Podcasts about responsible investment association

Clive Pedley joined Mark Longbottom on the Purposely Podcast to share his journey from solo fundraising adviser to leading a philanthropy agency making a significant impact.Growing up in a family where purpose and community mattered, Clive developed values that shaped his career. He started as a one-man consultancy but soon saw the opportunity to scale his expertise, helping morecharities strengthen their fundraising and create lasting change. Over the years, he has worked with social purpose organisations across New Zealand and Australia, helping them harness generosity and raise millions for importantcauses.Since 2000, Clive has been advising, coaching, and trainingorganisations in the social impact sector. He served as President of the Fundraising Institute of New Zealand (FINZ) and was a member of its National Council. In 2014, he became the first New Zealander appointed to the Board ofCFRE International, a global accreditation body for senior fundraisers, and later joined the International Advisory Panel of the Rogare Think Tank on fundraising ethics.Clive's expertise extends beyond traditional philanthropy.In 2017, he joined the Responsible Investment Association of Australia's Impact Investment Forum committee and helped establish New Zealand's first Impact Investment Advisory Board. His work has contributed to shaping the country'sapproach to impact investment, bringing new funding models to the sector.His commitment to community-led giving is evident in hisrole in founding Te Awa Community Foundation. With a background in regional farming, Clive chose to stay in his community, applying his fundraising and investment experience to drive long-term, intergenerational change.Now the CEO and Director of Giving Architects New Zealand,Clive continues to support charities and social enterprises in building sustainable funding strategies. His journey reflects a commitment to strengthening the sector and enabling organisations to create greater impact.

In the midst of massive change for the industry, both companies and financiers are grappling with what to do next.To help practitioners navigate changing tides, the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia (RIAA) held a conference in Sydney last week, where more than 800 attendees had the opportunity to learn from – and network with – the best and brightest, and several new roadmaps and initiatives were unveiled.We interrupt our scheduled programming for a bonus episode to debrief on the conference and break down the key takeaways – including fund flows, data, AI, greenwashing, nature, and DEI – for those who weren't able to make it (or those who want a recap).To discuss, senior journalist and host Rose Mary Petrass is joined in the studio by FS Sustainability and Money magazine director of media – Michelle Baltazar.FS Sustainability, the producer of this podcast, was the media partner for the event.

Send me a messageIf you're listening to this you know there are difficult and interconnected challenges everywhere, and today's guest is someone who has a unique and broad perspective on these. If you've been working in the sustainability or ESG profession for a little while there is a very good chance you've heard of, listened to or read Pablo Berrutti's work and thinking. He has become an anchor of the responsible investment community through his work at Stewart Investors and also as the founder of Altiorem, to go with over 20 years in financial risk management, ESG and funds management, including time. Pablo has been at the centre of a lot of the change that this sector has undergone over the last 15 years, where he has been the Chair, Deputy Chair and Director at the Responsible Investment Association of Australia, as well as leading roles with the Investor Group on Climate Change and The Australian Sustainable Finance Institute.This conversation starts with discussing the 2.0 launch of his not for profit Altiorem - an online library for sustainable finance and responsible investment professionals that is playing the important role of helping to address the significant capability gap that now exists in both technical knowledge - things like climate science, drivers and impacts of human trafficking and what that means for investors, reporting disclosure standards - needed to support decision making in the financial services industry, as well as materials that help broaden horizons and understanding of scenarios where trade-offs and judgement are required. We then shift more into the day to day ups and downs of life attempting to drive this work within the existing financial system paradigm, and the philosophies and beliefs that can seem so impervious to the myriad crisis our societies and economies face.I've known Pablo for a number of years now and like every other time I've spent time with him, I came away from this conversation both more understanding and educated, but also grounded and contemplative about my role and ability to use principles of healthy relationships and the critical necessity of these to organise, coordinate and drive collective action in a meaningful way. I'm reminded that all actions - large and small - do play a role too, but at the heart of all of this is the way by which I treat others and the opportunities that do arise when I am open and have the willingness to be of service.I found this conversation a delight, and I hope you do too.Production, graphic and social media support comes from the wonderful Rob Rogers. I could;dn't do this without his expertise and generous support.Thank you for tuning in today, I don't take your time for granted. If you'd like to support the Finding Nature podcast, the best and easiest thing you can do is subscribe to the show, offer a rating, share it on social media or with friends and colleagues. We have a bunch of events coming up and the best place to find more information on those at the moment is to head to the Finding Nature LinkedIn and Instagram pages. I'm working away at a proper digital home so bear with me as I get that organised and live.I hope you have a great rest of your day.Thanks for listening. Follow Finding Nature on Instagram

The international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine has revealed a knowledge gap across the global financial sector regarding exposure to armed conflict, reiterating an already pressing need to deepen corporate understanding of international humanitarian law (IHL). Although there is mounting pressure on companies to conduct structured and informed heightened human rights due diligence when investing or doing business in conflict-affected contexts, more must be done to effectively embed IHL and conflict sensitivity into corporate policies and practices. In 2022, Australian Red Cross engaged Deloitte Australia to undertake a review of the extent to which the Australian financial sector incorporates IHL and conflict-related considerations in investment and operational decision-making. In this post, Australian Red Cross Legal Adviser, Fauve Kurnadi, and Australian lawyer, Adaena Sinclair-Blakemore, discuss some of the findings from this report, including risks and trends in the Australian financial sector and the growing relevance of IHL to financial institutions, as well as what certain actors like the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia are doing to address IHL knowledge and implementation gaps that exist across the sector.

On Tuesday, February 7, Darlene Claes-McKinnon, Executive Director, Relationship Management, CIBC Mellon, hosted three experts for an exploration of insights from the Responsible Investment Association's recently released 2022 Investor Opinion Survey. This long running survey offers insights into the views, expectations and knowledge levels of Canadian investors related to responsible investment topics. Darlene's guests included: Mary Robinson, Director of Research & Investor Networks, Responsible Investment Association, Meaghan Kelly, Senior Vice President, Strategic Communications, Research & Product Innovation, AGF Investments, and Deborah Debas, Senior Responsible Investment Specialist, Desjardins Wealth Management. This presentation contains the presenter's personal views and not those of CIBC Mellon or any other person. It may be considered advertising, and provides general information only and neither the presenter nor CIBC Mellon nor any other person are, by means of this presentation, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This presentation is intended for general informational purposes only. It may not be regarded as comprehensive nor as a substitute for professional advice. Before taking any particular course of action, contact your professional advisor to discuss these matters in the context of your particular circumstances. Neither the presenter nor CIBC Mellon accept responsibility for any loss or damage occasioned by your reliance on information contained in this presentation. ©2023 CIBC Mellon. CIBC Mellon is a licensed user of the CIBC trade-mark and certain BNY Mellon trade-marks, is the corporate brand of CIBC Mellon Trust Company and CIBC Mellon Global Securities Services Company and may be used as a generic term to reference either or both companies. None of CIBC Mellon Global Securities Services Company, CIBC Mellon Trust Company, CIBC, The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation and their affiliates make any representations or warranties as to its accuracy, currency or completeness, makes any commitment to update any information. No part of the presentation is an offer or solicitation in respect of any particular strategy and may not be construed as such. Services referred to may not be offered in all jurisdictions nor by all companies. CIBC Mellon does not provide investment or asset management services. This presentation, either in whole or in part, must not be reproduced nor referred to without the express written permission of CIBC Mellon. Trademarks, service marks and logos belong to their respective owners.

Guest: Melissa Shin Despite the rise in popularity of do-it-yourself investing, most people still find comfort working with a professional investment advisor. But how do you choose the advisor that's right for you? And how do you know that your advisor really “gets” responsible investing? In this episode of 'Responsible Investing for a Sustainable Economy,' host Tim Nash speaks with journalist and editor Melissa Shin of Advisor's Edge and Investment Executive about how to find the right advisor and how to avoid those who are simply 'greenwashing' their investment opportunities. She suggests, among other tips, to use the Responsible Investment Association's online advisory tool to help you find the best person when it comes to managing your investments.

Guest: Patricia Fletcher Last week, the Responsible Investment Association released the 2022 Canadian Responsible Investment Trends Report. This much-anticipated annual offering shows how the biggest investors are approaching responsible investing — currently a $3-trillion sum in Canada. In this episode of 'Responsible Investing for a Sustainable Economy,' RIA CEO Patricia Fletcher joins host Tim Nash to unpack this year's findings.

