There are a growing number of teachers and politicians urging pension funds to cease investing and shed their holdings in gun manufacturers. After the recent shooting in Florida, this issue has again gained the spotlight. Universities and their endowment funds have very few disclosure requirements, and most cautiously adhere to policies prohibiting the public release of their fund’s underlying assets. The Texas Permanent School Fund (TPSF), designed to support secondary and primary education throughout the state, publicizes its holdings as required by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Because it has substantial assets in public equity, the fund cannot keep its holdings private. In a year-end filing, TPSF reported holdings in firearm manufacturers Olin Corp., Vista Outdoor Inc., and Sturm Ruger & Co. While university policies restricting access to portfolio information may be portrayed as nefarious, in many cases, endowments can rightfully say that they do not track or control individual investments.
See Kate Smith & Neil Weinberg, University Endowments Are Mostly Mum About Firearms Investments, Bloomberg, February 28, 2018.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.) for bringing this article to my attention.
