Advice request on S&S ISA - ethical funds

Eponym

bohemia wrote: »

I'd agree with you, definitely for starters. Although I would like in the future to also invest in darker green funds.

Perhaps let me know what you go for?

I think you may be further along than me! I'm sticking with my current investments for now, just taking a general look at ethical funds with an aim to moving into that in the next few years.

Linton

One thing to be aware of is that the ethical funds would appear to perform less well on average than unrestricted ones. I guess ethical investing has to come at a price or it wouldnt be so virtuous.

Special_Saver2

Linton wrote: »

One thing to be aware of is that the ethical funds would appear to perform less well on average than unrestricted ones. I guess ethical investing has to come at a price or it wouldnt be so virtuous.

This page argues that ethical funds can do just as well or even better.

http://www.ethicalinvestment.co.uk/Ethical_Funds_Past_performance.htm

To be honest, I think at some points in the economic cycle ethical funds will do better than other funds and at other times they will do worse. That is because there are some sectors that ethical funds tend to avoid.

For what it is worth, my investments are in ethical or sustainable funds and other investments that I personally consider ethical (such as index-linked gilt funds) and I am happy with the performance of the funds that I have chosen. These days there is quite a large choice of funds and you can easily assemble a portfolio of ethical UK equities, European equities, global equities, and corporate bond funds, or you can use ethical managed funds. You can see the past performance and fact sheets for all the available funds on trustnet's ethical page (as per the link I gave in one of my posts higher up in this thread). I find it quite helpful to look at the top 10 holdings of each fund as there are a few funds that hold companies that I personally would not want to own.

I have to admit that only about 5-10% of my investments are in dark green funds (such as Jupiter Ecology) because I am trying to keep my investment portfolio diverse and I consider the dark green funds to be a separate sector in their own right.

SS2

mr_fishbulb

Jegersmart wrote: »

Personally I would suggest that trackers are definitely *not* the tool for beginners. If you buy at the top it could take years for the market to recover although some trackers pay dividend which may make up for some of that......but I would only use trackers at times when the market has had a big sell off...

But they did say they are looking to invest monthly. That takes away the timing issues a little.

Special_Saver2 wrote: »

This page argues that ethical funds can do just as well or even better.

http://www.ethicalinvestment.co.uk/Ethical_Funds_Past_performance.htm

Do you think ethicalinvestment.co.uk would every say ethical investment was a bad idea?

Personally I hold an ethical fund - Skandia Ethical. Held it when it was Impax Environmental Leaders but they closed the fund and went off to manage the Skandia one. I don't hold it because it's ethical, I held it because I wanted exposure to renewables, waste management, and water. Been a bit of a dog recently.