Dr. Dimitre Ranev, one of the co-founders of Physician Empowerment, hosts the show this episode to talk with guest Rod Burylo about financial advice, banking, and fiduciary duty. Rod Burylo is an expert in the industry, Chief Financial Officer of the Empowerment Office, and the author of “The Wealthy Buddhist”, and shares a wealth of insight with listeners.Rod Burylo defines some of the roles that exist within the financial industry, helping to clear up confusion surrounding the types and quality of advice available to consumers. He breaks down exactly what it is that differentiates a personal banker from an investment advisor from a portfolio manager.In this episode, Dr. Dimitre Ranev and guest Rod Burylo explore the advisor options that exist in the financial industry for professionals like physicians. Rod defines and explains what fiduciary duty means and who in the industry actually has it. He demystifies the role of portfolio managers and explains how a portfolio manager is empowered to work with finances and investments on behalf of their client through fiduciary duty. The conversation Dimitre and Rod have shines light on how accessible portfolio managers are, and provides important clarity on how roles within the financial industry apply directly to specific services listeners may want.About Rod Burylo:Rod Burylo is the Manager of IFM & EMD Services at Axcess Capital, providing governance and risk mitigation support to capital raisers and investment managers.Rod has worked within the financial services industry for over 30 years in a wide range of roles including Director, Chief Compliance Officer, and Director of Marketing. He has extensive experience in the exempt market sector as past CCO and owner of Canada's largest Exempt Market Dealer.Rod is a Canadian Advisor of the Year Award winner, 2019 Champion of Financial Literacy Award Finalist, international speaker, and author of three books.Resources discussed in this episode:Axcess Capital AdvisorsEmpowerment Office“The Wealthy Buddhist: Buddhist Ethics, Right Livelihood, and the Value of Money” by Rod Burylo—Physician Empowerment: website | facebook | linkedinRod Burylo, CIM FCSI: Chief Financial Officer at Empowerment Office: linkedin | book__Transcript:Kevin Mailo  Hi, I'm Dr. Kevin Mailo, and you're listening to the Physician Empowerment Podcast. At Physician Empowerment, we're focused on transforming the lives of Canadian physicians through education and finance, practice transformation, wellness, and leadership. After you've listened to today's episode, I encourage you to visit us at physempowerment.ca - that's P H Y S empowerment.ca - to learn more about the many resources we have to help you make that change in your own life, practice, and personal finances. Now on to today's episode. Dimitre Ranev  Welcome everyone to the Physician Empowerment Podcast. I'm really honored to have Mr. Rod Burylo today as guest. Rod is a renaissance man in the financial industry. He wears many hats and has many roles, but currently his projects are that he's the manager of Investment Fund Services for Axcess Capital. He's also a consultant to portfolio managers, accountants and professional associations. And, importantly to us, he's the Chief Financial Officer of the Empowerment Office. He's an Advisor of the Year award winner, media contributor for over 30 years including for the CBC Radio and other leading newspapers. He's also an excellent teacher, which I can attest to because when I first met Rod a couple weeks ago actually, he explained a concept to me that I could not understand and it just clicked. And that's how I know that somebody is a good teacher when they can simplify something that's hard to understand. It's not surprising, because you've had over 20 years of international teaching experience, right? In many topics. I think currently, you mostly talk about professional ethics in alternative investment strategies. And finally, I do want to mention that Rod has published a book in 2019 that I find very interesting and I hope we can talk about it in the future. It's called the "Wealthy Buddhist: Buddhist Ethics, Right Livelihood, and the Value of Money". So again, Rod, thank you for joining us. What I do want to talk about today is an issue that I've noticed talking to other professionals, doctors, is there seems to be quite a bit of confusion about the actors who are involved in the financial advice industry. And specifically three things. We don't necessarily understand what the different roles are, what the different skill sets are, but also what is the duty to the client, to us, because I mean, we're seeking their help. For example, to give an analogy with medicine, obviously when you go to a doctor, you can make a couple of assumptions, not always true, unfortunately, but most of the time should be true. First of all, that they have a license to practice medicine in Canada. And secondly, they have a duty of care to their patients. But that's not as clear to me or to other professional, to other people I talk to, when it comes to financial advisors, or people doing financial advice. So Rod, I guess, do you find that that confusion does exist? And what are some reasons you think it does exist within us, within people that are looking for financial advice? Rod Burylo Yeah, that's a wonderful question and very important. Definitely confusion exists around that, not only amongst consumers, people that would seek out financial services persons, but honestly, there's confusion amongst the people within the financial services industry, as well. So there are some people that are in different roles that think that they have a greater responsibility than they in fact have. And then there's others that, unfortunately, might miscommunicate to consumers about that level of responsibility, perhaps setting false expectations around that. Why is that confusion there? Well, you know, I think there's a few reasons. One of them certainly is that there's a very, very wide range of participants in the financial services industry, and depending upon their level of licensing, or registration, or the types of organizations they're working for, their responsibility could vary greatly. Another reason for the confusion is that the people participating in the industry might misunderstand what their registration category requires of them under certain circumstances. And the final place that some confusion might come in is around notions of fiduciary duty, for example, where it's generally accepted that it would be up to a court to decide or judge to decide if, in a particular circumstance, a particular financial services person had a fiduciary relationship at that time. So there's a lot of questions that can arise from this. Dimitre Ranev  Right. And we'll talk about the fiduciary duty a bit later, because that sort of blew my mind. I made some assumptions about what that meant and I think it's important everybody understands what it actually means and that it's not as common as you think it is. So I feel like when there's this risk confusion, it's really important to go back to first principles and just definitions, like defining who does what, that's a good place to start. I've looked at some of the actions that I've encountered in my financial journey and perhaps, Rod, you can discuss about what the role is and what their skills are and how they can be useful to professionals. And the first one that a lot of us encounter, not all of us, are personal bankers. Can you comment on on how they fit in in just the financial team of somebody like a doctor? Rod Burylo  Yeah, a personal banker - I actually had a role of a personal banking representative with Royal Bank back in about 1990, and so I can speak to that, you know, from actually doing that job - so one of the ways that we categorize responsibility in the financial services industry is one category is often referred to as a guidance role. And as a rule of thumb, people that we typically find in the historical banking type roles, the personal banking representative roles, would have what we call a guidance role, which means that their responsibility is to help guide a consumer make a choice, which is a long way away from more more onerous obligations they might have. And often the people in those basic branch roles have, what I would say in my opinion, very minimal education or licensing requirements around that, often they have something as basic as a mutual fund registration category, which really is just one course. This might surprise a lot of consumers out there, but historically a mutual fund registration category did not even require a structured continuing education requirement, where almost every other category license or registration in the industry required that. Where it didn't not even require that, there was not even a requirement to take ethics classes for most of these people going forward. So it'd be a very basic, introductory, you know, grade one level of education that's required. And they're typically dealing with proprietary products from that institution. And their obligation is to help someone choose amongst a fairly limited range of products and services. And again, this is stereotypes, but this is a very useful way of looking at it for most consumers most of the time. Dimitre Ranev So if you do want to get, and correct me if I'm wrong, but if you want to get a line of credit from that bank, you would go to them, or if you want to get a loan, is that where you'd go to, is the personal banker? But specifically to that bank? Or am I misunderstanding this? Rod Burylo  Well historically, like when I was a personal banker with Royal Bank, there was a mandate to develop relationships with certain market segments. And we used to call them, you know, at Royal Bank, VIP clients, for example. And there was a requirement to build relationships with those people, understand their needs, and present to them a range of possible bank services, including lending services, credit services, but it might also include savings accounts, you know, basic investment accounts, through mutual funds, and those kinds of things. But, you know, I've been a VIP client of Royal Bank for a very long time. And I don't mind saying that, I'm not critical of them, but nobody has reached out and contacted me to build a relationship with me in a very, very, very, very long time. You know, so what I was taught back in the 1990s about trying to have a relation, this know your client philosophy that's a critical part of the financial services obligation, I don't know how that's showing up in the relationships that I have. So I wouldn't, if I was a consumer, I wouldn't expect very much in terms of obligation from these people. And I wouldn't expect very much in terms of true advice and guidance. And I want to say something that might be considered a little off color, and I have to tell you I've never been sued yet, even though I've been a critic of the industry for a very long time, but I don't intend to do it anytime soon. But, you know, here's the one of the ways that we would often look at many of the people in the banking industry is - and this has been really candid for your audience - there's no money in being a personal banker. And I never saw anyone that I thought was excellent at that stay in those roles, because there's not money being made. So they do one of two things. Either they, and again, this is a gross generalization, but they tend to want to work up the bank ladder, so increasingly stepping away from the consumer. So I would see really good people in the banking system not dealing with consumers anymore, because they went a different direction, or they left the banking environment entirely and went on to a different situation where they had a wider range of products and services, or they were in control of their business or their practice. So for example, there was a time in the 1990s, where myself and some of my friends at Royal Bank went to Investors Group. And at Investor's Group we felt we had a wider range of products and services and a different business model. Our compensation was more greatly tied to the successful outcomes of the consumer than they were previous to that. So that would not be the place that I would go to for sophisticated financial advice. You don't tend to have entrepreneurs with multimillion dollar businesses working at the bank. And so as a consumer, if that's you as a physician, you've got to find, in my opinion, you've got to find people who are living a life more like yours in the sense that they are entrepreneurial. They're buying buildings, they have staff, you know, they're creating personal wealth from their efforts, they have advanced education, and so on. They're far more likely to get you and get the kinds of services that you might need in my opinion. Dimitre Ranev  That makes sense. I laugh because I'm also a VIP client for RBC and I don't remember ever getting a call from anybody there. It's interesting, I guess back in the day they used to do that. Alright, so there's a limited role for personal bankers, in that case, for our audience. So let's move up the ladder, maybe it's not even a ladder here, but what about investment advisors? What's... this is where I started getting confused. What are investment advisors? What is their role? And what is their duty? Rod Burylo  Yeah, so that's a really good question. And this actually is interesting you should be asking about this now, because we've just come out of a year of some fairly significant developments in that regard. So when we use the word advisor in Canada, historically, one of the reasons there's confusion is there was not what we now call title protection. So - Quebec had title protection, but most of Canada did not - and so there were people out there using the word advisor without it being regulated, you know. So a consumer would go 'Well he's calling himself a financial adviser, or she's calling herself a financial advisor', and I'm not sure at all what that means, and you can understand why the confusion would be there. But historically, a lot of those people would have beyond a basic licensing or registration, and would start to more often see a designation. So when I say the word licensing or registration, I'm referring to someone that is registered to sell mutual funds or licensed to sell life insurance, where a designation in financial services industry tends to refer to some kind of more sophisticated financial planning education. These people tend to be more holistic. And you'll see letters after their names in Canada, like CFP, for example, which is probably the most common in that category. There were some really cool things that happened last year, two of them actually that are really worth noting. One is we had something called Title Protection for the rest of Canada confirmed last year. And what that means going forward, if you find - this is how it's supposed to work - if you find an a financial services person that's referring to themselves as a financial advisor or a title very similar to that, they are supposed to have a recognized credential from an approved credentialing body. And the last we heard in Canada is there was some expectation there would be single digit number of these credentialing bodies approved. So there used to be a whole bunch of them, anybody could open up a business saying 'I'm going to provide a credential to financial services people, charge them a fee to get the credentials, and then charge them an annual fee to keep these things up' and make a business out of it. And sometimes consumers weren't really getting, you know, a sophisticated quality. So there was a movement in Canada that said no, if you're going to call yourself an advisor, you have to have one of a short list of credentials, and the bodies that are providing those credentials have to be approved. So historically, there would be more confusion than I think there will be kind of starting from now. So that was the first thing that happened last year. The second thing that happened last year was something called client focused reforms, or CFR is often the acronym. And there was two stages of the introduction of client focused reforms but the crux of it was last year is that it was supposed to oblige people in the financial services industry, both individuals and the companies in that industry, to have to put the needs of the clients first. And this should be shocking to a lot of people that - and I think you and I talked about this a couple of weeks ago - it's only last year that there was even a nationally recognized requirement to put clients first and manage conflicts of interest around product distribution and those kinds of things that never existed before. So theoretically, for everybody, we should start to see as of this year, some improvement, some clarification, but I do want to stress, nothing and anything that we saw about these client focused reforms uses the word fiduciary duty. And I do want to comment, and I want to say to your audience out there, in the introduction you talked about me consulting to professional associations, one of the roles that I've had in Canada is helping these professional associations draft policies and procedures, as well as codes of ethics and mechanisms for enforcing codes of ethics and those kinds of things. So I'm a weird guy, I actually have a binder in the room behind me, it's got all these codes of ethics from different professional associations like CFAs, and I study them. Because - you didn't mention this - but my specialty in university in the 1980s was applied ethics, my postgraduate research was actually in Biomedical Ethics at the Foothills Hospital here because I thought I was going to go to law school with that and have my kids early and I ended up in this industry. So, you know, the study of ethics as a practical study, but also kind of more academically, is