“Increasingly, we want to provide solutions to financial advisors and their clients. We want to know what the advisors’ needs are, find out what their clients are looking for, and see whether we can offer solutions. We think sustainable investing has become a value-added solution, because increasing numbers of investors want to align their investments with their values in ways that tackle major global issues like climate change and gender inequality. This is the direction the world is heading. More people want to invest in this way and more advisors are getting requests from their clients for this type of investment strategy. We want to partner with advisors and work with platforms to help them accomplish this.”
Keefe sees sustainable and impact investing as fundamental to the transition from an industrial-age economy fuelled by coal and oil to a low-carbon economy fuelled by energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. “That transition is taking place globally, and it’s an opportunity for the companies that are leading the way to outperform, and for the investment portfolios comprised of such companies to potentially outperform.” According to Keefe, this is something investors are increasingly asking for from Pax World and other managers of active and passive environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies, so advisors should consider them as part of the solution set for their clients.
From Keefe’s perspective, “There’s money to be made from this historic transition. I think the companies that lead the way are going to be very good investments, and investing in them is one of the things that we should all be doing, Pax World on behalf of its shareholders, and advisors on behalf of their clients.”
There are other solutions Pax World delivers to its advisor partners in support of sustainable investing portfolio integration, including the following three-part practice management series:
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A general understanding of how sustainable and ESG investing can benefit client service and acquisition in advisor practices.
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Women and Wealth, which helps advisors attract and retain women clients, as well as work more effectively with current women clients.
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Millennials and Wealth, which helps advisors to use the same lens that millennial investors use when considering how to deploy long-term investment capital in the markets.
When an advisor expresses interest in any of the practice management programs, their Pax World partner might provide current research, support with client meetings, offer to do client education events or schedule conference calls with members of investment management teams. This is where the global reach and scale of a parent company like Impax is making a difference in the depth of resources available to advisors.