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952.843.4941 office | 952.843.4942 fax | 612.298.6633 cell | 4021 Vernon Ave S. Suite 208 | St Louis Park, MN 55416
Kay Stienessen CPA, Financial Advisor, 4021 Vernon Ave. S., Suite 208, St. Louis Park, MN 55416
Advisory Services offered through Motiv8 Investments LLC Member FINRA-SIPC
Securities licensed in MN, WI, SD, MI, AZ, CO, LA, MD, FL
Monthly News and Tips January 2022
The Markets have been extremely volatile. This is why it’s so important to have a plan and stick with it. We know that times like these happen.
Remember the tech bubble in 2001? 2008 Mortgage crises? Those who react in fear could potentially drive the market down further and faster. Remember why we put your plan together. We discussed your risk tolerance, the length of time you plan to be invested, and when you’ll start to draw funds out in retirement. Life changes and we will adjust, but I don’t believe we adjust because of volatility alone. This is the time you might want to add to your investments – buy low.
If you don’t have a plan, before you lock in your losses, give us a call to review what you’re aiming to achieve, and we can work on a plan together.
We use many different tools when considering challenges to reaching your desired goals. Life insurance can be useful to protect assets for the loved ones we leave behind but also riders are available to help pay for long term care needs. There are instruments which may guarantee you against loss or help to create lifetime income. There is not a one size fits everyone – a plan is personal to fit your needs.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are a set of standards for a company’s behavior used by socially conscious investors to screen potential investments. Environmental criteria consider how a company safeguards the environment, including corporate policies addressing climate change, for example. Social criteria examine how it manages relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, and the communities where it operates. Governance deals with a company’s leadership, executive pay, audits, internal control and shareholder rights.
Large Investment platforms and financial institutions are among those that are monitoring these criteria and “scoring” companies according to standards they have developed and are wanting to require the companies to follow. Small businesses may be the hardest hit with these new rules. Should these large institutions be allowed to dictate ESG rules?
Sustainable investing is a long-term process. In the short term sustainable investing strategies are just as vulnerable to market sentiment as any other. To reduce volatility, a portfolio still requires diversification across other asset classes like hedge funds or real estate.
Larger companies have more resources to devote to ESG reporting. The result is that larger companies often receive better ESG ratings when that may not reflect reality.
Sustainability data is now widely available for companies in the United States and other developed economies. In developing economies data is not readily available. This makes ranking and scoring companies around the world challenging.
ESG analysis considers the way in which SRI issues affect economic value. In many cases this results in more responsible investing. However, it can result in important factors being ignored if they don’t affect value.
And ESG investing isn’t as straightforward as picking, say, an index fund. Here’s what you should know:
While many stocks are rated by different analytic firms on where they fall on the socially responsible scale, there’s still wiggle room for portfolio managers.
“Consider a large cell phone provider that uses materials that are not biodegradable and will consistently contribute to pollution and be detrimental to the environment over time,” says Matthew Gaffey, a financial planner in Potomac Falls, VA. “On the other hand, this same company is very proactive in promoting diversity, fair compensation to women and several women serve in managerial roles. This company may satisfy the criteria of the portfolio manager, but leave the individual client wanting more.”