Links Wealth Management to Positive Social Change
CHICAGO, April 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Envestnet, Inc. (NYSE: ENV), a leading provider of integrated wealth management technology and services to investment advisors and wealth managers, has enhanced the capabilities of its Envestnet Impact Investing Solutions program, and now offers these impact investment services through its Portfolio Management Consultants group, Envestnet | PMC®.
Envestnet was one of the first in the industry to launch this type of impact investing program, which provides financial advisors and institutions with access to a comprehensive set of impact strategist portfolios, specialists and sustainable, responsible investing impact (SRI) screens.
Investors are allocating more assets than ever to impact investing strategies, which now account for nearly one out of every nine dollars invested in the U.S. Strategies combining environmental, social, corporate governance and/or faith-based criteria with traditional investment approaches saw their assets under management grow by 37 percent between 2007 and 2012, and reach $3.7 trillion at year-end 2012, according to the US SIF (Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment) biennial report on Sustainable and Responsible Investing Trends in the United States.
“For advisors to truly support their clients, they must increasingly align investors’ wealth with their worldview,” said Lori Hardwick, Executive Vice President of Advisory Services, Envestnet. “Investors now realize that the way they direct capital can impact the world and people around them. This is especially true with younger investors, and advisors are experiencing much greater demand for impact investing solutions that meet a variety of customized investment mandates.”
During the past year, Impact Investing Solutions’ assets under management have grown by 82 percent to $750 million as of March 31, 2014. Envestnet supports substantial additional assets in impact investments through its administrative and reporting capabilities. The program’s adoption by advisors has also increased by 44 percent during the year ended March 31, 2014.
The Impact Investing Solutions program was first launched in 2008 as the result of a partnership between Envestnet and Veris Wealth Partners, one of the nation’s recognized pioneers in sustainable and impact investing. The two firms have worked consistently to strengthen this capability, sourcing and adding innovative separately managed account, mutual fund and exchange-traded fund strategies. Recent additions include sustainable fixed-income strategies from Breckinridge Capital Advisors and equity offerings from Dana Investment Advisors and Trillium Asset Management.
“Envestnet has improved our practice’s ability to compete by providing easy access to recognized impact investing managers,” said Benjamin D. Kille, CFP®, AIF®, Co-Founder, Private Capital Group, LLC, a West Hartford, CT-based wealth planning and management firm which has utilized Impact Investing Solutions’ tools since 2008. “The system’s overlay capabilities are robust and expansive—allowing us to screen out investments that don’t meet the standard of our clients’ values.”
As an open-architecture program, Impact Investing Solutions is available to all advisors, and can be integrated and branded within any advisory practice. MSCI ESG Research, which provides in-depth research, ratings and analysis of the social, environmental and governance-related business practices of thousands of companies globally, offers additional resources as a partner in this initiative.
The revamped tool offers 17 well-defined personal conviction screens to managed accounts run by traditional and impact investment specialists. These refined screens support advisors in addressing a diverse set of client issues, including community development, affordable housing, climate change, fossil fuel limitation, worker safety, women’s empowerment and numerous other customized investment mandates.
“The investment public is highly attuned to the ways they can make a positive difference with their wealth. Advisors have an opportunity to strengthen client relationships and build a new component to their practice,” said Patricia Farrar-Rivas, CEO, Veris Wealth Partners. “Our partnership with Envestnet positions advisors to deliver a powerful combination of access, knowledge and technology.”
To learn more about the Impact Investing Solutions program, please visit www.envestnet.com or register to attend the “2014 Envestnet Advisor Summit: The Next Big Idea,” scheduled for May 14-16, 2014 at the Hilton Chicago, by visiting www.envestnet.com/advisorsummit.
ABOUT ENVESTNET (NYSE: ENV)
Envestnet, Inc. (NYSE: ENV) is a leading provider of unified wealth management technology and services to investment advisors. Our open-architecture platforms unify and fortify the wealth management process, delivering unparalleled flexibility, accuracy, performance and value. Envestnet solutions enable the transformation of wealth management into a transparent, independent, objective and fully-aligned standard of care, and empower advisors to deliver better results.
Envestnet’s Advisor Suite® software empowers financial advisors to better manage client outcomes and strengthen their practice. Envestnet provides institutional-quality research and advanced portfolio solutions through our Portfolio Management Consultants group, Envestnet | PMC®. Envestnet | Tamarac provides leading rebalancing, reporting and practice management software.
For more information on Envestnet, please visit www.envestnet.com.
CONTACT:
Laura Simpson
Jennifer Connelly Public Relations
(973) 850-7319
lsimpson@jcprinc.com
