I'm in the UK which isn't in a hugely different place. I'd quite like to invest my pension fund into residential property run with an ethical approach through a co-op. I was actually laughed at by a financial advisor, who explained that ethics (other than ESG) aren't something he can help with, and that residential property investment is for the big boys - eg, institutional investors.
My bank can invest in property and be morally awful in the process, but I can't do it without losing tax relief on my pension.
I'd like to do activist investments too, but they're savagely time consuming.
By ethical, I mean no-eviction tenancies, long tenancies, no rent increases, etc. The fact is that lower income families have no hope whatsoever in the UK of buying a house because low incomes are now a signifier of insecure work. There's a section of the population that rotate through housing regularly enough through no fault of their own (because of landlords) that their kids can't go to the same school each year etc. Shelter has an introduction to the idea here: https://blog.shelter.org.uk/2012/11/a-return-to-revolving-do...
I'm aware of many of the other 'ethical' schemes on the market, but mostly, they're not actually that ethical once you scratch the surface. The genuinely interesting ethical stuff does carry some risk, but also accomplishes a lot. See the kinds of things listed here for what I mean: https://www.ethex.org.uk/investments
What I'd really like in my pension is freedom to take some risks, and representative democracy. It boils my blood to know that fund managers don't have to respect my values when they've investing my money. Likewise when the government says I can't invest in things I understand and approve of.
I'm not fammiliar with the UK system, so I'm speaking in US terms here.
The government gives you a tax advantaged account specifically to encourage saving for retirement. It sounds like you want to use that money to do something else, and are complaining that you need to loose your tax advantage to do so.
The tax advantage is for investing for retirement. I think there are good gains to be made in certain things (such as coops) but regulations forbid me from investing in them, while the tax system incentivises me to put as as much money as possible away in tax friendly wrappers, which stifles my ability to invest.
I'm in the UK which isn't in a hugely different place. I'd quite like to invest my pension fund into residential property run with an ethical approach through a co-op. I was actually laughed at by a financial advisor, who explained that ethics (other than ESG) aren't something he can help with, and that residential property investment is for the big boys - eg, institutional investors.
My bank can invest in property and be morally awful in the process, but I can't do it without losing tax relief on my pension.