something that means a lot to me. So when I've looked at these codes of ethics for these credential people, they're very careful in there not to say that anybody has a fiduciary duty. And in fact some of them will say things like, you may have, in certain circumstances based upon the relationship with the client, blah, blah, blah, a judge will decide, but there is no confirmation in any of that stuff that someone has a fiduciary duty, even with these client focused reforms. Putting the client first is not the same thing as having a fiduciary duty. Because let's say that I have a very limited range of products and services, because I work for a big company, in everybody's mind is that as long as I'm helping them choose from my products and services with their interests in mind, I'm okay. But it's not obligating me to go out and find the best solutions, just solutions that are okay for the client but not necessarily the best solutions. So that's kind of where we're at today from all of that, so improving, but probably still quite a bit different than most people thought that they were getting from these relationships. Dimitre Ranev  So a couple of things that surprise me. So the whole title protection... so what you're saying is - this is a metaphor using, again, the medical industry - is last year, a doctor could just say he's a doctor, and then wouldn't have to prove they were a doctor, no licensing would be required, or a dentist would just say 'I'm a dentist', and that the financial industry was doing that until last year. Now there's an - oh I guess Quebec wasn't but Ontario and all the other provinces - that's very surprising to me. But I'm glad it's changed, it's great it's changed. And the other thing you mentioned, and I think maybe we'll move on to fiduciary duty here, but you talked about how if they - what did you say that they have as opposed to fiduciary duty, you have to do the best for the for the client? Well, what is that phrase that they use? Rod Burylo Putting the clients first before all other needs. Dimitre Ranev  But if they can only sell you a specific product, they won't go above and beyond to find other products. So, for example, it's a doctor just giving one pill for depression, because they work for that company. Okay, got it. Rod Burylo  Yeah, it would be more like that. So we have a standard that applies to most people in the financial services industry, which is one of the standards is called the standard of suitability assessment. And so if you came to me and said, 'Hey, I'm looking at an investment, is this suitable?' It's like saying it's either okay or not okay. And the suitability assessment is based upon things like your risk tolerance and your personal objectives. But nowhere in there is the obligation to ensure that it's the best solution to your problem. It's just an acceptable solution. So if you say, I want a cash flowing investment, and I find a cash flowing investment, we know everybody might say that suitable, but it's not necessarily the best. Dimitre Ranev  I understand. So maybe we can go back to to the actors, but I think it's a good time to actually talk about fiduciary duty. Talk about that specifically, because that's where.... it's funny that the way I met you, right, is I was talking about fiduciary duty and obviously I didn't know what I was talking about so ou were typing furiously, I need to talk to Dimitri, to Kevin, and then you gave me a twenty minute lecture. And I'm like, okay, now I understand. So thank you very much. No, don't apologize. I really thank you. And I actually, when I did the presentation later on, I talked about that. So I thank you, but can you educate the rest of the audience about what fiduciary duty means? And I guess what percentage of people actually have that in financial industry? Rod Burylo  Yeah, so the concept of fiduciary duty is, as we've been talking about, is a requirement to put the client's interests ahead of all other interests. It's an interesting principle, but it's sometimes hard to see how that actually plays out in a very specific role or a specific client relationship. So one of the ways I like to talk about this is let's go back to that banker role, when I talked about a traditional role of a banker type investment person as being about guidance. That's often how that category is referred to. The next category up is often what has been referred to as an advisory category, which is not - so guidance is helping someone make a choice, advice is more telling them what their choice should be. The practical application of fiduciary duty now, which is the highest standard, is really the advisor just making the choice for the client. And so let me explain to you how that plays out. In all the various registration categories in Canada in the investment space, one of the ones that is considered to be the highest is what we call a Portfolio Manager Registration Category. And that is a category that's granted by two types of entities in Canada. One is a provincial securities regulator. The other is IROQ, which is where you would find your stockbroker type people as well, because their responsibilities overlap a little bit depending upon where the advisor is actually working. But the concept of the portfolio manager in that space is similar in the following way: a portfolio manager has a discretionary ability to manage money. So let's say I'm your portfolio manager, and I've worked with several of these in Canada, by the way, and these roles, and you decide that you want me to be your portfolio manager. And you're going to allow me to look after $100,000 of your money. Once I determine your risk tolerance and your objectives, and we have that conversation, and I come up with kind of a sample approach to helping you based upon your parameters, I am now just empowered to go ahead and do that. So let's say I'm your portfolio manager, and we decided we're going to allocate some of your funds to buying a publicly traded bank, Royal Bank, I just go buy Royal Bank. I don't ask you. That's the difference. And one of the reasons you have to have a fiduciary duty there is because you are not participating in the process, I'm just going and making the purchase. And if I don't like Royal Bank anymore, in that category, let's say I want to switch you to TD for whatever reason, I don't call and ask you, I just switched you to TD. So you can imagine if I didn't have your best interests at heart, I might be funding some private equity deal that my brother is managing and I've got a back end piece of and, you know, I'm clearly not objective in these matters, I clearly have conflicts of interest that are not being disclosed. So a regulator would come along and say, 'Wow, you're just basically doing whatever you want to do with Dimitre's money.' Of course, you have a fiduciary duty there. Because in that case, it's the nature of the power you have in the relationship. It's hard to say a banker has a fiduciary duty if I say to you, 'Hey, do you want to have the Canadian Equity Fund or a Canadian Balanced Fund?', and you go, 'Well, I'm kind of conservative, blah, blah, blah', you're Balanced Fund, you know, we only got so many of them, and it's huge. And nobody gets too anxious about that, because you're kind of making the decision with my guidance. Where on the other end, I'm just doing it. And so the number of people that that have that registration category in Canada is actually fairly limited. It's surprising. And this is one of the reasons I talk to you about that. So the people that actually have a fiduciary duty, what I would say, as a matter of fact, as a matter of merely having that registration category, it's understood you have one, those numbers of people are fairly small in the grand scheme of things. And to get there, by the way, you have to have advanced education, you have to have certain number of years in training, being supervised by people in that role, you can't just show up and say I want to be a portfolio manager. It is a process. You know, where mutual fund licensing categories and stuff like that are pretty straightforward. You spend a month studying a class, you pass a course, you're up and running. These other things take possibly years and require advanced designations to get there. So I have some advanced designations that were required of me to be in these kinds of supporting roles in that environment. But you can't just automatically do that. So the other way that a person could have a fiduciary duty is if the nature of the relationship is such that you are really reliant upon me, I have a lot of power and influence over you, perhaps a senior or - and I don't mean to say that all seniors are vulnerable, I'm not gonna do that - but there's a concept in Canada that was established as part of those CFR reforms, called the vulnerable client. So a client that's particularly perhaps reliant upon a person's opinion and so on. If there was a problem in that relationship, and this person was not a portfolio manager, they're just a regular advisor, and they went to court, a judge might decide that in that particular circumstance, that person did have a fiduciary duty. But I gotta tell you, I've been at this a long time, and I don't think those kinds of court cases are all that common. You know, we don't hear about that. And there's one more thing I want to say about the portfolio manager stuff that sometimes blows consumers away. And because a lot of this stuff, you might say, well, what does that mean for me, what do I really care if, you know, if they have this duty towards me, or if I'm not going to sue them, what difference does it make? But there's some real practical problems. So I'm going to give you one for example. And I wrote a paper in 2007 called Move It or Lose It, and it was a discussion of why I thought the market was going to drop. I got a little lucky with that topic, because in 2008 the correction started. I got lucky. And the last time I did this speech I was actually in Las Vegas, I was speaking to a conference of advisors, Canadian advisors in Las Vegas, and a lot of the advisors used to push back when I would say things like, I think the markets going to correct and so on. And the very next day after that last speech, Lehman Brothers announced their bankruptcy and the market started to freefall. But here's one of the reasons why advisors get upset about that. If I tell a bunch of mutual fund advisors, for example, or stockbrokers even, that the stock market is going to drop, we think it is, what do they do with that information? Consumers might think their job is to help people buy low and sell high. And if the market is going to drop, maybe suggest that they sell and wait for the market to drop and buy back, and we have these fantasies that this is going to happen or maybe we saw TV shows and stuff like that, but here's the reality of it. If you're a person that's not a portfolio manager, it means you have to talk to every single client about a trade. They have to approve every single trade. I don't get paid to do trades, to move people from one product to another, you're not - that could be churning, right - so most of the time people are moving money from one portfolio of mutual funds to another, trying to change the market, I'm not getting paid. But the mere fact that I'm reaching out to possibly hundreds of clients, which could take months - that's assuming they're in Canada and they're not snowbirds and any other thing that could complicate it, they're not in the hospital - I've got to somehow get to all of these people while the market is doing this, and get signatures and confirmations from everybody. It's a nightmare. The thought that most of the people in the industry could actually effectively help people sell high and buy low in these environments, it's not realistic even in the slightest. So who do they call? They might call their mom and dad, they might do their own account. You know, if Dimitre's their buddy and Dimitre's got a bunch of money sitting over there with the bank, we're trying to get over, Dimitre I got some news, we got to act now, man, because I'm trying to get.... but the reality is most of the clients never get the call. And so what do they teach these people? They teach those types of advisors to tell their clients, don't worry, these are not your numbers, you're gonna retire in 20 years. And they coach them to be complacent, or calm, depending on, these are politically charged expressions, I acknowledge. They encourage them to be calm and try to get them to reframe how they think about this, but it's in part because they can't actually help them buy low and sell high as a scalable activity. It can't be done. And so let me connect the dots for everybody out there. This is one of the reasons why the concept of a portfolio manager is so important. Because if I'm a portfolio manager, I don't have to call everybody. I can trade $10 million worth of Royal Bank in seconds on the computer for hundreds of clients. It's very fast, it's very effective, it's very cheap for the client, because I'm doing it all now. But to do that, I need to have full responsibility for everything that I'm doing, and therefore a fiduciary duty. So here's the takeaway, most of the people can't be an environment where they can have a fiduciary duty, most consumers will not benefit from that environment, we should want those people that are portfolio management have fiduciary duty, not just because they have that duty. But because since they have that duty, they're in an environment where they can do things very quickly and effectively. And that's one of the reasons why I try to teach consumers about what these different categories look like, so that they can not only manage your expectations, but hopefully get better relationships that are more effective for them. Does that make sense? I know that's a lot of information. Dimitre Ranev  No, it makes sense. And two things I want to sort of expand on. It's funny, because when I used to have a, I guess a portfolio - I didn't have, I never had a portfolio manager - but had an investment advisor, I used to get those emails when the market went down saying oh, you shouldn't shouldn't worry, you're in for the long haul. So that's interesting that it's almost automatic, I guess, because they can't do much. But second, you had a great analogy that I seriously stole, thinking about a surgeon, right? If a surgeon has to call about every cut he makes and ask the family 'Can I cut here?' Okay, sure. 'Can I cut there?' Okay, sure. That's the difference between a portfolio manager and an investment advisor. An actual portfolio manager does not have to call for every single trade. So my question to you then, is how accessible are portfolio managers for, again, for professionals such as doctors? What are the fees like? Does it make sense for people to, I mean, is it accessible? How about this, let's just start with the accessibility question. Rod Burylo  And actually, there's some irony around this as well. And I'm here not to speak in favor of any particular portfolio manager. I want your audience know I'm not marketing or promoting anybody. But as a general concept, here's one of the cool ironies about the portfolio manager concept, is you might think that because these tend to be the most sophisticated, the most educated, the ones with the greatest responsibility, that that means they're also the hardest to find or the most expensive, right? But here's part of the irony. If I can effectively trade 10s of millions of dollars just by doing this, then that means I can actually scale my service to a wide range of audiences. So most of the portfolio managers that I've dealt with in Canada have minimums, some of them had quite low minimums, and sometimes $50,000 minimums. Which shocks people to think that I can actually get the best, in my mind, the superior category of management for a relatively small account size, in part because of the scalability of it. Now as a practical sense, I tend to see most portfolio managers starting with 100,000 minimum, and then you get up to bigger shops that will do million dollar minimums, but mostly because they can. They just say we're not going to look after retail consumers, we're going to do a hard line at a million dollars. So within this category of Portfolio Manager, what you might find for those that are providing services on what we might call a smaller account, let's call it 100,000, they probably have what we call a very systematized or pooled approach. So you and I, with our 100,000 and a portfolio manager are participating in pools that they've created. They're not buying and selling for you and I specifically, they're buying and selling within the pool. And so we happen to be participating in the pool with small dollars. It's not a unique range of investments for us, it's not a unique portfolio, but it's very effective. As you have more money, some of these portfolio managers will provide what's called a Separately Managed Account or an SMA. An SMA account would be me saying to Dimitre, oh Dimitre, you're gonna give me a million dollars? I'm going to create something especially for you. Now, it might look a lot like the pool funds. They're portfolio managers, they're just human, they can only analyze so many stocks, they can only be good at so many strategies. But there could be some tailoring to the client. So let's say a doctor has a corporate account, the taxation of investments in a corporate account are going to be different than in an RRSP. And so it would make sense that if you're talking to a portfolio manager, you could say, 'Hey, this is corporate money so we should have a slightly different strategy', which makes sense. If it's in an RRSP, it might not matter. But I typically see separately managed accounts starting at around a million dollars. But I've also seen some 800,000, half a million dollars, and