Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)
For investors looking for a way to align their investments with their values and create a positive impact on society, we offer the option to include socially responsible mutual funds (SRI) in your portfolio.

What is an SRI mutual fund? SRI mutual fund managers incorporate the same analytical techniques and styles (growth, value, large cap, small cap, etc) as traditional investment managers to come up with a list of investment choices. To this list, they apply a “social” screen. The social screen can vary depending on the fund’s stated mission. Some examples of social screens include:

• Excluding companies with a clear negative impact on the environment and society and including companies that have a positive influence

• Including “Clean” sectors, such as software and healthcare technology, healthy nutrition and lifestyle markets

• Including “Green” sectors, such as renewable energy, hybrid engines and fuel cells, organic foods, water conservation and energy efficiency

• Including social screens such as employee relations and shareholder rights

SRI managers may also take their responsibility a step further and become shareholder activists – engaging in direct dialogue with a company to effect social change.

The common denominator of these SRI funds is their belief that well-managed environmentally sensitive, socially conscious companies enjoy competitive advantages from cost reductions, quality improvements, profitability enhancements and access to expanding and new growth markets due to their dedication to solving or minimizing environmental problems and being a socially aware citizen.

At Leonhardi Investment Management, Inc., SRI mutual funds must meet the same rigorous investment criteria as our non-SRI funds to be included in our “recommended list”. The universe of funds that meet our strict criteria is small and while we have identified funds with compelling long-term track records*, the interim short-term results have historically been very volatile. As such, we often recommend pairing the SRI funds with other traditional asset classes to reduce the potential downside volatility for individuals with lower risk tolerances. We continually screen for new SRI funds to add to our recommended list. Call us today to learn more.

*Past performance cannot guarantee future results. These concentrated investments can be very volatile in the short-term (i.e., periods of less than 1 year). Pairing with traditional asset classes cannot guarantee that the volatility will be lowered.