Suzanne Mestayer and Blair duQuesnay, RIAs with ThirtyNorth Investments, are setting themselves apart from competitors in New Orleans and nationwide with the launch of the Women’s Impact Strategy (WIS), a portfolio based on gender composition of corporate boards and executive management.

“It’s a differentiator,” Mestayer told Financial Advisor. “In conversations, potential clients consistently indicate a genuine interest in the strategy and it demonstrates overall that we're thinking beyond traditional types of investing.”

WIS is a starter fund of sorts made up of fifty socially responsible Fortune 500 companies that employ women at the corporate leadership level and also demonstrate profitability.

“Not only does the specialized strategy put a focus on improving gender equality but it also documents statistically that it’s a very smart business decision to invest in businesses that promote women because the financial rewards are there,” said duQuesnay, who is chief investment officer of ThirtyNorth Investments.

A study called "The Weight of America's Boards" found more diversity in corporate boards than last year, with an 8.5 percent increase in women directors, who hold 19 percent of board seats among companies studied.

The study further found that the financial services industry has the most female directors, with 208 in total. All boards in the utilities and health care sectors included at least one woman, according to the study.

“In the corporate world, if you look at the percentages of women either in the CEO role, the senior executive level or on the board of directors, the percentages are still not even to 20 percent,” said Mestayer.

Since it’s inception in April 2016, WIS has outperformed the Russell 3000. As of April 7, 2017, WIS showed gains of 6.07 percent year to date and 20.79 percent for one year, compared with 5.36 percent  and 17.28 percent, respectively, for the index.

“The majority of investors, whether men or women, want to align their values with their investments and there are more opportunities to do that today than there were in the past,” said Mestayer. “Socially responsible investing has almost been a space where investors expected to give up a little bit of return to align with their values, but today you don’t have to sacrifice financial returns to align with your values.”

The minimum investment is $100,000.

“Interest has been very fast and furious,” said duQuesnay. “We're opening up to five accounts a week for both men and women. We expect it to be a major future growth potential for the firm.”

Companies listed on the S&P 500 index with 25 percent or more women on the board outperformed their peers in the benchmark, according to a white paper researched and written by ThirtyNorth Investments.

“For the investment strategy itself, we evaluated each company's fundamentals, including earnings, profitability and size, and combined that information with the number of women in leadership employed by the company,” duQuesnay said.

Mestayer and duQuesnay launched the portfolio jointly in 2016 with money from friends and family. Currently, the fund makes up 5 percent of $135 million in assets under management.

The fund's top holdings include industrial stock TopBuild Corp (BLD), media conglomerate Viacom (VIAB) and real estate company Realogy (RLGY).

“Gender lens investing is an area that supports and recognizes that women in corporate leadership, whether on the board or in executive management, are making a difference financially for those companies,” said Mestayer. “It fits within the money and meaning umbrella of how we view our roles as advisors to our clients.”

When they are not promoting the women-focused investment strategy, the pair are catering to their high-net-worth, retirement planning and plan sponsor clients.

“We know that our clients all have individual needs and different ideas about how they relate to their money,” Mestayer said. “We focus on bringing together money and meaning. Part of this commitment has lead us to this purpose work in investing.”