it kind of depends upon the portfolio manager. You know, so they can make a choice, if Dimitre says, you know, I've got $5 million but I'm gonna give you half a million dollars to start, I might be inclined to say I'm going to treat you, you know, because I want to get the rest of it, I'm going to really pay attention to your half a million dollars, not my normal minimum, but I'm going to do it for you, because I'm looking at a bigger picture. You know, or Empowerment Office, for example, one of the groups that I'm working with, representing doctors as a collective has some negotiating and bargaining power with portfolio managers to begin to reduce the price or reduce the level that they'll do these tailored approaches. So what's the price of that, that's one of the things you asked. I would say you typically would be looking - and depends upon the services provided by the portfolio manager - if the portfolio manager is just providing security selection, so buying stocks, bonds, private offerings, trading those for you, and they're not doing anything else, they're not doing estate planning or tax planning, you have other resources for those, you might be looking at a price, let's say 1%, 1.5% of assets under management in that range. If they start adding on other pieces like financial planning pieces, then you can start seeing the price go up, and usually I see it start maxing out around 2%. But I gotta say there's a wide range of possibilities in there, because if the portfolio manager is picking other products, those products could have prices in them as well. So I might be charging a fee to help, you know, to buy a fund, a third party fund that's been created, but there could be fees embedded in that fund. And that's one of the things consumers have to be very, very careful of, is sometimes a manager of investments might say, 'Hey, I'm only charging you 1%'. So they walk around thinking that the cost of management is 1% because that manager only has to talk about what they are actually charging themselves, where the other products could also have fees associated with them. But let's say as a walking around concept, somewhere between 1% and 2% would be normal. And again, depending upon the level of other services being provided within that relationship. Dimitre Ranev So a couple of points, it already seemed to me, but first of all, it does sound like it's accessible to most professionals. So I think there's a misconception that for a portfolio manager to be actually wanting to take your business we're talking about a million dollars or half a million dollars, but I think that's more coming from the idea of hedge fund managers, which can go up to 25 million, right? So that's good to know it's accessible. Secondly, it's interesting that the fees can start at 1%. Because that's actually lower than a lot of mutual funds. That's surprising to me. Rod Burylo  Well and isn't it ironic that I'm making a case that buying a bunch of mutual funds, where the mutual fund advisor can't readily buy and sell on their own volition, they have to come to you for everything, meanwhile the portfolio manager is buying and selling and trading, I typically see the performance better, I typically see a lower cost, it makes a bunch of people like us go, why in the world would you not go to a portfolio manager? Why would you not go? And the only reason that I can come up with typically is - well, there's two reasons - is I don't quite have enough money to get started with the portfolio manager, or the person wants to do a lot of the stuff on their own and try to bring down that 1% to, you know, let's say ETF type prices of .1 or .2 or or .3, that kind of thing. But I don't mind telling you that I have the top designation with the Canadian Securities Institute, but I don't buy all my stocks on my own. I buy all my own private offerings through my own analysis and my own contacts. But I have relationships out there that helped me understand public markets. And there's nothing wrong with that, some of the best people I know in our industry still go to other people for help. And I don't mind paying a little bit if it shows up in the performance overall. Dimitre Ranev  I have so many questions. But you know, we're running out of time. A couple of more here. So, for example, would a portfolio manager have access to alternative investments, such as limited partnerships or things that, for example, as a DIY investor would never be able to invest in? Rod Burylo  Yes, yeah. In fact, the portfolio managers I've worked with in the past have tended to have a strategy or a skill set, that's not common. And the reason why I've looked for that, not only for employment opportunities as a consultant in that space, but as a consumer of investment services, is I subscribe to a variation of what we call the efficient market hypothesis. Which basically states that information is so available to everybody out there all the time, you know, everybody's sitting there on Bloomberg access and on terminals, that everybody has the same information. And if you don't have information that's available, that means you have insider information. So you're likely in the realm of possibly committing a crime. So if we all have the same information and the same analysis at the same time, why would you think that the prices of securities are not the right prices? That's what we say about being efficient. So what portfolio managers will often do is, because of that efficiency, is they'll apply strategies or approaches that help bring value to the process. So I'll give you an example. You said it already, limited partnerships and private securities, offerings that consumers can't get in on their own, you know, if I got a billion dollars as a portfolio manager, and I'm allocating, you know, 1%, to different offerings, I have millions of dollars to go buy an apartment building. And I can buy it like that, and allocate funds there, and so get these clients participating in something they wouldn't have participated in. So a portfolio manager, in my mind, the best ones, for the best price, given the best value, are doing more than just buying stocks and ETFs. They're doing those things. And I'll give you one more example. And this now sounds more hedge fund-ish. But one of the portfolio managers I worked for in Canada for several years, was an option strategy specialist. And options strategies are hard to scale up for an individual, but they had hundreds of millions of dollars under management, very effective team, so if somebody was interested in the hedging power of option strategies, if they were interested in it, I always said it makes more sense to go to a big group where there's a whole team doing it for hundreds of people in the order of hundreds of millions of dollars, then you trying to figure it out on your own. You know, so they're trying what I would call the secret sauce, what's the secret sauce with that portfolio manager? What are they bringing to the table in terms of value? Can they articulate it? If they can't, that might be a warning sign, you know. Doesn't mean they're bad, but it might not necessarily mean you're getting a special value out of it. Dimitre Ranev  The robinhood, the trading app, was pushing option strategies for people for $10. But that's not a good idea. Two follow-up questions then. So number one is, you know when you look at the whole active versus passive debate - which  is very cloudy and confused, and quite frankly, on both sides, I think dishonest - because when you look at the passive debate, they always compare returns to just a slew of different things like mutual funds. Is there any actual studies, and I know studies are hard to get in financial industry, looking at specific portfolio managers and how well they do compared to the market? Is there actually anything out there, and I'm talking about portfolio managers, forget about mutual funds or the other definition of active investments. Rod Burylo  I'd say there's a lot of portfolio managers that don't outperform the market and that have their fees. And fees go up, the more active they are, or they're more they're trying to do unusual things, that generally means that the price is going up. And yeah, as a rule of thumb, they don't tend to outperform the market. And even if they did in one year, you know, there's a lot of studies that suggest that that's not a replicable thing. You know, they had a good year, and maybe, and so one of the things about taking risks with securities, a risk is, by definition, a risk. It could pay off. And it might not. To have an unusual performance relative to a benchmark, it means you've got to take on some unusual level of risk to do that. And by definition, that means sometimes that risk will pay off, and sometimes it won't. What's bad for consumers is to try to follow performance of a portfolio manager and, you know, say oh, they had a really good year, and I didn't like my current portfolio, I'm going to move over there, you know. And there's often really good reasons to move, don't get me wrong, but moving because you're chasing someone's really good year last year, is probably not the way to go. You know, so yeah, I think some of this comes back to that concept of the efficient market hypothesis. If we all have the same information, you know, I don't mind telling you, sometimes I've done my best by just buying a bunch of big blue chips with dividends and sitting on them for, like, 5, 6, 7 years. And then I go back, and I go, you know, Google, you want to have some fun, go out there and Google, 'if I bought Royal Bank 10 years ago and sat on it', you know. Now remember, you paid one fee to buy it, you probably have no ongoing fees, what your return would be... but the thing is, so here's one of the reasons I invite you guys to continue to follow Dimitre's podcast, because you get someone like me, an industry person who calls out the industry, for, you know, it's, I won't call it deception, but let's say some lack of clarity over value proposition. And there's a chapter in my book called Is The Financial Services Industry Trustworthy? And, you know, I generally argue that it's not trustworthy, but I have a very specific meaning when I say that, you'll have to read it to get it. But yeah, I would just be really super careful of a bunch of people who are just saying, I'm going to go buy some stocks for you, and I'm going to be better than the market. This is one of the reasons I focused on portfolio managers that have a secret sauce. Are they doing something that I can't do on my own, because if I can do it on my own, I might as well do it on my own. You know, and this is where I look for private securities or something else in there. I'm a fan of private securities myself, but I don't often get those from portfolio managers, I find that I can source them on my own. But I'm in the industry, I've been at this a long time, so I know that people. If you don't know that people, it might be hard. You got to know the people that know the people and you'll have the best opportunities. Dimitre Ranev  So to summarize for an investor, the advantages of a portfolio manager is, first of all, there's fiduciary duty. Rod Burylo  Correct. Dimitre Ranev  Which is the thing that you really want. Secondly, you have access to different investment vehicles, which most people don't have access to. Thirdly, you save a lot of time, you don't have to worry about rebalancing your portfolio or buying or selling stocks, that's done by the manager. Fourthly, the fees are - and again, obviously, you have to look at different managers - but 1% fee, I'll tell you, it's very reasonable to me. And I'm saying this as a person who does DIY investing, but that's a very reasonable fee. And it's much better than the average of mutual funds in Canada, which is about, say about 2%, I believe. Rod Burylo  Last I heard. Dimitre Ranev The disadvantage is that there is an entry fee. So there's a bit of a barrier, but I guess for professionals, like doctors, it's $50,000. So even, I would say 100,000 isn't necessarily a barrier. Might be a barrier for, unfortunately, some people who are not professionals. Is that a fair summary of what you said, Rod? Rod Burylo Yeah, I think you've captured that very, very well. Dimitre Ranev  So my last question to you - and again, I have actually have a thousand questions, but we have to we have to wrap it up - is if somebody is interested in having a portfolio manager, is there a resource, for example, I know psychologists have a website where you can find a list of psychologists, is there a resource for portfolio managers or do you just have to do it by word of mouth? How does it usually work? Rod Burylo  Yeah, you could look at a record of registration categories for people. So for example, in the past I've pulled out entire lists, say from a brokerage firm, like a stock brokerage firm, a list of all the dealing representatives there, and which ones have the portfolio manager registration or not. But doing that I don't think is the most useful of exercises, because just because you found a registrant like that, it doesn't mean that they're doing anything special or, you know, have a compelling offering. It'd be like finding a hamburger place. I found one, there's a million of them, is it a good hamburger place or not? So I would go back to, you know, word of mouth is a useful thing. One of the things that we try to do with physicians through Empowerment Office, is provide vetted portfolio managers, ones that we have identified and vetted, either they already have an attractive price or we've worked on the price a little bit, so that it's more attractive to our audience, to physicians, for example. But I would always go with a referral or word of mouth in that space. And, you know, asking your buddies, if they've got some - one of the challenges is that you could go ask your friend who's a physician if you've got a portfolio manager, and they might not know that that has a very technical meaning, they might just think it's managing their investments. But one of the things, let's say you had a short list of these types of people, you can look on regulatory websites to see if they have any complaints against them, any sanctions, that would be a useful thing. But that might just tell you that they haven't gotten themselves into trouble, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're excellent, that's a different thing, right? So I would go with word of mouth. And then there's one other thing that you might contemplate. There are certain associations in Canada where, let's say they have a designation of a particular kind, like a CFP designation, where they'll have lists of these advisors and will also say what registration category they have, like, possibly Portfolio Manager. And I like those kinds of resources, because that starts telling me a little bit more about the overall character quality of the person. And another thing you could do is, if you've got a topic that you're excited, I know, we're going to talk about ESG at some time in the future, but there are associations in Canada where they look, for example, a Responsible Investment Association in Canada, that tends to attract advisors that are interested in ESG topics within this overall realm of responsible investing, that will list off all the advisors in there. And then if they're portfolio managers or not. And so if you've got a topic that you're really interested in, and want to try to find a portfolio manager that specializes in that space, there might be lists out there to do that. I had a company in 2004, you referenced for the audience that I won an Advisor of the Year Award, that Advisor of the Year Award was for a business we created called Canadians Retiring Abroad. And so if you're interested in retiring abroad, you would find us. But it was because not necessarily that we were excellent - I thought we were good - but because we had made sure that that we could clearly communicate what our differentiator, what our special topic was. So if you wanted a special topic, call us, if that's not your topic, you know, go talk to somebody else. So sometimes there's associations out there. But, you know, if you've got friends out there that are really interested and they want to talk one on one, you know, the two of us together on how to select an investment advisor, we could do a whole discussion on that at one point, the things that I would look for. But it's not necessarily as easy as it sounds. Dimitre Ranev  That was, I had one. I had a question about that, but I feel like that's a whole topic for podcasts. It's not a five minute question. Listen Rod, I really appreciate your time and your wisdom. And I'd love to have you back. There's so many more things I want to ask, but thank you again for coming and for talking about this. And hopefully we'll talk soon. And I have to get that book and give it a read. Rod Burylo And very good to talk to you and you provide an excellent, important service to your audience. I really mean that. So thanks a lot for having me on. Dimitre Ranev  Thank you. Kevin Mailo  Thank you so much for listening to the Physician Empowerment Podcast. If you're ready to take those next steps in transforming your practice, finances, or personal well being, then come and join us at physempowerment.ca - P H Y S empowerment.ca - to learn more about how we can help. If today's episode resonated with you, I'd really appreciate it if you would share our podcast with a colleague or friend and head over to Apple podcasts to give us a five star rating and review. If you've got feedback, questions, or suggestions for future episode topics, we'd love to hear from you. If you want to join us and be interviewed and share some of your story, we'd absolutely love that as well. Please send me an email at KMailo@physempowerment.ca. Thank you again for listening. Bye. 

