Why It’s So Hard to Invest With a Social Conscience

Why It’s So Hard to Invest With a Social Conscience
According to one industry study of 421 plans, just 14 percent offered at least one sustainable fund
and only about 1 percent of assets ended up in the investments.
COST AND DIVERSIFICATION If you’re a committed index fund investor, seeking to own every stock or bond (or every sustainable
one) in a particular market segment (say, small European companies), it may not be easy to do so cheaply if you can at all.
One fund company called Inspire, according to one of its prospectuses, avoids companies
that have “any degree of participation in activities that do not align with biblical values.” It includes among that list “the LGBT lifestyle,” without further elaboration.
“Currently, most accessible S. R.I.
approaches make investors choose between a well diversified, low-cost portfolio
and an inadequately diversified and/or higher-cost portfolio comprised of S. R.I.
funds,” wrote Alex Benke, who is now company’s vice president of financial advice and planning.