It might not happen today or tomorrow, but soon you may get the chance to invest in a socially responsible investment in your 401(k) plan.

That’s because the Labor Department this fall issued guidance easing the fiduciary burden for selecting these funds for 401(k)s, according to a Plansponsor article by Fred Reish, a partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath.

At the moment, most 401(k)s don’t offer socially responsible investment (SRI) funds — those that apply environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors to management — as an option. Offering such funds had been problematic, according to Reish. Investment committee members w could easily get sued by plan participants if the SRI didn’t perform as expected. And, there’s never really been enormous demand for SRI funds from 401(k) participants.

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So how might you evaluate whether to invest in an SRI fund in your 401(k), and how might you decide if it’s a good investment? Here’s what experts had to say.

Others agree. “There is a lot of greenwashing going on out there with all kinds of asset managers claiming to offer ‘green funds’ when they really aren’t,” says Robert Eccles, chairman of Arabesque Asset Management in London.

Note, too, that methodologies for determining whether a fund qualifies as “sustainable investing” are still being developed, says Eccles. He recommends using Morningstar for research.

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