Barbara Zvan is the President and CEO of the University Pension Plan Ontario (UPP) and former Chief Risk and Strategy Officer for the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. Recognized as a leading voice on sustainable investing and a tireless ambassador for defined benefit pensions, Barbara brings institutional strength to complex challenges while forging new collaborative pathways for innovation and growth.She's a member of the Government of Canada's Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance and serves on the Board of the Responsible Investment Association and the Advisory Board of the Institute for Sustainable Finance. A trained actuary, with a Master's Degree in Mathematics, Barbara has Chaired both the International Center of Pension Management and the Sustainability Accounting Standard Board's Investor Advisory Group.On this episode, Barbara talks with Jon about taking an idea and turning it into a $12 billion Institution from scratch. during COVID! She talks about the importance of people and culture and seizing the opportunity that is the Net Zero Transition.

Join Dr. Z with her very special guest, Pasty Doerr, CEO of The Association of Junior Leagues International! Patsy is s an accomplished speaker, columnist, thought-leader and award-winning expert in the field of Social and Community Impact, with expertise in corporate social responsibility, diversity and inclusion and sustainability. Her work in these areas has been featured by a number of publications and conferences including Forbes, The Hill, The Muse, Milken Institute and Sustainable Brands. Since December 2011, Patsy has built and has been leading the corporate social responsibility, diversity and inclusion and sustainability functions at Thomson Reuters globally, which spanned more than 100 countries and 45,000 employees. Additionally, Patsy serves on several board and committees that align with both her business and personal passions, including the Thirty Percent Coalition, All In Together, Samburu Girls Foundation, and Responsible Investment Association. In this rich conversation with Dr. Z, she talks about the importance of having a leadership mindset to evoke change, her passion for social change, her heart for people, staying focused on on outcomes, and leadership ownership and accountability. She shares some of her techniques of how she mobilizes the organization to be successful by empowering, motivating, and inspiring others to effect change in the lives of those they serve and lead by example. You don't want to miss this power-packed conversation with Patsy Doerr, a high-performing and influential woman leader. You can connect with Patsy on LinkedIn @linkedin.com/in/patsydoerr

