BSW Wealth Partners has always helped its clients with socially responsible investing, but 10 years ago it made the strategy into a central focus—and has reaped the benefits of the decision ever since.

Assets under management have gone from $225 million to $736 million since the multifamily office decided to offer an impact investing alternative in all asset classes, according to David Wolf, the firm’s chief investment officer.

The Boulder, Colo.-based firm, founded in 1992, serves 170 clients, about a third of whom have adopted an impact investing strategy in their investment portfolios, according to the firm. Among new clients, a majority chooses that type of strategy.

The firm’s embrace of socially responsible investing has also helped it win the business of multiple generations of the families it serves.

“These children are pushing the envelope of impact investing,” says Drew Simon, managing principal of BSW. “They’ve grown up in an era with clear examples of companies that did not make financial or performance sacrifices to honor values.”

BSW’s typical client has $3 million to $5 million in investable assets under management, some with as much as $25 million. The firm serves three generations of many of the family’s it serves. One of the firm’s largest clients is a self-made real estate developer who arrived in the U.S. with little money. The firm manages the wealth of his entire family—grandparents, parents and children. Another family owns one of the largest private media companies in the U.S. Another client is a best-selling author.

The firm, founded by Debi Baydush, has grown over the past 20 years to include three more principals and twelve employees. While the majority of BSW’s clients are based in Colorado (64%) and California (12%), the rest are scattered throughout the U.S., with some as far away as Germany, New Zealand and Tasmania.

In addition to attracting new clients, the firm’s broad range of impact offerings is helping it retain clients’ children—investors now in their mid-20s to mid-30s who have been influenced by their parents’ foray into socially responsible investing and taking it to a new level.

“This cohort of investors is presenting a broader challenge to the investment industry,” Simon says. “They want to have a positive impact on the world. And they don’t want to sacrifice returns.”

The firm focuses on a diversified portfolio of impact investments that seek to generate positive social or environmental impact, while realizing a financial return.

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