NextWealth has released the 6th update to the Sustainable Investing Tracker Study (formerly named the ESG Tracking Study).

The goal of the research is to understand and track how financial advisers are integrating sustainable investing considerations into their businesses. The results serve to educate and offer clarity to advisers on ESG and sustainable investing and allow providers to refine their distribution strategies.

The key findings from this year’s report include:

• Client interest in sustainable investing has collapsed , with the share of clients raising the topic with adviser falling from 22% in Q3 2022 to 12% in this report. Advised clients with assets invested in sustainable funds and solutions are largely staying the course, with the share of advised assets in sustainable funds and solutions remaining steady.
• Advisers overwhelmingly consider it a requirement of COBS to ask about sustainable investing preferences. Few are aware of SDR labelling proposals and our research confirms that the advisers draw little distinction between the proposed labels.
•  Our study shows that advisers are coalescing around the terms ‘sustainable’ and ‘responsible’ when referring to a client’s investing preferences in the KYC process.
• There remain gaps in the ability to report to clients against sustainable preferences on an on-going basis.

The Sustainable Investing Tracker Study is updated semi-annually to remain in line with any changes in the industry.