Guests: Jon Hale, director of ESG Strategy at Morningstar, and Mary Robinson, director of research and partnerships at the Responsible Investment Association Welcome to the first episode of Responsible Investing for a Sustainable Economy in 2022. Today, we examine the responsible investment marketplace by looking at supply and demand. To help us look at the supply side of the equation, we have Jon Hale, director of ESG Strategy at Morningstar, who speaks to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing and the common myths that people have about responsible investment funds. After that we have Mary Robinson, director of research and partnerships at the Responsible Investment Association, to share latest data about investor interest in responsible investing and speak to an important education gap that is holding back the flow of money.

Mary talks about ethical investing following on from a report by The Responsible Investment Association of Australasia which reviewed the investment practices of 27 financial institutions in New Zealand.

Mary talks about ethical investing following on from a report by The Responsible Investment Association of Australasia which reviewed the investment practices of 27 financial institutions in New Zealand.

In this episode, I chat to Simon O'Connor, he is the CEO of the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia (RIAA). He has been an economist for like 20 years but don't be scared, he's actually interesting. We talked about basically the economics of social investing. I talked a lot over the last few episodes about products and growth, but with his deep knowledge of the economy, we talked about how the role that socially responsible investing plays in climate change.   He unpacks that an interesting quality he had with the government around this. We talk about the flows of capital and where potentially some of this bigger resource or non socially responsible companies are going to explode in the near future and what people should be thinking about when it comes to making sure that their superannuation is actually the companies that they invest in is actually going to be around when they need to access it.     Want to keep making the right money moves with complete confidence?   Upcoming online training events: https://bit.ly/PivotEvents   Book a Money Breakthrough Session with a Pivot Adviser:  https://calendly.com/ben-nash-pivot/breakthrough-podcast   Free download of my Amazon best-selling book ‘Get Unstuck’: https://bit.ly/PivotGUSPod Pivot Blog for other money tips, tools and hacks: https://bit.ly/PivotBlog

As institutional investors execute on their business strategies, many market participants are considering incorporating environmental, social and governance factors into traditional financial analysis. This episode discusses the main drivers and themes for responsible investing in Canada, and the conversation also dives into the latest survey findings from the Responsible Investment Association, including a look at the top ESG considerations among Canadian institutional investors. This presentation contains the presenter's personal views and not those of CIBC Mellon or any other person. It may be considered advertising, and provides general information only and neither the presenter nor CIBC Mellon nor any other person are, by means of this presentation, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This presentation is intended for general informational purposes only. It may not be regarded as comprehensive nor as a substitute for professional advice. Before taking any particular course of action, contact your professional advisor to discuss these matters in the context of your particular circumstances. Neither the presenter nor CIBC Mellon accept responsibility for any loss or damage occasioned by your reliance on information contained in this presentation. ©2021 CIBC Mellon. CIBC Mellon is a licensed user of the CIBC trade-mark and certain BNY Mellon trade-marks, is the corporate brand of CIBC Mellon Trust Company and CIBC Mellon Global Securities Services Company and may be used as a generic term to reference either or both companies. None of CIBC Mellon Global Securities Services Company, CIBC Mellon Trust Company, CIBC, The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation and their affiliates make any representations or warranties as to its accuracy, currency or completeness, makes any commitment to update any information. No part of the presentation is an offer or solicitation in respect of any particular strategy and may not be construed as such. Services referred to may not be offered in all jurisdictions nor by all companies. CIBC Mellon does not provide investment or asset management services. This presentation, either in whole or in part, must not be reproduced nor referred to without the express written permission of CIBC Mellon. Trademarks, service marks and logos belong to their respective owners.

Our guest on the podcast  is Michael Jantzi. Michael is the chief executive officer of Sustainalytics, a Morningstar affiliate that specializes in ESG and corporate governance research and ratings. Prior to forming Sustainalytics in 2009, Michael was the founder of Jantzi Research and has been active in the responsible investment field since 1990. Michael has been recognized with numerous awards for his leadership and work on sustainable investing, including the Responsible Investment Association's Lifetime Achievement Award, which he received in 2010. Michael is a director of the Tides Canada Foundation and sits on the Advisory Council of Ivy Business School's Institute for Long-Term Prosperity Through Business. He also serves as a director of the Principles for Responsible Investment, or PRI. Michael holds degrees from Western University and Dalhousie University. BackgroundBioSustainalyticsMakeWay (formerly Tides Canada Foundation)Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)ESG EvolutionWhat is ESG?“ESG Investing Comes of Age,” by Jon Hale and Bridget Ginty, Morningstar.com, June 2020.Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk RatingsEnvironmental, Social, and Governance Investing, Morningstar.com The Value and Efficacy of ESG“The True Value of ESG Data,” by Leon Saunders Calvert, refinitiv.com, Sept. 3, 2020.“Who Cares About ESG Investing?” by Steve Wendel and Samantha Lamas, Morningstar.com, May 3, 2019.“Why ESG Matters in a Crisis,” institutionalinvestor.com, June 9, 2020.“Breaking the Tragedy of the Horizon--Climate Change and Financial Stability,” speech by Mark Carney, bankofengland.co.uk., Sept. 29, 2015.“How to Align Your Investments With the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals,” by Dan Lefkovitz, Morningstar.com, Oct. 28, 2019. ESG Ratings/Subjectivity“’This Is the Shareholders’ Money’: Billionaire Warren Buffett Argues That Companies Should Stop Making Decisions Based on Their Social Beliefs,” by Ben Winck, businessinsider.com, Jan. 2, 2020. “The Department of Labor Attempts to Throttle ESG Investing,” by John Rekenthaler, Morningstar.com, July 2, 2020.ESG Best Practices“U.S. Lags Europe on Regulation of ESG Investing,” by Joe McGrath, expertinvestoreurope.com, June 3, 2019.“Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation: An Industry Game-Changer,” by Anne Schoemaker, sustainalytics.com, Nov. 4, 2020.Risk/Return “ESG Investing Is About Long-Term Risk Management,” by Alex Bryan, morningstar.com, July 14, 2020.“Sustainable Funds Weather Downturns Better Than Peers,” by Tom Lauricella and Jess Liu, Morningstar.com, June 15, 2020. “COVID-19 and Beyond: Using Sustainable Finance to Build Social Resilience,” by Jonathan Laski, sustainalytics.com, April 7, 2020.

Matt Whineray is CEO of the New Zealand Super Fund, and the co-chair of the Sustainable Finance Forum. In this conversation we dug into what makes the NZ super and pension system unique, as well as how the organisation integrates sustainability. And, it’s a public fund, it’s a government body, and I wanted to know how the increasingly politicised issues of climate change and pollution are managed by Matt and his team. Matt also talked about his move from the private sector in Hong Kong and New York, and the challenges of shifting from the sell-side, to the buy-side. Have a listen, and let me know your thoughts. All the show-notes are on my website at www.Johntreadgold.com, feel free to send through any comments, or leave a review on iTunes. And I must thank Carly from the Responsible Investment Association of Australia (aka RIAA) she made the introductions for me, and the organisation continues to be a great supporter of the show. RIAA has over 300 members managing more than $9 trillion in assets globally, they’re the largest network of people and organisations engaged in responsible, ethical and impact investing across Australia and New Zealand. Head to www.ResponsibleInvestment.org to find out more. Enjoy the show.

