Voice of the asset owner survey 2023: Qualitative insights
A Global Survey of Institutional Investor Priorities and Perspectives
Institutional asset owners (AOs) play an important role in the global capital markets. Acting as fiduciaries, they oversee some of the world’s largest pools of capital, steering investment policy on behalf of pension plans, foundations, endowments and sovereign wealth funds.
The largest AOs are universal owners, meaning they own broadly diversified global portfolios and have a long-term investment horizon. Since they “own” the market, they cannot diversify away from negative external costs— such as environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and human rights violations—resulting from corporate activity. These conditions encourage AOs to align with sustainable investment strategies that aim to address externalities through investment decisions, engagement and public policy.
To better understand the motivations, attitudes and challenges of institutional AOs in the current environment, Morningstar Indexes and Morningstar Sustainalytics piloted an annual global survey of asset owners in 2022, and we are conducting our second annual asset owner survey this year.
The annual survey explores topics such as:
- Investment objectives and policies
- Views on current and future investment trends
- The impact of regulatory change
- Key stakeholders and influencers
- The role of ESG in investment decisions and opinions on service providers
Survey findings, gathered through separate qualitative and quantitative outreach to asset owners in North America, Europe and Asia with the help of Opinium Research and Bob Collie of Collie ESG, are used by Morningstar for a variety of purposes. They are useful input for the development of products and services, as a reference tool for the industry, for marketing communications and promotions, and for client education.
Find out about all survey takeaways and the full analysis here.
Morningstar were Gold Sponsors of IMpower 2023. Find out more about the event here >>
