For this first blog I wanted to quickly introduce myself and Sustainfolio, a separate service of Sustainvest.
So hi, I’m Dale. I’ve been doing sustainable investing since my late 20s (FYI, I am 42, so not that old! haha)! As we pass the 5th year operating Sustainvest, I would quite often hear younger people saying they really want to have their investment funds follow a sustainable path BUT they didn’t have the $500,000 or whatever that most of the investment firms out there have (Sustainvest has a $100,000 minimum BUT our Sustainfolio platform is only a $5,000 minimum—yay!). As I kept hearing this, I was thinking, something has to be done to help younger people who live such susty lives but can’t invest with these same values. So this has been on my mind for years. Finally, it’s here.
The cool thing about Sustainfolio is that once you answer the risk profile questions, then you don’t have to worry about how much you are weighted in US Small Cap stocks or bonds, etc. You don’t have to even worry about figuring out what an ETF (exchange traded fund) or a mutual fund is. It’s all done for you. And most importantly, it’s solid to know that your IRA or brokerage account is designed and managed by us, Sustainvest. We are 100% committed to sustainable investing. ESG and SRI are not part of what we do, it’s all we do. In other words, you wouldn’t want to work with a banker who says “Sure we can do that for you, but we also loan money to dirty coal companies”. Would you?
And finally, it’s good to know that your portfolio will be held in an account at Charles Schwab and Co. (if you don’t know Schwab, just google it) with an annual management fee of 0.50% (that’s half of one percent FYI). Compare that rate to others out there. We dare you. And of course, if a more personal approach is what is needed, remember that Sustainvest offers this approach as well.
Stay tuned as we look forward to educating investors on all things sustainable investing!
Thanks for your time.
Dale Wannen
