Ethical S&S ISA

JoseChungsDoomsday

Hi All,
Well, the time has come and I'll be starting to dip my toes into the stock market at the start of 2016 so I can build up some funds for retirement in 30 or so years

I've arranged for my work pension to be maxed out (ie max contributions from my employer) and I can still afford to put some aside every month. I was looking at S&S ISA's and I noticed that Virgin Money have a Climate Change fund you can contribute to and was wondering if anyone else is involved with it?

I've always been an ethical saver etc so I like the idea of helping companies with similar values to myself but I've read mixed reports on GLG on the internet.

dunstonh

I was looking at S&S ISA's and I noticed that Virgin Money have a Climate Change fund you can contribute to and was wondering if anyone else is involved with it?

Heavy European equity bias. Pretty consistent in its bad performance and not a fund that should be held in isolation.

I've always been an ethical saver etc so I like the idea of helping companies with similar values to myself but I've read mixed reports on GLG on the internet.

When it comes to investing ethically, you need to be quite specific on your ethics. Ethical funds are not all the same. They focus on specific ethical areas. So, you need to match your ethics to the fund. Each ethical fund publishes a standard list on these to allow comparison.

You also need to be aware that you will be compromising your returns by doing this.

MarkBargain

According to Ethical Consumer magazine, the most ethical funds are:

FP WHEB Sustainability Funds,
CIS/Co-operative Investments Sustainable Funds
Jupiter Ethical Funds
F&C Stewardship Funds
Standard Life Ethical Funds

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/buyersguides/money/ethicalinvestmentfunds.aspx

You can invest in those with low fees through a platform such as Charles Stanley Direct.

dunstonh

You can invest in those with low fees through a platform such as Charles Stanley Direct.

But does CSD meet your ethical requirements?

Broken_Biscuits

Mark bargain has given some ideas for you to start your research

I invest with abundance investment. It's not stocks and shares, but could be an option alongside whatever ethical fund(s) you choose. They invest in companies that provide renewable energy sources. It's a bit slow to get going, they have been around since 2012 and there's an investment opportunity every 3 months on average. Currently one opportunity available and 2 in the pipeline. Worth a look at their site to see if it appeals.

bigadaj

dunstonh wrote: »

But does CSD meet your ethical requirements?

Are there any ethical ifas?

HappyHarry

Are there any ethical ifas?

Plenty.

In fact, the vast majority of them.

Playing_with_Fire_2

Check out http://keepingthecauldron.blogspot.co.uk/ for some more ideas about ethical investing.

Agreed with the comments above that you may need to think about which ethics are most important to you (weapons, sugar, pharma, alcohol, tobacco, banking, tax avoidance, living wages, child labour, dirty energy, etc).

The Co-op used to have some well explained ethical funds, I don't know if they are still around.

Malthusian

The Co-op's ethical funds are now managed by Royal London. They're the ones with "Sustainable" somewhere in the name.

They are much of a muchness with other ethical funds: a bias towards more volatile sectors, a rather wide definition of "ethical" (Royal London Sustainable Leaders' holdings include GSK, Amazon, Starbucks, Unilever, Tesco, all of which may surprise some to be classified as "ethical" stocks), and a ready-made excuse for underperformance. "Returns? But sir, you're an ethical investor, I thought you had higher concerns than merely making money."

Playing_with_Fire_2

Yikes, thanks for the tip Malthusian. I assumed that there would have been changes but that is a pretty shakey sample. It shows that everyone has their own idea about what is ethical and not.

MarkBargain

Malthusian wrote: »

The Co-op's ethical funds are now managed by Royal London. They're the ones with "Sustainable" somewhere in the name.

They are much of a muchness with other ethical funds: a bias towards more volatile sectors, a rather wide definition of "ethical" (Royal London Sustainable Leaders' holdings include GSK, Amazon, Starbucks, Unilever, Tesco, all of which may surprise some to be classified as "ethical" stocks), and a ready-made excuse for underperformance. "Returns? But sir, you're an ethical investor, I thought you had higher concerns than merely making money."

I am not sure they need to say that. Looking at the fact sheets of the top five in the ethical consumer list...

FP WHEB Sustainability Funds
Up 44% in three years.

CIS/Co-operative Investments Sustainable Funds (now RLUM)
Up 89% in five years.

Jupiter Ethical Funds
Up 45% in five years.

F&C Stewardship Funds (now Responsible)
Up 63% in five years.

Standard Life Ethical Funds
Up 70% in three years.