Frequently Asked Questions

Freedom to Invest brings together investors, companies, and other stakeholders to champion the freedom to consider all financial risks and opportunities in decision-making and to communicate directly about these issues through the shareholder proposal process. Investors and businesses have the right to manage their portfolios, operations, and supply chains responsibly and engage companies they own on financially relevant issues. Any effort to harm these rights put the entire economy and free market system at risk.

Freedom to Invest launched in March 2023 when hundreds of investors and companies signed a statement, coordinated by Ceres and the We Mean Business Coalition, emphasizing the importance of responsible investing and prudent risk management to protect their portfolios and business operations and supply chains. Since then, more private and public sector leaders have joined them in urging policymakers to protect their rights to factor all financial risks and opportunities in decision-making. Learn more at freedomtoinvest.org/voices.  

For decades, investors and companies have addressed material financial issues that threaten portfolios and bottom lines, including the costly impacts of unnatural disasters.  Some state and federal policymakers are pushing proposals that would ban businesses from taking these important considerations into account.  Freedom to Invest was created to remind policymakers that investors and companies should be free to consider all business risks and investment opportunities to manage their portfolios, operations, and supply chains responsibly.  

Research released by InfluenceMap shows the fossil fuel industry was involved in drafting the first state bills targeting responsible investing, and continued to support other proposed state and federal bills. The politically driven campaign to restrict investment freedom, in defiance of investors’ fiduciary duty to consider all material financial risks, is an unprecedented level of government interference in investment analysis. While opponents of responsible investing hide behind misleading claims, mainstream investors overwhelmingly support prudent risk management and investment practices to ensure long-term value. 

No. Global investor initiatives, such as Climate Action 100+ or Net Zero Asset Managers, are not in violation of antitrust laws. Investors are independent fiduciaries with responsibilities to their clients and beneficiaries. They have made their own decisions about factoring climate risks and opportunities into their investment strategies to ensure long-term value. Antitrust laws protect competition and consumers; they do not prohibit investors from independently deciding to address a material risk or working together to achieve a common goal that is not anti-competitive.  Learn more at freedomtoinvest.org/resources.  

Opponents of responsible investing claim that considering certain risks and other material financial issues can compromise financial returns.  But prudent investors must account for all relevant issues—including extreme weather — that either create risks or signal investment opportunities across their portfolios. In a comprehensive study of more than 1,000 research articles published between 2015 and 2020, most found a positive link between responsible investment and performance. 

Yes. Shareholder engagement with the companies they own is one of the bedrocks of our free market system. State and federal policymakers and regulators are attempting to change the way investors communicate directly with companies by dismantling the long-standing U.S. shareholder proposal process. They propose increasing proposal submission thresholds, dictating topics of shareholder engagement, and barring the SEC from being a neutral arbiter of the 14a-8 process. Freedom to Invest believes that investors should be free to engage with companies, and any efforts to interfere with that upends nearly a century of precedent. We firmly stand with shareholders and their right to communicate with companies through the shareholder proposal process.