Putting your money where your heart is.
I’m pleased to hear that steps are being taken to research the best opportunities for savers to make a difference with their money. Whether this is the voluntary saving we do into ISAs or the saving we do at work for later life , most of us don’t know where our money goes. This Quietroom video makes that quite clear.
But the good news is that if we did know where our money went and liked the destination – we’d be minded to save more. Again there’s a video Quietroom video about that.
It seems that many of us not only want our money invested better, but would put more money where our heart is.
Finding out who’s doing good stuff
I was pleased to read this FT article over my cornflakes. It looks like two city high-fliers are giving up managing money and taking up researching who’s doing good stuff. The idea is that ordinary people can access good stuff through funds that specialise in good stuff – which is all that we need to know right now.
Of course you can invest directly in good stuff (thanks for the investment to AgeWage) through crowd funding platform, you can employ digital allocators which point your money at the good stuff (try TICKR) but someone is going to have find the good stuff in the first place.
So step forward Elizabeth Corley and Harvey McGrath to set up the Impact Investing Institute.
The FT tells us that the Impact Investing Institute will not manage assets but will conduct research and press for more funds to be allocated to the sector, particularly from ordinary savers.
It would be nice if they were to put up a website so I could share more. You can get a feel for what’s going on from UK National Advisory Board on Impact Investing
The NAB spawned this new body as did the Implementation Group of a Government report called “Growing a Culture of Social Impact investing” , which you can download .
There is a short summary of the report here
The problem is no-one knows all this stuff is going on, the Govt report is two years old and so it’s important that all this high level thinking joins up with what is going on at the grass roots level.
AgeWage and Social Impact
It will not surprise you in the least to hear that AgeWage is keen to promote social impact in the workplace pensions and the SIPPs we’ll be working with.
Infact we’re applying for a grant from Innovate UK to help ordinary people find out which of the funds they can invest in – does what – and what the financial impact for them and the social impact for us – would be – by switching investment to a better place.
Of course you don’t have to switch, you can put pressure on the people who manage your money (fund and asset managers). But more easily, you can put pressure on the people who have a duty of care to select the right funds, to do that for you. These people are called IGCs and Trustees and they’re supposed to be our representatives, making sure that we get the opportunity to invest in funds with social impact.
For instance the FutureWorld funds of L&G which you can access at Pensions Bee, or if you are in an L&G workplace pension. I was drawn to these funds by a fantastic presentation by L&G’s CEO – Nigel Wilson, who explained how he wanted the money that was invested in workplace pensions – to be invested for good.
AgeWage reckons that it can play a positive part in lobbying IGCs and MasterTrusts to raise their game and it will – especially if we get the financial help), be able to build support for ordinary people. Just look at what TICKR is doing for ISAs
How we can get involved
Whether it be at the consumer level (TICKR or AgeWage or at the high fallutin’ research level of NAB and the Impact Investing Group), it’s clear that the nature of investing is going to change. People want to invest for good and that doesn’t mean trying to outwit other fund managers to get a better return.
There are organisations like Heart of the City, dedicated to cleaning the City’s act up. It’s encouraging investing in fundamentally good things and making sure that badly run investments are turned round by better management coming from better governance.
But there is a world of difference between HOC and its membership and the people featured in the Quietroom videos
Progress also means reaching out to people like Elizabeth Corley and Harvey McGrath so that the people on the ground get wind of their work – and they get wind of the people on the ground!