conduct. Under the act, “‘Investment adviser’ means 
any person who, for compensation, engages in the 
business of advising others, either directly or through 
publications or writings, as to the value of securities 
or as to the advisability of investing in, purchasing, 
or selling securities, or who, for compensation and 
as part of a regular business, issues or promulgates 
analyses or reports concerning securities.”15 !e 
Investment Advisers Act elaborates the role of an 
adviser by de"ning the Standard of Conduct: “!e 
Commission may promulgate rules to provide that 
the standard of conduct for all brokers, dealers, and 

14 CFA Institute, “Fiduciary Duty: Fiduciary Standard & 
Regulations,” www.cfainstitute.org/en/advocacy/issues/
"duciary-duty#sort=%40pubbrowsedate%20descending.
15 US Government Publishing O&ce, “Investment 
Advisers Act of 1940,” Gov Info, www.govinfo.gov/
content/pkg/COMPS-1878/pdf/COMPS-1878.pdf.

investment advisers, when providing personalized 
investment advice about securities to retail customers 
(and such other customers as the Commission may 
by rule provide), shall be to act in the best interest of 
the customer without regard to the "nancial or other 
interest of the broker, dealer, or investment adviser 
providing the advice.”16 !e act further speci"es that 
client consent is needed on all "nancial transactions. 
!e Investment Advisers Act de"nes an investment 
adviser as one who manages the assets of their client. 
!eir role is to provide the best level of care possible. 
!e client must be made aware of all actions within 
their portfolio.
 !e second law that the CFA refers to is the 
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) 
of 1974 housed under the Department of Labor 
(DOL). Under ERISA, a "duciary investor must “act 
prudently and must diversify the plan’s investments 
in order to minimize the risk of large losses.”17 !e 
DOL states that "duciaries that do not follow these 
principles of conduct are personally liable to recover 
any of the clients’ losses. Under ERISA, investors 
must plan into the future for a successful portfolio 
while simultaneously diversifying the portfolio and 
mitigating risks. 
 Another law created in the wake of a "nancial 
crisis is the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and 
Consumer Protection Act. !e act seeks to ensure 
the "nancial safety of Americans by increasing 
the "nancial stability of major "rms, establishing 
the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and 
integrating credit ratings. Dodd-Frank built upon the 
Investment Advisers Act by making more stringent 
requirements on "nancial disclosures. While Dodd-
Frank radically changed the "nancial sector, the 
subcategory, “Study and Rulemaking Regarding 
Obligations of Brokers, Dealers, and Investment 
Advisers,” is under review. In this section, Dodd-
Frank states, “Nothing in this section shall require a 
broker or dealer or registered representative to have 
a continuing duty of care or loyalty to the customer 
a$er providing personalized investment advice 

16 US Government Publishing O&ce, “Investment Advis-
ers Act of 1940.”
17 United States Department of Labor, “Fiduciary 
Responsibilities,” www.dol.gov/general/topic/health-
plans/"duciaryresp. 



Defending ESG Fiduciary Duty

Aisthesis      Volume 14,  202337

about securities.”18 !e CFA rebuts that this ruling is 
unworkable, and that the SEC would revise the extent 
of "duciary duty in the summer of 2017. Since the 
summer of 2017, advocates for “full-term” "duciary 
duty have been met with persistent opposition. 
Debates about the role of a "duciary a$er the initial 
transaction is still ongoing. !e CFA states that they 
had hoped the situation would have been resolved 
but support the underlying objective of the DOL 
which is to serve the client in their best interest.19  
 !e Nineteen fail the Investment Advisers Act of 
1940 and ERISA if investors are no longer allowed 
to implement ESG. Under the Advisers Act, a client 
must be made aware of all actions in the portfolio 
and must give their consent to investment advisers 
to make any decisions in the portfolio. Investment 
advisers are therefore required to disclose if ESG 
is part of their valuation. Clients, with their own 
money, should have the right to decide whether their 
portfolio should include ESG. By taking away that 
choice, the Nineteen are grossly overreaching their 
governmental authority. It is not the investment 
adviser who makes the "nal decision in absence of 
their client, but rather, it should be a joint decision 
made in concert with the clients’ goals and values.   
 ERISA states that an investor must act prudently 
and diversify their client’s portfolio. To act prudently 
means to show thought for the future. To diversify 
a portfolio means to mitigate risk and protect the 
assets in the portfolio. ESG measures a company 
by their risk potential. Companies with a lower 
ESG score have higher risk for the client’s assets. By 
investing in ESG companies, investors are mitigating 
the risks their clients could encounter if they do 
not include ESG considerations. Avoidance of these 
risks diminish the likelihood of various crises from 
happening to the client. 

