Fund EcoMarket Update – January 2013

The first 2013 (quarterly) update of the Fund EcoMarket SRI adviser database has just been completed!

There have been a number of minor amends plus one or two – shall we say – queries…

The most notable items are as follows:

• This month is the first time there has been no mention of NPI.  As someone whose career started there this saddens me greatly. Thankfully the Global Care brand lives on within Hendersons, although followers of this story will know the management methods are greatly changed from ‘the old days’. Meanwhile, the ‘ Industries of the Future’ brand still features, notably via Zurich. But as the SF fund was merged into Henderson Global Care Growth last summer this too will presumably be updated soon.
• The CIS Sustainable Leaders funds, which are available through platforms and wraps, rightly remain on this database – despite having fallen off our data feed! I have today spoken with CIS who confirmed that this appears to be a technical glitch. So if you (like myself)  use a data feed or service provider who is not currently showing these highly regarded funds please rest assured all is well!
• The newest kid on the block (and only truly new primary fund ) is the ‘Goldfield Solar Green Energy’ from Goldfield Partners. This fund will be familiar to those who attended the National Ethical Investment Week FT conference last autumn, when the parent company made it clear they are working hard to attract new investment for solar projects. See www.goldfieldpartners.com.

The next area for update is the asset (rather than fund) specific ‘Responsible Engagement’ Style listings area, which covers around 50 data entries.

This is due to be updated shortly when we carry out our second ever ‘Responsible Engagement’ fund manager survey.   This suvey gives us the opportunity to quiz fund managers about their voting and other stewardship practices – and list them accordingly within to database.

This section of the Fund EcoMarket tool works by listing the asset classes that fund managers ‘engage’ across. This enables advisers to find responsibly managed asset types across the different products, although advisers have to use their knowledge of funds to identify those  which hold the asset types that are listed as covered by engagement strategies.

To visit this tool see Fund EcoMarket or Panacea Fund EcoMarket.

As ever we will be happy to speak with anyone who has queries about the database and its entries .  We are also now keen to speak with possible sponsors of our imminent engagement research.

Wishing you all the best for the New Year.

Julia

julia@sriServices.co.uk

Notes:

To see the client StyleFinder SRI fact find questionnaire – for use before client meetings – click here.

Our core fund list source is Capita/Synaptic Research.