Utah

Utah has one main public pension system: the Utah Retirement System (URS).

The URS board represents eligible public state and local employees and consists of 7 members: 4 appointed by the Governor, the State Treasurer, 1 school employee appointed by the Governor, and 1 public employee appointed by the Governor.
- URS uses Glass Lewis for its proxy advisory services.
- According to its 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the URS’ general investment consultant is Callan.

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.

Utah 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 Utah 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

BlackRock Funds

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

Dimensional Investment Funds

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

Asset Manager Voting

Pro-ESG

7.9%

Anti-ESG

0.6%

Anti-Fossil Fuels

10%

Anti-Pollution

10%

Animal Rights

DEI

Weapons/Defense

Human Rights

Income Equality

Political Speech/Lobbying Spending

Health Care

Race/Gender targets on Boards

Non-Pecuniary

ESG-Focused Governance

Abortion

Pro-Fossil Fuel

Equality not DEI

Controversial Cause Support

Geopolitical Rivals/China