Should we strengthen financial institutions’ fiduciary duty?

Report on a roundtable for industry professionals
October 2017

The need for the investment industry to help produce a sustainable economy and a cohesive society is well understood and much discussed. There have been some successes, and a number of official initiatives but as yet our environmental and social problems are as acute as ever. Can we clarify or redefine fiduciary duty in ways that would help, while protecting beneficiaries’ long-term financial interests and avoiding excessive regulatory burden?

Some would simply say ‘no’ and argue that the current state of the law as clarified by the Law Commission in 2014 is adequate: it just needs repeated communication. However, there are reasons for thinking that some changes are needed. A roundtable to discuss this was held on 3 October 2017 at Aviva Investors and attended by pension fund trustees and managers, investment managers, specialist lawyers, management consultants, academics and representatives of specialist NGOs.

Contact

The roundtable discussion was organised by the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity and hosted by Aviva. For enquiries about the report, please email charles.seaford@worldfuturecouncil.org.