ESG Links: Allocating With Purpose

Due to client demand, Ritholtz Wealth Management has created an ESG version of our classic asset allocation models, known as the Portland Portfolio. Research shows that high net worth families are increasingly interested in directing their investable assets toward companies with good records on Environmental, Social and Governance issues.

Please enjoy the below reads, curated by our in-house ESG expert, Joey Fishman. And if ESG investing is something you’d like to learn more about, talk to us here. 

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3 Reasons For FAs To Embrace UN Sustainable Development Goals (FA-MAG)

Companies That Perform Best Don’t Pay CEOs The Most (WSJ)

This High-Tech Vertical Farm Promises Whole Foods Quality At Walmart Prices (Bloomberg)

The Challenges Of Passive ESG Investment (Pension Experts)  

Nine Out Of The Top 10 Largest U.S. Asset Managers Are Now Active In Impact Investing (Impact Alpha)

ESG: Don’t Let Perfect Be The Enemy of Good (Abnormal Returns)

Cybersecurity Becoming Big ESG Concern (Pension & Investments)

Sustainable Investments Are Not Always What They Seem (Stanford Social Innovation Review)

Simulating The Bodily Pain Of Future Climate Change (NPR)

Corporate Sustainability Must Give Way To Corporate Responsibility (Tech Crunch)

MSCI Launches ESG Factor Indices As Demand Grows (Fund Strategy)

Hidden Costs Of Climate Change Running Hundreds Of Billions a Year (NAT GEO)

Apple’s Tim Cook Barnstorms For ‘Moral Responsibility’ (Nytimes)

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ESG DEFINITIONS / TYPES

Examples of ESG incorporation strategies can be summarized as follows:

Positive/best-in-class: Investment in sectors, companies or projects selected for positive ESG performance relative to industry peers. This also includes avoiding companies that do not meet certain ESG performance thresholds.

Negative/exclusionary screening: The exclusion from a fund or plan of certain sectors or companies involved in activities deemed unacceptable or controversial.

ESG integration: The systematic and explicit inclusion by investment managers of ESG factors into traditional financial analysis.

Impact investing: Targeted investments, typically made in private markets, aimed at solving social or environmental problems.

Sustainability themed investing: The selection of assets specifically related to sustainability in single- or multi-themed funds.

Click here for more….http://www.ussif.org/esg

Talk to us about ESG investing here.