On the show today I have William Wu, he’s portfolio manager at Melior Investment Management, he teaches courses in sustainable investing at UNSW and he advises on boards of purpose-led businesses. Will and I have had some great conversations in the past, and it was a pleasure to take it further today. We discussed how you can have an impact when investing in public markets, how ESG is evolving and the changing ways investors can influence the companies that are playing a growing part in our society. Now Melior is only young and they’ve just completed their first impact report, so it was useful to understand how they’re starting out, where they hope to get to, and down the track we can check-in and get an update on progress. So let’s dive in. For all the show-notes and links you can go to my website at www.johntreadgold.com And, if you’d like to help spread the word about the show, please leave a review on itunes, it would be much appreciated. And someone else who’s helping spread the message is RIAA, that’s the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia. They have over 300 members managing more than $9 trillion in assets globally. They do great work and they’ve come on board to help support a series of upcoming episodes featuring the leading names in responsible investing. Head to www.ResponsibleInvestment.org to find out all about it. Enjoy

My guest this week is Sir Ronald Cohen. Ronnie has been a venture capitalist, private equity investor, and leader of the global impact investing revolution. He was co-founder and Executive Chairman of Apax Partners, And today, he’s the Chairman of the Global Steering Group on Impact Investing (GSG) which followed the G8 Social Impact Investment Task Force. He’s Chairman and co-Founder of The Portland Trust, co-founder of Social Finance UK, US, and Israel, and co-founder of Bridges Fund Management. Plus, he’s written a book, it’s called Impact: Reshaping capitalism to drive real change. I’ve looked forward to this conversation for a long time. And right now, is a perfect moment to speak with Ronnie, partly because he’s published a book all about impact, but also, because of the revolutionary work he’s done in the contributing to the concept of Impact Weighted Accounts. It takes transparency to a new level and it has the potential to change the very foundations of accounting that we’ve depended on for decades. But we didn’t just talk about impact measurement, I wanted to know about the pivotal moments of Ronnie’s life when he left Egypt as a boy, to travel to England, and how that shaped his mindset. As well as his time at Oxford, Harvard, and the many stages of his career in finance. I got so much out of this one, and I hope you do too. Now for all the show-notes and links, jump onto my website at www.Johntreadgold.com And, you can leave us a review on iTunes, because that helps to spread the message of the show. And someone else who’s helping spread the message is RIAA, that’s the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia. They have over 300 members managing more than $9 trillion in assets globally, they’re the largest network of people and organisations engaged in responsible, ethical and impact investing across Australia and New Zealand. They do great work and they’ve come on board to help support a series of upcoming episodes featuring the leading names in responsible investing. Head to www.ResponsibleInvestment.org to find out more. Enjoy the show

Rachel Etherington is a committed advocate for sustainable investing, she understands impact, ESG and the SDGs, but she’s also enthusiastic. Rachel is a specialist financial advisor at Crestone, she helps her clients manage their wealth inline with their values, but that’s only half the story. She’s on the board of the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, and she’s on the board of Future Super. Every time I speak with Rachel I come away a little bit wiser about the world of sustainability and finance, but more than that, I come away with a renewed sense of optimism. And today’s chat was no different. I really hope you enjoy it. For all the show-notes and links, jump onto my website at www.Johntreadgold.com And, you can leave us a review on iTunes, because that helps to spread the message of the show. And someone else who’s helping spread the message is RIAA, that’s the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia. They have over 300 members managing more than $9 trillion in assets globally, they’re the largest network of people and organisations engaged in responsible, ethical and impact investing across Australia and New Zealand. They do great work and they’ve come on board to help support a series of upcoming episodes featuring the leading names in responsible investing. Head to www.ResponsibleInvestment.org to find out all about it. Enjoy the show!

There’s plenty of uncertainty in the world right now, but optimism is returning. We’ve got a battered economy, and lots of people out of work, but for impact investors, that’s an opportunity. It’s a chance to build-back better. The Responsible Investment Association of Australasia, aka RIAA, have just released their Benchmarking Impact report for 2020. So I’ve managed to wrangle the CEO, Simon O’Connor, to come back on the show and tell us all about it. The report captures the full spectrum of work being done on impact investing in Australia. It looks backward to gauge performance, as well as forwards, laying out expectations of the country’s most progressive investors. Simon’s no stranger to the podcast, he’s been on before discussing his role as co-chair of the Australia Sustainable Finance Initiative. And he was very generous to jump on without much notice. Have a listen, and then jump onto the website at www.johntreadgold.com to find a link to the report. Enjoy!

Commercial banking isn't exactly known for being a warm and fuzzy business. Financial institutions provide a wide range of banking services to businesses large and small. However, existing banks and financial services providers often employ very standardized approaches that don't serve all businesses equally well. This is particularly apparent in commercial lending where start-ups and early-stage businesses, especially those with non-traditional business models (i.e. social enterprises), have great trouble securing financing. In this episode of the podcast, Jay-Ann Gilfroy, CEO of Vancity Community Investment Bank (VCIB) joins us to discuss the challenges in traditional commercial finance and how VCIB is inventing a kind, more purpose-driven approach. During our conversation, we also discuss VCIB's recent acquisition of CoPower (be sure to listen to episode 11 from last year where I discuss CoPower's green bonds with Trish Nixon), and the launch of VCIB's newest impact investment, the Unity GIC. You can connect with Vancity/VCIB on their website, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. You can connect with Jay-Ann on LinkedIn. Also, don't forget that the Responsible Investment Association's annual conference is coming up, June 8 - 12th. You can register at www.riaconference.ca.

The global crisis does not seem to trigger a decline in sustainable finance. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Tune in the interview with Dustyn Lanz, CEO at the Responsible Investment Association, and Kelly Gauthier, Managing Director at Rally Assets, to learn more about the current situation in Canada and explore timely tips for impact investors. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Zali Steggall is not your usual politician. She defeated ex-Prime Minister Tony Abbott to take office last year, and now she’s shepherding a Climate Change Bill through parliament that has the potential to define Australia’s next century. Her Bill doesn’t define policy or technology, instead it acts as a roadmap. At its core, it has the goal of getting emissions to Net Zero by 2050. She’s garnered support from all sides, and for business, it offers stability and certainty that has been sorely lacking, and which is vital for making long-term investment and capital decisions. Zali Steggall is the Federal member for Warringah, she’s independent so she’s not beholden to any party. Zali is a lawyer, but before that she was in fact an Olympic skier. In Nagano she won a bronze medal, Australia’s first individual winter Olympic medal. She’s clearly no stranger to winning, but she may still have her biggest challenge ahead of her. You see, Zali is taking a new Bill to parliament, it’s called the Climate Change Bill. This conversation was originally organised as part of the RIAA Conference, that’s the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia. But, like so many other events, it was postponed in the wake of the covid-19 crisis. Zali talked a little about how her community is handling the Corona virus, as well as how frustrated she is by the conduct of some commentators. We talked about the need to address climate change after a lost decade of political inaction, and she explained that this issue has increasing support from members on both sides of the parliament, from business, land holders and greenies alike. This is about cleaning up our environment, but it’s also about catching-up, across innovation, renewable power, productivity and efficiency. Things that are already proving to define this new decade. All the show notes are on my website www.Johntreadgold.com Enjoy

On this episode, we’re looking at sustainable finance, the idea that investors might not just want to maximise their financial returns, but also invest with an eye towards environmental and social issues. To help us understand this world, we are joined by Deb Cotton, Senior Lecturer in Finance at the UTS Business School.Plus, we speak with Mark McVeigh, who decided to sue his superannuation fund over a lack of information around their climate impact.Further Reading:To learn more about impact investing in Australia, check out Social Ventures AustraliaPrinciples for Responsible Investment breaks down the fiduciary duty of investors to integrate Environmental Social and governance issues into their processes.Responsible Investment Association of AustralasiaYou can find out more information on Mark’s case McVeigh v Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Ltd on the Federal Court website.Rest Super addresses their efforts to account for ESG issues when investing on their website.*Rest Super did not respond to a request for comment on Mark's case. Music: Lupus Nocte, Enigmatic, Trevor Kowaski, Spectacles, Wallet and Watch and Raymonde GrouseProduced by: Jason L’Ecuyer with production support by Ben Robinson

The field of Responsible Investing is growing at a rapid pace, and to explore all of its implications we turned to two experts. They’ll give us an overview as well as dive into some of the interesting trends and best practices from Responsible Investing in Canada. We’ll talk with Alison Schneider, the Director of Responsible Investing for AIMCO, or Alberta Investment Management Company. AIMCO is a Crown-Corporation that is responsible for the investments of 31 pension, endowment and government funds in Alberta. We’re also joined by Dustyn Lanz, CEO of the Responsible Investment Association in Canada. For full show notes and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://bmo.com/sustainabilityleaders

