The Inside Story About ESG investing
Channel: Paul Merriman
Date: 16/04/2022

Paul Merriman talks with Larry Swedroe and Sam Adams about their new book, Your Essential Guide to Sustainable Investing: How to live your values and achieve your financial goals with ESG, SRI, and Impact Investing (https://amzn.to/3uTIlQq), and they address a broad range of audience questions. Larry is a prolific and respected academic-based writer committed to helping investors find better ways to invest. Co-author Sam, CEO of Vert Asset Management and former DFA advisor, describes himself as both an environmentalist and a capitalist. 

Topics include:
•  The history of the Socially Responsible Investing movement 
•  Definitions of ESG, SRI, Impact investment
•  How different methodologies and outcomes depending on motives of investor
•  Risk and return for investors and 
•  What are ESG scores?
•  How “sin stocks”  have out-performed high ESG-scored companies until recently 
•  Growth and value stocks 
•  How investor demand for better ESG scores is changing corporate behavior
•  What is factor investing? and Larry’s book, Complete Guide to Factor Based Investing 
•  How to apply asset classes and factors
•  Active or passive management of ESG funds?
•  The importance of investor commitment 

Paul suggests that this book is “a must read” for all trustees and board members of non-profit organizations who want to get into the ESG business. He also plans for his Foundation’s team to develop a list of recommended portfolios for ESG funds for his subscribers at paulmerriman.com. 

Jim Hopper, executive director of the Bainbridge Community Foundation (https://www.bainbridgecf.org/), introduces this Financial Literacy Month event co-sponsored by BCF and The Merriman Financial Education Foundation (https://paulmerriman.com/the-merriman-financial-education-foundation/), and coordinated by Paul Merriman.