BlackRock, Florida Strike Truce Over Pensions by Barring ESG

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will allow BlackRock Inc. and other asset managers to keep overseeing some of the state’s more than $220 billion in pension funds, but only if they stop using ESG investing strategies.

DeSantis, along with other trustees of the state authority running Florida’s pensions, changed the plans’ policies on Tuesday to say that investment decisions “must be based only on pecuniary factors” that don’t consider “social, political, or ideological interests.” The changes follow a months-long process that started in August, when the Republican governor banned state pensions from investing in strategies that use environmental, social and governance ...