Largest public pension system to sell all tobacco stocks

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System decided Monday to sell its last $550 million worth of tobacco-related investments nearly two decades after trading away the bulk of them. In a 9-3 vote, the CalPERS investment committee disregarded the advice from its own financial advisers who recommended reversing a sell-off approved in 2000, which has cost the system more than $3 billion in lost earnings.

The nation’s largest public pension system is giving up tobacco.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System decided Monday to sell off its last $550 million worth of tobacco-related investments nearly two decades after trading away the bulk of them. In a 9-3 vote, the CalPERS investment committee disregarded the advice from its own financial advisers who recommended reversing a sell-off approved in 2000, which has cost the system more than $3 billion in lost earnings.