Beats | April 27, 2018

Opening the financial advisor gateway to impact and sustainable investing

Dennis Price
ImpactAlpha Editor

Dennis Price

“If you’re a financial advisor and you’re not offering impact, you’re behind the curve and soon you’ll be obsolete,” Just Capital’s Martin Whittaker said Thursday at the Total Impact conference in Philadelphia.

Seven in 10 investor clients have requested impact opportunities from their advisors, according to a recent survey; only one in five financial advisors thinks it’s important. That makes financial intermediaries, registered investment advisors and institutional investment consultants a crucial “gateway” for mainstreaming impact and sustainable investing.

  • Seizing the opportunity… The Good Capital Project has built a conference series to provide an on-ramp into impact investing for financial advisors. Total Impact kicked off today in Philadelphia. Next up: Boston in October.
  • Developing a practice… US SIF Foundation, the education arm of the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, has a step-by-step primer to help financial advisors jumpstart and deepen their impact and sustainable investing practice.
  • Home is where the heart is… Financial advisors can offer an array ofcommunity and place-based investment products that allow first-time impact investors to deploy capital in the places they care about. The options range from S&P-rated community development bonds to small-business loan funds and affordable-housing real-estate investment trusts.