Social investment
By Caroline Mason, Investing for Good, a specialist advisor to financial intermediaries
A private client who has been an inventor and entrepreneur all his life was seeking investment advice from his private bank. His portfolio had suffered through the credit crisis and he approached his relationship manager with the request to “do something more interesting with (a proportion of) his money”, and was especially interested in direct investments in education and scientific projects.
The relationship manager profiled his client as a philanthropist and social investor. This profile was sent to the bank’s social investment advisor, Investing for Good, who submitted 11 social investment opportunities covering such areas as community transport, healthcare, and sustainable water technologies. Each investment had been measured and rated for its return and social impact using Investing for Good's proprietary process.
The advisor discussed the various options with his client and the result was a decision by the client to invest £350,000 across seven social investments; he has also joined the Board of two. The financial return across the portfolio is 4.87% pa. The client has now confided his overall philanthropy programme (approximately £900,000) to his bank for their advisory service. He told his advisor, “This is exactly what I was looking for. I wish I had known about social investments a long time ago.”
