We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
If Not The Index Funds, Then Who?
- Authors
Atkinson, Nathan
- Abstract
Large asset managers manage trillions of dollars of assets on behalf of tens of millions of clients. In this article, I take a close look at the underlying interests of those clients. Because asset managers' clients are affected by corporate actions as customers, employees, creditors, taxpayers, and the general public, they are interested in more than the financial performance of the corporations in their portfolios. Instead of maximizing the profits of individual firms, an asset manager acting in their clients' best interests should focus on improving the alignment between corporations and society more broadly. First, I show that asset managers can induce significant changes at portfolio companies. I then put forward a set of actions that asset managers could implement that would significantly increase clients' collective welfare. Finally, I show that there is little legal risk from a reorientation towards client welfare by asset managers.
- Subjects
INDEX mutual funds; FINANCIAL performance; PORTFOLIO performance; ORGANIZATIONAL performance
- Publication
Berkeley Business Law Journal, 2020, Vol 17, Issue 1, p44
- ISSN
1548-7067
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.15779/Z38QF8JK2X