Posted by on May 12, 2014
Last month we and our colleague, Rozanna Patane, hosted a 2-day meeting called the Seacoast Planners Conference. We invited several other Fee-Only planners to join us at the Stage Neck Inn in York, Maine.
The primary focus of this event was to learn more about “Impact Investing” and “Community Investing”. Both subjects fall into what Forbes Magazine cites as one of the fastest growing categories of investments: “Socially Responsible Investing” (SRI), which is often referred to as “socially conscious” investing. SRI is investing in companies and governments that best support the values, concepts or ideals that the investor considers important or feels strongly about. Insome cases, SRI can mean investing with companies that actively oppose institutions that do not hold the same values or ideals as the investor.
“Impact Investments” include investing in companies or governments whose values, products or services impact environment, consumer protection, religious beliefs, employee rights, human rights and other issues. These concerns are for “Environmental, Social and Governance” issues, and investing in these concerns is often referred to as, “ESG investing”.
Leslie Samuel Rich of Green Century Funds, Paul Hilton of Trillium Asset Management and Tom Gainey from Pax Funds were present to speak about SRI Funds.
Sally Hatch from N.H. Seacoast Community Loan Fund and Ellen Golden from Coastal Enterprises also were in attendance. They helped us understand better the opportunities to invest locally. Community Investing involves partnering with donors, lenders, businesses and non-profits to provide valuable community services such as quality jobs, healthcare, housing, education, child care and low-interest loan access to recipients.
We are increasingly interested in SRI and believe we can help make a difference in the world by providing opportunities in this area for our clients.
