Back to States List

South Dakota

South Dakota has one main public pension system: the South Dakota Retirement System (SDRS). The assets of the SDRS are overseen by the South Dakota Investment Council (SDIC).

  • The SDIC board consists of 8 voting members with training and experience in the field of investment or finance: 5 members appointed by the Executive Board of the Legislative Research Council; 3 members Ex Officio (the State Treasurer, the Commissioner of School and Public Lands, and the Executive Director of the SDRS).

The “By Asset Manager” and “Asset Manager Voting” tables show the proxy voting records of the state’s asset managers who manage the pensions’ stock market portfolio through index, exchange-traded, or mutual funds. Since these are externally managed funds, the asset managers typically retain and exercise proxy voting privileges. This data is used to calculate the state’s pro-ESG and anti-ESG scores to see how the state leverages its externally managed funds in proxy voting.

South Dakota does not disclose its proxy voting records for directly owned securities through pension fund portfolios and refused to comply with a FOIA request for this information. The 1792 Exchange encourages South Dakota to publish its proxy voting records instead of keeping its pensioners in the dark about how the state votes on ESG issues with their money.

By Asset Manager

Dimensional Investment Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

5%

TCW Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

76%

Blackstone Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

84%

Brookfield Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

48%

Asset Manager Voting

Pro-ESG

14.8%

Anti-ESG

2.1%

Anti-Fossil Fuels

13%

Anti-Pollution/Waste

19%

Animal Rights

8%

DEI

12%

Weapons/Defense

14%

Human Rights

21%

Income Equality

25%

Political Speech/Lobbying Spending

12%

Health Care

10%

Race/Gender targets on Boards

19%

Non-Pecuniary

18%

ESG-Focused Governance

9%

Abortion

8%

Pro-Fossil Fuel

1%

Equality not DEI

1%

Controversial Cause Support

2%

Geopolitical Rivals/China

1%

Generate Reports
Clear
Toast

This website stores cookies on your computer. These cookies are used to collect information about how you interact with our website and allow us to remember you. We use this information in order to improve and customize your browsing experience and for analytics and metrics about our visitors both on this website and other media. To find out more about the cookies we use, see our Privacy Policy.

Accept