With many economists predicting an economic downturn, investors may wonder how ESG investments will perform in a major recession. To find the answer, Portfolio Adviser asked a cross-section of industry commentators for their views. According to Max Richardson, senior director, of wealth planning at Investec Wealth & Investment, research on ESG performance during recessions is limited, but available studies suggest mixed results. For instance, a study by MSCI found that ESG stocks outperformed traditional ones during the 2008 financial crisis, with a lower decline in stock prices and a faster recovery. However, a study by the London School of Economics found that ESG stocks performed no better or worse than traditional stocks during the 2008 crisis. In fact, the impact of the crisis on ESG stocks was largely dependent on the specific industries and companies, not their ESG status. Amanda Sillars, fund manager and ESG director at Jupiter Merlin believes funds that exclude entire sectors on ESG grounds, which are typically oil, gas, miners, and defense, "run the risk of delivering weak absolute performance if those sectors outperform.” In contrast, “Fund managers who retain a broad investment universe and select companies that generate strong cashflows, minimal debt and are valued cheaply, while keeping company engagement at the heart of their investment strategy, are likely to fare better during a recession.

Finsum:According to a wealth planner, studies on ESG performance during a recession are mixed, but a fund selector believes that managers who focus on engagement and not exclusion will fare better in a recession.

Allan Roth, founder of Wealth Logic LLC recently penned an article for etf.com where he provided his opinion on direct indexing vs. ETFs. While direct indexing is forecasted to attract assets at a faster pace than ETFs, according to a recent report by Cerulli Associates, Roth believes that direct indexing is not better than ETFs. While he does mention the benefits of direct indexing such as tax advantages, customization, and low annual costs, he asked, “But is direct indexing better than ETFs?" He added, "Generally they are not, in my view, at least not compared to the best ETFs.” He uses the S&P 500 as an example. Vanguard’s VOO ETF has a 0.03% annual expense ratio, while direct indexing typically has an annual fee of at least 0.40% annually. Roth does say that the 0.37 percentage point differential could be made up from the benefit of tax-loss harvesting in the early years, but he believes it likely won’t continue. That is because the stock market “generally moves up in the long run, so each year there is less and less tax-loss harvesting. Yet the fees continue.” In addition, after a few years, he says that “the tax benefit is minimal, and all that is left are fees and complexities.”

Finsum:Financial planner Allan Roth recently wrote an article for etf.com where he stated that direct indexing is not better than ETFs since direct indexing is more expensive and its tax benefits are minimal after a few years.

According to the third annual Alternatives Watch (AW) Research Investor Compendium commissioned by Vidrio Financial, there was a strong uptick in the amount of alternative investment mandate activity across some of the largest institutional investors. In 2021, AW's second annual compendium tracked a total of $130 billion in new capital across more than 900 individual institutional investor mandates from 50 of the top alternative allocators. That figure jumped to $144 billion in 2022, an increase of over 10%, across more than 1,000 individual mandates. There was also an increase in investor interest across infrastructure and real asset strategies to $6.9 billion and $4.9 billion, respectively, as those strategies act as inflation hedges. Other key findings include a muted slowdown in private equity assets, while there was a pick-up in activity in hedge funds as large institutional players sought to purchase risk-mitigating assets throughout the year. In addition, total private equity and venture capital mandates accounted for over half the mandates in the compendium and were spread out across the world, as investors embraced life sciences and technology sectors. Mazen Jabban, Chairman and CEO, of Vidrio Financial, stated, "As we saw in this year's Compendium performance data, Vidrio Financial continues to observe alternative asset classes growing in importance for institutional investment teams who work to take advantage of illiquidity premiums in the private markets while also seeking greater transparency into these types of investments."

Finsum:According to the third annual Alternatives Watch Research Investor Compendium, there was a 10% uptick in the amount of alternative investment mandate activity across some of the largest institutional investors.