4. ESG Returns
 !e largest component of the Nineteen’s points 
of contention is that ESG Portfolios have lower 
returns than a standard portfolio. In this section, a 
company’s ESG score is compared to its Return on 
Equity (ROE).  If the claims of the Nineteen ring 

18 US Government Publishing O&ce, “Dodd-Frank Wall 
Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act,” Gov Info, 
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-9515/
uslm/COMPS-9515.xml
19 CFA Institute, “Fiduciary Duty: Fiduciary Standard & 
Regulations.” 

true, then companies with higher ESG scores should 
have had lower ROEs.  Instead, results will show 
that ESG portfolios do not underperform standard 
portfolios. Rather, ESG portfolios can experience 
higher returns than a standard portfolio. 
 To come to this conclusion, S&P 500 companies’ 
annual Return on Equity (ROE) ratios are compared 
to their respective Bloomberg ESG Score from 2009 
to 2021. !e S&P 500 was chosen because it is the 
most watched sector "lled with many recognizable 
company names. !e ROE ratio was selected because 
this ratio measures how pro"table a company is and 
how e&ciently the company makes those pro"ts. 
Essentially it measures the amount of pro"t per each 
dollar of shareholder’s stock. Bloomberg ESG Scores 
were chosen because this ESG score represents how 
transparent a company is regarding ESG criteria. 
While Bloomberg scores are not a true re%ection of 
how eco-friendly, socially responsible, or law abiding 
a corporation is, the sectors that typically are known 
for pollution and human rights violations in supply 
chains do not have high ESG scores because they 
are more resistant to share their disclosure scores. 
!ere are also many third-party, independent ESG 
rating companies. Since there is not one universal 
standard for ESG currently, Bloomberg ESG scores 
represent the most standardized of the rating 
systems. Bloomberg arrives to their "nal score 
through metric measurements and a yes/no system. 
“E,” “S,” and “G” are weighted equally. For example, 
for every “yes,” the company receives a point.  Under 
Environmental, a company’s air disclosure score 
includes Nitrogen Oxide Emissions, VOC Emissions, 
Carbon Monoxide Emissions, Particulate Emissions, 
and Sulphur Dioxide/Sulphur Oxide Emissions (see 
the appendix for a complete scoring list). Based on 
emissions metrics, the company receives a score. !e 
Air Quality score represents 4.78% of the overall ESG 
Score amongst the other 95.22% weighting. We also 
collect data on ROE scores when reported.20A$er 
excluding companies without a ROE ratio and/or 
a Bloomberg ESG Score, 5,968 points of data were 
analyzed. 
 Next, the S&P 500 was subdivided into eleven 
sectors to account for industry di'erences in ROEs 

20 Some companies within the S&P 500 companies did 
not have reportable ROE scores, such as McDonalds in 
2016, as its shareholder’s equity is a negative number due 
to share buybacks (McDonalds 2016 10K Report), thereby 
creating a negative ROE.  



Defending ESG Fiduciary Duty

Aisthesis      Volume 14,  202338

following MSCI’s Global Industry Classi"cation 
System (GICS).21 Table 1 shows the relationship 
between ROE on the ESG score for a particular 
sector. !e coe&cient estimates show when the 
regression between ESG and ROE is positive or 
negative. Most entries show a positive, albeit weak, 
association between the ESG score of a stock and its 
ROE. An example is the Consumer Discretionary 
sector as seen below. !e only sectors with negative 
slopes are communication services, energy, and 
materials. No negative correlation generally arises. 
Moreover, many observations lie well o' the 
regression line, showing that other factors besides 
ESG meaningfully contribute to the stock’s ROE.  In 
summary, no general evidence arises that stocks with 
high ESG scores underperform.  While the Nineteen 
claim that incorporating ESG into a client’s portfolio 
hurts the return, ESG does not lower returns but 
could increase returns. 

Figure 1 and 222

21 Communication Services, Consumer Discretionary, 
Consumer Staples, Energy, Financials, Industrials, Info 
Tech, Health Care, Materials, Real Estate, and Utilities 
22 Bloomberg, "Annualized Return on Equity and 
Bloomberg ESG Disclosure Score for S&P 500 December 
31, 2009-December 31, 2021," accessed October 2022. 

