FYI: Inspire Investing this week rolled out its fifth exchange-traded fund that invests in companies deemed to operate in a biblically responsible way.
The Inspire International ESG ETF (WWJD) tracks an index composed of 150 companies that have a minimum market capitalization of $5 billion and are described in fund literature as “the most inspiring, biblically aligned large cap companies outside of the United States.” (Inspire Investing defines large cap as having a minimum market cap of $5 billion, though the large-cap category is generally defined as starting at $10 billion.)
Regards,
Ted
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/inspire-investing-debuts-faith-based-esg-etf-51999.html?print
Comments
Cafeteria-style, a la carte. Self-contradictory.
This just adds weight to my contention that ethical investing is almost a contradiction in terms. For every good and decent ethical ("gospel") filter, they allow for some noteworthy exceptions, and/or contradictory filters...
Two of the family's other ETFs are BLES and BIBL.
https://www.etf.com/BIBL
https://www.etf.com/BLES
While I agree with @Crash that these funds are just using some old-time (religious) exclusionary screens, there are many ESG funds that do not impose litmus tests. The Inspire funds market themselves as ESG funds. But that looks to be a thin veneer, as they are just ranking whatever is left over after the many screenings.
Here's the quote Crash gave, with the sentence preceding it in the article now included:
"[B]iblically aligned companies ... are scored on a scale from minus-100 to plus-100. Those involved with abortion, pornography, human rights violations, LGBT activism, alcohol, tobacco and gambling don’t make the cut and are excluded from all five Inspire ETFs."
For comparison, here's a table of "sustainable, responsible, and impact" funds along with how they apply different criteria (e.g. tobacco investment). There are many funds without a single criterion marked 'X' (absolute exclusion).
https://charts.ussif.org/mfpc/#tabs-2