Are you ready to divest your retirement savings from weapons manufacturing, prisons, and genocide? Join Duke ASJP’s MOVE YOUR MONEY campaign!
Duke employees demanded ethical investment options ↠
Duke leadership washed its hands of responsibility
Our demands
In April 2025, Duke ASJP launched a campaign asking Duke’s retirement plan managers at Fidelity to provide a 403(b) option for employees to select that aligns with ethical and socially responsible investment principles. Over 30 faculty and staff members sent a letter to the plan managers asking for investment options that exclude companies and institutions:
- that engage in weapons manufacturing
- that engage in the prison industry
- that are complicit in violating national and international humanitarian and human rights laws, including by operating in and selling their goods to be used against militarily occupied people and their environments
- that are credibly accused of “serious violations of individuals’ rights in situations of war or conflict” or “particularly serious violations of fundamental ethical norms,” as defined by The Council of Ethics of the Ministry of Finance in Norway
The letter asked for a response from the plan managers within 60 days. However, the administrators did not respond during this time period.
Their response
While Fidelity plan managers did not respond within the requested timeframe, we refused to be stalled. Campaign participants made individual appointments with Fidelity counselors in Durham. At these appointments, counselors told us we could use BrokerageLink to select our own investments. They suggested that this option is best suited for “sophisticated” investors who have the time and knowledge to closely monitor their investments.
In multiple conversations, the Duke Fidelity counselors said they had communicated our concerns as employees to the Duke Investment Advisory Committee (IAC), which is responsible for making such decisions. The campaign asked for a response from the IAC and for information about who is on the committee – we have not received any response.
On September 9, 2025, Heather Hughes, Duke’s retirement plan manager in Human Resources, finally responded to the initial letter employees had sent. Hughes reiterated what individuals were told by the Fidelity counselors: that employees could use BrokerageLink to select their own investments, but that the Duke University Investment Advisory Committee is “responsible for selecting the investment funds that are available on the Duke Plan’s core menu.” This email implied that the IAC would not provide an option aligned with the campaign’s values. Hughes has not responded to attempts to follow up or to contact the IAC directly.
The Duke Fidelity plan administrators’ refusal to engage with these requests is deliberate and shows they do not envision their “fiduciary responsibility” as primarily to employees served by their plan, but as a responsibility to the companies that profit from their investments, no matter these companies’ ethical violations and moral turpitude.
“Palestine” by noaz. | CC BY-NC 2.0
HOW TO MOVE YOUR RETIREMENT MONEY
If you have a retirement account through Fidelity and wish to divest from weapons, prisons, apartheid, occupation, and genocide, the Duke Academics and Staff for Justice in Palestine Research Group has determined that our best option is to pursue these goals using BrokerageLink with the help of a values-based investment advisor.
We have reached out to and interviewed multiple retirement investment advisors around the country since December 2024.
We have concluded after extensive vetting and research that the financial advisors at Crescent Private Wealth in Cary, North Carolina, are experienced with values-based investing, have worked with Duke employees using BrokerageLink, and are ready to work with us individually to intentionally invest for retirement in alignment with our values.
Duke ASJP has also spoken with Durham-based advisors at Beacon Pointe. They have been open to our questions and conversations and may be able to help individual investors divest.
Crescent Private Wealth has provided a step-by-step tutorial below for how to start the process.
If you have questions about how to do this, or comments and feedback that may help others as you go through the process of moving your money, please email us at WeWantFidelityOptions@proton.me.
MAKE IT COUNT
Finished moving your money? Fill out the survey so we can keep track of how much money we’ve moved!