Table 123 

Conclusion 
 !e Nineteen’s position that ESG is against the 
"duciary duties of an investment advisor is built on 
false premises. It makes several key assumptions that 
%y in the face of "duciary duties and sound advice. 
First, it assumes that all investors are the same 
and that it is the advisor’s money to invest, not the 
investor’s money. Second, if they are successful in 
making it illegal to invest in higher ESG companies, 
it is a gross over-reach of government interfering 
with that should be a free-market system that would 
allow choice. !ird, if their de"nition of "duciary 
duty is simply to get the highest return for the 
client, their calculations are based on incomplete 
information since the "nancial ratios do not consider 
a full accounting of the costs of doing business. ESG 
plans for long-term success, mitigates risk, and 
outperforms portfolios without ESG considerations. 
For an investor to ful"ll "duciary duty, an investor 
must consider ESG. ESG guidelines are in the best 
interest of a client and therefore should play an active 
role in "duciary duty. ESG bene"ts the environment, 
stakeholders within the supply chain, employees, the 
clients and yes, even the Nineteen. 

23 Bloomberg, "Annualized Return on Equity and 
Bloomberg ESG Disclosure Score for S&P 500 December 
31, 2009-December 31, 2021." 



Defending ESG Fiduciary Duty

Aisthesis      Volume 14,  2023

Appendix
Bibliography

Bloomberg. "Annualized Return on Equity and 
Bloomberg ESG Disclosure Score for S&P 
500 December 31, 2009-December 31, 2021." 
Bloomberg LP. Accessed October 2022.

CFA Institute. “Fiduciary Duty: Fiduciary Standard 
& Regulations.” www.cfainstitute.org/en/advoca-
cy/issues/"duciary-duty#sort=%40pubbrowse-
date%20descending. 

CFA Society United Kingdom. ESG Investing. 2022, 
pp. 1–312. 

Charter for Compassion. “Human Rights in 
Supply Chains (Human Rights Watch).” 2022. 
charterforcompassion.org/human-rights-in-
supply-chains-human-rights-watch-cci. 

Global Impact Investing Network. “Annual Impact 
Investor Survey 2019.” US AID.  thegiin.org/
assets/GIIN_2019%20Annual%20Impact%20
Investor%20Survey_ExecSumm_web"le.pdf. 

Henisz, Witold, et al. “Five Ways !at ESG Creates 
Value.” McKinsey & Company. June 23, 2021. 
www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-
corporate-"nance/our-insights/"ve-ways-that-
esg-creates-value?cid=soc-web. 

Kagan, Julia. “Fiduciary De"nition: Examples and 
Why !ey Are Important.” Investopedia. 
Accessed Jan. 17, 2023. https://www.investopedia.
com/terms/f/"duciary.asp. 

Kentucky Attorney General O&ce, OAG, and Daniel 
Cameron. “Opinion of the Attorney General.” 
Accessed June 23, 2022. www.ag.ky.gov/
Resources/Opinions/Opinions/OAG%2022-05.
pdf. 

Paxton, Ken. “BlackRock Letter.” Received by 
Laurence Fink CEO, 4 Aug. 2022. 

Sherman, Yudi. “19 Attorneys General Launch 
Investigation into Banks Pushing ESG.” 
America's Frontline News, Oct. 2022. 

americasfrontlinenews.com/post/19-attorneys-
general-launch-investigation-into-banks-
pushing-esg. 

United Nations Environment Programme Finance 
Initiative. “Net-Zero Banking.” www.unep".org/
wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/UNEP-
FI-NZBA-Commitment-Statement.pdf. 

United States Department of Labor. “Fiduciary 
Responsibilities.” www.dol.gov/general/topic/
health-plans/"duciaryresp. 

US Government Publishing O&ce. “Dodd-Frank 
Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection 
Act.” Gov Info. https://www.govinfo.gov/
content/pkg/COMPS-9515/uslm/COMPS-9515.
xml

US Government Publishing O&ce. “Investment 
Advisers Act of 1940.” Gov Info. www.
govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-1878/pdf/
COMPS-1878.pdf. 

World Economic Forum. “!e Global Risks Report 
2020.” www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-
risks-report-2020. 

39



Defending ESG Fiduciary Duty

Aisthesis      Volume 14,  2023

Bloomberg ESG Scoring Criteria 

40



Defending ESG Fiduciary Duty

Aisthesis      Volume 14,  2023

Source: Bloomberg, "Annualized Return on Equity and 
Bloomberg ESG Disclosure Score for S&P 500 December 
31, 2009-December 31, 2021," accessed October 2022. 

 

       

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