Growing money, managing risk and avoiding harm – members’ responsible investing priorities in 2024

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The financial aspects of responsible investing – aiming to grow pension pots and to reduce risks – are top concerns for members, according to our latest research.

The Responsible Investing Viewpoint 2024 report also reveals that members are keen to avoid harm where they can. But while many do care about environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, they’re unlikely to actively consider these – rather, they want and expect their pension provider to ‘take care of it for them’ and invest responsibly on their behalf.

This view reflects our own position at Standard Life. We believe that investing responsibly is an essential part of the process of helping members to grow their pension savings and to manage risk.

Who we asked and what they told us

For this, our fourth annual survey on responsible investing, we asked 1,400 people of different ages, levels of wealth and financial understanding to share their views on responsible investing. We also look at how age and gender influence some thoughts and opinions on the subject.

As shown on pages 6 and 7 of the full report, nearly 89% of respondents said that returns are their biggest priority. But most of those we asked also cared about the impact of how their money is invested. More than eight in ten (83%) agreed that they want to avoid harm where possible. And the majority told us that they try to live sustainably, with around nine in ten agreeing that they “always recycle when I can” (see page 11 for more information).

Making it easy

Members also want us to make responsible investing easy for them.   In 2024, just under 80% of those we surveyed want their pension provider to ‘take care of it for me’. And more than three-quarters expect Standard Life to have already considered how responsible each investment is when we invest their money. Pages 21 and 22 of the report detail how we’re responding to the research. 

Are views changing over time?

We’ve consistently collected member opinions on many responsible investing topics since we started the survey in 2020. This means we can now begin to identify which trends persist, which ones are intensifying and which have fluctuated over time. 

While this year’s survey shows that there are some slight changes in how members feel about responsible investing, our duty to them has stayed the same. To put it simply, that’s to help grow their pension savings as well as taking into account other factors that we know are important to them. By investing responsibly, we believe we can do that, while also helping to support wider change. 

Click here to find out more in our full Responsible investing viewpoint 2024 report.

The value of investments can go down as well as up, and your members could get back less than was paid in.