Home
Up
About Goodfunds
Family foundations
Financial planning
News & info
Success stories
Account service
Help friends & world
Frequent questions
Contact & info

More Goodfunds Resources:

Client documents

Fees for advisory services

Being a good client

Avoiding frauds

SRI book reviews

Find, work with an advisor

Professional referrals

Personal finance books 

Responsible philanthropy

Guest speaker

Free SRI newsletter, tell a friend, bookmark, link

Employment, collaboration

Directions to the office

Community Investing Achiever in the Social Investment Forum 1% For Community campaign since 2002. Calvert Foundation Advisor of the Year in 2004. Learn more!

Strategic Relationships

(Network Services Member)

Investing services details

On this page: You Are Not Alone   Key Strategies of Sustainable Investing   Busting a Myth   Helping People Like You   Investment Consulting and Minimums   Custodian Account Service   Account Types Served   Fees For Advisory Services

You Are Not Alone

• 92% of investors believe that a financial advisor should investigate ethical as well as financial performance of investments before making recommendations.¹

• 84% of investors agree that, in the long run, companies with high ethical integrity make better investments.²

• 71% of investors believe that companies that operate with higher levels of integrity carry less investment risk.¹

^{1. Harris Interactive Poll, conducted for Calvert, November 2003; 2. Neuwirth Research, conducted for Calvert, August 2003.}

Key Strategies

Some very special strategies are available and often implemented with our sustainable and responsible investing services. You are probably already familiar with the idea of avoidance and qualitative screening--the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria to investment analysis.

Another core sustainable investment strategy is corporate engagement through shareholder dialogue, proxy voting, and the shareholder resolution process. Many of our portfolio managers provide both the screening criteria and engagement/advocacy strategies.

Another part of an SRI portfolio is community investing. These help individuals and regions pull themselves out of poverty and regain socio-economic self-empowerment.

And a little more detail if you wish...

Integrating screening criteria with portfolio management

• Example: You want tobacco, gambling, nuclear power, and weapons screened out of your portfolio. This is simply avoiding investment in certain industries or practices in your portfolio. Such "avoidance screening" is usually taken care of by your sustainable and SRI mutual fund or separate account manager.

• Example: You want to consider the domestic and international labor practices, environmental practices, and full public disclosure. To maintain a diversified portfolio, you have to invest in companies that are not perfect but have better qualities than others in their industry. Such "qualitative screening" is usually taken care of by your SRI mutual fund or separate account manager.

• "In our research, we ask companies questions that they are not used to being asked, about issues that they've never before been told are important. In the U.S. and increasingly in Western Europe, simply putting issues on the table can positively affect management's decision making." Amy Domini, Summer 2007 GreenMoneyJournal.com.

Shareholder advocacy and activism

• Examples: You like the idea of your money managers asking a major company to report their EEO data or global labor standards to the public, or asking a large media company to not support a porn network, or getting a large chain to phase out selling unsustainably harvested old-growth and tropical lumber.

• Using these tactics, the sustainable and SRI movement gets companies to change their policies and practices.

• Some big-name companies are taking heed. Shareholder campaigns for tighter supplier oversight have resulted in changes at Nike Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Walt Disney Co. Disney, where one shareholder proposal won 43% support, is making sweeping changes to the way it monitors, audits and reports on contractors. Gap Inc. has also started releasing more information on overseas contractors' compliance. Get the latest scoop on what's going on from the Social Investment Forum's Advocacy & Public Policy web site. 

• Shareholder advocacy, activism, and proxy voting is usually taken care of by your sustainable and SRI mutual fund or separate account manager.

Community investing

• Example: A young couple was a long-term welfare recipient. They turned to his long time hobby, woodworking for help. And, with the help of a small loan from a community loan fund, they were able to turn his woodworking into a business that now supports the whole family off welfare. Get the latest scoop on what's going on from the Community Investing web site.

• You can now easily make small business, child care, and affordable housing a portion of your portfolio by investing in professionally-managed community investment notes.

• This office is participating in the 1% for community campaign. You can too.

Most people think that socially responsible investing only encompasses negative screening. Now you know better. When your money management is engaged in each of these key strategies above, then you're fully participating in the social investing movement!

Busting a myth

A common misconception about sustainable investing and SRI is that it will cause lower financial performance. Well, not necessarily so. You can conduct your own research on this question starting with the following resources:

• The FTSE KLD 400 Social^SM Index

• Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes

• The Calvert Social Index^TM

• SRI Academic Studies

(see disclaimers)

Helping people like you

• Managing Portfolio Risk
  Appropriate asset allocation (a portfolio's mix of asset classes), can help you manage risk. Many professional investment advisors, including us, believe that probably the most important factor in the risk and performance of your portfolio is the asset allocation that governs your portfolio. Timing and securities selection have been found to be smaller determinants of performance. Your professionally managed portfolio should utilize sophisticated asset allocation strategies within the context of an appropriately diversified mix of investments.

• Through sustainable investing, you can be supportive of moving towards a good society and environment.
• You can free up time to do more of the things in life you enjoy including spending more time with family, hobbies, and community.
• You may also find you have less need to personally figure out and track economic and investment trends yet still efficiently oversee your advisor.

Investment services are tailored for you or your organization. We use First Affirmative Financial Network's investment management services as well as other approaches that may be appropriate to your situation.

Investment consulting and minimums

New investment management engagements require at minimum, one million dollars of investable assets. Services are also available to people or organizations that are expecting to have at least that amount in the near term, or because of a special referral or other relationship connection.

Depending on your situation, objectives, and the amount you are working with, you may benefit from our state-of-the-art investment management services. Services include managed portfolios of sustainable and responsible mutual funds and ETFs, sets of managed model folios, separate account management with individual stocks and bonds, and community investment notes.

Most new clients transfer to our services with assets already managed elsewhere such as with brokers, investment advisors, retirement accounts, trust companies, or banks. Your account transfers will be coordinated and monitored for you through our industry-standard systems, account custodians, networks, and teams of professionals.

If during our initial conversation it appears that your situation might not not be a perfect match for our services, we can probably provide you an introduction to one of our qualified colleagues.

Custodian account services

Client accounts are normally held via custodial arrangement with Charles Schwab Institutional, KMS Financial Services, Inc. (clearing through Pershing, LLC), Folio Institutional, or other major custodians as fully disclosed on new account applications. Occasionally an account may need to be held directly with a mutual fund company or other platform.

Account types served include

• Individual, Joint, and Trust

• Foundation, Endowment, and Organization

• UTMA or UGMA

• IRAs (various) and other Retirement Accounts

• 529 College Savings

Fees for advisory services

Prospective clients sometimes have trouble figuring out why, or how, they should pay someone for investment advisory services. Click here for more information.

"History teaches that both investment managers and clients need help if they are to hold successfully to the discipline of long-term commitments. This means restraining themselves from reacting inappropriately to disconcerting short-term data and keeping themselves from taking those unwise actions that seem so obvious and urgent to optimists at market highs and to pessimists at market lows. The best shield for long-term policies against the outrageous attacks of acute short-term data and distress are knowledge and understanding committed to writing."
Charles D. Ellis