The benefits off exchange traded fund investing — getting cheap exposure to a broad universe
of stocks — can be diminished by eliminating companies based on subjective criteria.
This week, Inspire Investing, based in Hollister, Calif., introduced the two biblically responsible funds, a small-
and medium-size company fund and a large-company fund called Inspire Global Hope Large Cap ETF
There are also the $790 million iShares MSCI KLD 400 Social ETF
and the $500 million iShares MSCI USA ESG Select ETF, which look for stocks of companies with good labor policies or sustainable and renewable products.
We have families, we go to work, we simply wish to be treated equally.”
The chief executive of the company that introduced the two new funds, Inspire Investing, says he has no problems with companies providing benefits to lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender employees and having nondiscrimination policies.
Now, two new exchange traded funds offer a conservative evangelical — what is called “biblically responsible” — tilt to that investing approach.
But he added, “A company deciding to spend money and time to pursue a hard-line activist agenda
that has nothing to do with their core business is a different issue, and is a waste of investor dollars.”
Issues investing — some call it “socially responsible investing,” which includes the “E.
Ninety-two percent of the Fortune 500 companies include “sexual orientation” in their nondiscrimination policies
and 82 percent include “gender identity.” For the first time, half of Fortune 500 companies offer transgender-inclusive health care benefits, including for surgical procedures.
