We’re also shifting our focus to emphasize high quality managers with a greater degree of technological optimization. She will lead our efforts in updating existing manager screens and selecting additions to the watch list, as well as some new product offerings. A fund might have a high ESG score, but is this achieved through a deliberate effort to create a pure ESG strategy, or is it just an additional product designed to attract more flows? Any changes from last year?įollowing the retirement of Kevin O’Keefe, our former chief investment officer, we have brought in former Deutsche Bank managing director Theresa Gusman to oversee our investment management process. While a fund must meet our rigorous screening standards, we are just as concerned with a manager’s intentions when creating an ESG product. However, as you might expect, we have historically used products from Calvert (now part of Eaton Vance), Pax World Funds, Domini Impact Investments and Parnassus Investments, and we are pleased with the results. We are excited to evaluate the new entrants. Luckily for us, there has been an influx of firms entering the ESG space recently. In areas where active management can be justified in the ESG space – as is the case with small caps – we tap the expertise of active managers who have shown that they can add value net of fees.Īre there any managers you have high conviction in? Adding our proprietary ESG screens, we actively filter out securities that do not meet our selection criteria. While we typically use passive vehicles due to their low cost and their diversification benefits, we take an active approach to managing these products. Our services are also popular in liberal college towns and among those in ‘helping professions,’ such as educators and medical professionals. While our client base is spread out throughout the country, we have noticed concentrations in areas north of Washington DC on the East Coast, and from the Bay Area north to Canada on the West Coast. We also offer Sharia-compliant strategies designed for the Muslim community. We have considerable expertise when it comes to working with religious groups such as Quakers, the Mennonite church and the Unitarian Universalists.

However, we can also offer these to our lower-net-worth clients through Folio Institutional’s models and fractional share technology. Our average managed mutual fund account contains $120,000, and our separate account strategies must have at least $600,000. Our 80 advisors nationwide primarily work with mass affluent individuals and families. We have access to several real estate investment trusts and international American depositary receipts through our partnership with Folio Institutional. Our models may also include individual equities. In total, we offer 60 models made up of products from the 24 independent asset management companies that we work with directly. We consider ourselves to be a ‘manager of managers.’ Our platform consists of several ESG/SRI managed mutual fund models and eight risk-based, fossil fuel-free models that can be taxed or tax-deferred. Our expertise translates to a very high quality and detailed due diligence process that provides our clients with best-in-class ESG investment products. We don’t make big bets steady wins the race. Given our near 30-year history in the space, we know most of the senior management teams at big SRI firms and understand the SRI/ESG space very well. We seek to provide the optimal level of risk and return, and we do our best to manage expenses, harvest tax losses and make appropriate allocation decisions. By that we mean avoiding avoidable losses and not behaving as ‘heroic’ investment managers.

We also place considerable significance on preserving clients’ assets, and we believe that the most important role for our advisors is to ensure that clients do not do the worst thing at the worst possible time.

We are firm believers that clients should consider values and beliefs as a part of the overall investment management process.

What is your overall investment philosophy?Īt First Affirmative Financial Network, we have specialized in SRI and impact investing since 1988.

Folio institutional ria