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Florida Dumps BlackRock in Fight Against ESG

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On April 16, 2019, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis visited U.S. Coast Guard Station Marathon to meet with Monroe County and municipality officials. Photos by Kristen Livengood

You have watched state after state push back on ESG investing as money managers use their power over the funds to pursue increasingly political ends. Florida has now joined others in pulling money out of funds at BlackRock, the money manager best known for doggedly pursuing its green agenda using ESG fund power. Angel Au-Yeung reports for The Wall Street Journal:

The backlash continues for BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced Thursday that the state’s treasury would begin pulling out $2 billion of assets that are currently under management by BlackRock.

The sunshine state cited the firm’s support for environmental, social and governance investing.

“BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is on a campaign to change the world,” Mr. Patronis said in a press release. “Using our cash, however, to fund BlackRock’s social-engineering project isn’t something Florida ever signed up for.”

BlackRock said it was “surprised by the Florida CFO’s decision given the strong returns BlackRock has delivered to Florida taxpayers over the last five years” in a series of tweets posted Thursday afternoon. “Fiduciaries should always value performance over politics.” The firm manages some $8 trillion in total assets.

Mr. Patronis said Florida’s state treasury will have transferred all its short and long-term investments to another asset manager by early 2023.

Florida follows Louisiana, which pledged to pull $794 million from BlackRock funds in October because of BackRock’s support for ESG. The asset manager has been forced to walk a political tightrope on climate issues.

Action Line: Recently, Elon Musk called ESG “the devil.” You’ve certainly read plenty about that here. Don’t allow your investments to be used by unscrupulous money managers to pursue their own political agendas. Invest in a portfolio of individual securities and control your own voting rights. If you need help building a portfolio like that, let’s talk. In the meantime, get to know me better by clicking here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.
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