Our panel of experts answers your mutual fund questions. Sevgi Ipek needs a vacation. The manager of the Citizens Global Equity Fund says she has been working 15-hour days seven days a week ever since she was featured in Business Week last December. The article, along with the fund's recent performance, helped create a groundswell of investor interest. The global fund is one of five offered by Citizens Funds, a Portsmouth, N.H.-based company geared to socially responsible investing.
Citizens uses a series of screens to narrow the investment field.
These include avoiding companies involved with alcohol, tobacco, gambling, animal testing, and weapons manufacturing. It also steers clear of firms that break environmental laws, engage in unfair labor practices, or lack diversity on their boards. Picking companies that pass this screening process has been difficult at times for Ms. Ipek. But they understand. They put up with me.