Welcome to Episode 22 of Good Will Hunters! This week, I chat to Ross Piper, CEO of Christian Super. Prior to this role, Ross was the Chief Operating Officer of World Vision Australia. Ross has over 25 years’ experience as a leader in the finance and not for profit sectors, including roles as the Head of Corporate Risk at Macquarie Group, and Senior Director of Operations for the Middle East and Eastern Europe at World Vision International, where he worked closely with peer to peer microfinance programs. Upon his appointment as CEO, Ross remarked that Christian Super has a track record of operating with purpose and intentional impact within the Superannuation sector, and he has continued that legacy in his role. Ross was also a Founding Board Member of Agroinvest, a microfinance bank providing credit services for agricultural enterprises in rural Serbia and Montenegro. In addition Ross was an Advisory Board Member of the Shared Value Project, a regional community of practice committed to driving adoption and implementation of shared value strategies among leaders and companies, civil society, and government organisations in Australia. Ross is currently a Board Member of the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia, and Seed Initiatives. In this episode we chat about some of the most pertinent topics affecting the development sector at the moment, including Long Term Value (LTV), investor attitudes towards environmental and social risk, consumer-driven change (and why we've just had the most "Hostile AGM's" ever!) and whether we really need the distinction between the "For Profit" and "Not For Profit" sectors - it's a very interesting topic! Ross is well known in the development sector, and at least half a dozen people recommended I interview him on Good Will Hunters, so I'm thrilled it finally happened - and I couldn't be happier with the result. This is one of the most enlightening and thought-provoking interviews I've done. If you enjoyed this episode, please let us know via our social media pages @goodwillpod and leave us a rating on iTunes so we can continue to share these conversations far and wide. Enjoy! Rachel and the GWH Team Links: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-25/super-fund-rest-sued-for-not-doing-enough-on-climate-change/10029744 https://www.ey.com/en_gl/assurance/does-nonfinancial-reporting-tell-value-creation-story [Royalty free music by Bensound]

Find out how the terms ESG (environmental, social and governance) and SRI (socially responsible investing) are intertwined and different from each other, the business case for ESG, Millennial investing trends, the suitability of cannabis for responsible investing, especially with the upcoming legalization, the priority for ESG in the institutional space, ESG trends over the next few years from an investment perspective and more.  • About Dustyn Lanz • Dustyn is CEO of Responsible Investment Association. Dustyn is quoted regularly in the national media as an expert on responsible investing and a frequent public speaker at some of Canada’s leading business schools and investment conferences. In 2014, he helped to launch Canada’s first financial designations for advisors with expertise in responsible investing. In 2016, Dustyn received a Clean50 Emerging Leader Award for his contributions to responsible investing in Canada. Learn more about Evolve ETFs: https://evolveetfs.com

Appetite for ethical and sustainable investments has increased dramatically in recent years, as investors increasingly seek to avoid harmful corporate behaviour and support positive industries such as renewable energy and green alternatives to traditional waste management. While there are some universal values to which investors subscribe (such as avoiding modern slavery and cluster munitions, for example), however, the range of ethical investment choices can seem infinite to the uninitiated. ----more---- To help you understand ways you can invest with an ethical focus, Gemma Dale interviews Simon O’Connor, CEO of the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia, demystifying the jargon and covering such issues as: Whether investing with an ethical lens reduces your portfolio return, How to align your portfolio with your own personal values, Simple ways to introduce ethical, social and governance (ESG) factors to your investing decisions, Real examples of ESG done well – and poorly, and Hard-headed reasons to pay attention to sustainability issues, even if you’re not passionate about the cause. You can access this and previous episodes of the Your Wealth podcast now on iTunes, Podbean or at nabtrade.com.au/yourwealth.

On the off-chance that you’re one of the few people who read the information sent out by their superannuation fund, you might have noticed that in recent years they’ve added an Ethical Investment option. Now the exact labelling of that option will vary – it might be called Socially Responsible, Sustainable, or just Responsible, all of which are interchangeable terms for ethical investment options. So given these options are popping up like mushrooms in a wet cow paddock, what do they mean, what’s happening under the hood that makes then different to other investment options, and bottom line – should you care? Each year the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia (RIAA) produces a Benchmark Report which tracks the adoption of ethical investment options, and their performance. In their most recent report (2017) they found that funds adopting a “core” responsible investment approach outperformed their peers over the longer term, both in the Australian share and International share space. That superior performance doesn’t happen every year, but the RIAA data has found fairly consistently over the years that when measured over the medium to long term, an adoption of an ethical investment approach has delivered improved returns for investors. And so it is for this reason primarily that ethical investment options, once an extremely niche offering that was expensive and little understood, has broken into the mainstream. In fact RIAA found that 44% of all of Australia’s assets under management are now being invested through some form of responsible investment strategy. Now there’s two interesting paths to wander down at this point. The first is what does it mean to invest “responsibly”, and the second is, why is the adoption of this approach leading to improved returns. What does Ethical Investment mean? As you might guess from the number of inter-changeable terms used to describe this investment process, there is no single definition of what makes an investment an Ethical one. This is hardly surprising, since ethics is something formed by an individual, and whilst in society there is likely to be much commonality on what is “ethical”, there will also be considerable room for disagreement. In a broad sense, ethical investment means considering “ESG” factors when contemplating an investment. ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. So in considering these factors, fund managers or investors are thinking about a business in a broader context than just the profit and loss statement and balance sheet. The adoption of the consideration of ESG factors by professional investors has been where the bulk of the growth in this space has occurred. But of course, just because you’ve considered these factors, doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t still decide to invest in a coal mine or a weapons manufacturer. The next tier up is what RIAA defines as “Core” responsible investment funds. They define this subset as: “Core responsible investment approaches apply at least one of the following primary strategies: negative, positive or norms-based screening; sustainability themed investing; impact investing, community finance; or corporate engagement.” I’d suggest that if you’re someone who finds the idea of ethical investment interesting, then this definition and the fund managers that fall within it, are what you are seeking. So let’s unpack that definition a little because there’s plenty of jargon in there. Negative screening means that the fund might have certain industries that they undertake never to invest in. The most common are fossil fuel mining, tobacco, and weapons manufacture. Here’s an example from one of the more stringent local listed funds: (Companies invested in) can’t be materially associated with a range of activities that could be deemed inconsistent with responsible or ethical investing.  These activities include, among others, the production or financing of fossil fuels, gambling, junk food, tobacco, pornography, armaments, alcohol and animal cruelty. So if you chose to invest your money with that fund manager, you can have confidence that your investment will never have holdings in those sectors. Many ethical funds stop at that negative screen point. Some go on to apply positive screens as well though, so they look especially favourably for example, on companies that develop medical solutions to improve people’s lives, or are creating solutions to improve the environment. Other funds don’t use screens at all, but instead have an overarching investment philosophy around investing for the long term and considering sustainability as a primary factor when evaluating a business. There have been some global share funds that have adopted this approach that have generated outstanding returns for their investors in recent years. You might also be interested in a short piece I wrote some time back “What do Ethical fund managers do?”. Given the different “flavours” of ethical investment, there is a definite challenge around “green washing”. That is, the practice of promoting an investment as ethical, sustainable, or whatever, for the positive connotations that those words hint at, but then when you look under the hood at what they invest in, it’s little different to a standard investment fund. The worst case of this that I’ve seen was a fund created for the Australian share market that had the word “ethical” in its name. When you looked at the fund description, it informed investors that it would invest in companies in the ASX200 (an index of the top 200 companies on the Australian stock exchange), excluding those involved in the production of armaments and tobacco products. The problem was, no companies in the ASX200 are involved in these industries! So in practice, the fund was no different to a regular, non-ethical investment. But they charged a higher fee! Why the outperformance? The next thing worth exploring is why has the research found that ethical investment tends to out-perform over the medium to longer term? One simple explanation could be that the funds operating in this space tend to have more of a weighting to the mid-cap sector, ie. not the largest companies, and not the really small companies either. There is some research that points to this area being a bit of a sweet spot for investors – the companies in this space tend to have lots of room to grow, perhaps unlike some of the really large companies, and yet they’re not so small that they lack quality management and oversight. Another explanation is that the adoption of considering factors beyond the financial statements has a strong basis in logic. Take a tobacco manufacturer for instance. The numbers might tell an analyst that this is a profitable business. But pulling your head out of the numbers, and thinking a bit more broadly, do you really want to be investing in a product known to kill people? Even if you don’t have a moral issue with that, do you want to be in a business where governments are working hard to dissuade people from buying your products, such as Australia’s very successful plain packaging legislation? Mining companies are another sector often excluded by ethical investment funds, and in Australia, these businesses form a significant part of our investment universe. Ethical investment advocates would argue that these are not sustainable businesses – you can only dig the resource out of the ground once. On that basis alone, they make a poor investment. Add to that the damage done to the surrounding environment, and the knock effects of then using the extracted resource, such as the carbon dioxide released when burning fossil fuels, and many, myself included, would consider these companies to be unattractive investment options. If enough people come to the same conclusion, then price appreciation of their shares won’t occur, or at least won’t occur to the same extent, and businesses may even become starved of capital. Compare that to a business developing a vaccine for a common, serious disease. If they’re successful, governments around the world may buy or subsidise the sale of their product. In total contrast to the tobacco industry, governments and the community will put “wind in the sails” and propel the business towards success. Doesn’t that sound like an investment you’d want to be in? So next time you’re considering investment options, whether in your super fund, or your ordinary savings, give some thought to whether an ethical investment option might be suitable for you. Just be sure to have a read of what they interpret that to mean and ensure it aligns with your expectations. This may well be an area where some expert advice is warranted. A great resource is RIAA’s find a planner tool . Another resource that you might find of value is a book recently published by a good friend of mine Stuart Barry called The Rich Greenie.   Important Information: This information is of a general nature only and has been prepared without taking into account your particular financial needs, circumstances and objectives. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information, it is not guaranteed. You should obtain professional advice before acting on the information contained in this publication.

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: Annual Investment Outlook Luncheon: Making Money in 2016 from Domestic and International Financial Markets Featuring Ian Russell, Nick Barisheff and Greg Greer‎ lan Russell, President and CEO of the Investment Industry Association of Canada and Nick Barisheff, President and CEO of Bullion Management Group Inc. and Greg Greer, Managing Director and Head, Global Debt Capital Markets, Scotiabank lan Russell is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Investment Industry Association of Canada IIAC. Prior to his appointment at the IAC, Mr. Russell was Senior Vice President, Industry Relations and Representation, at the Investment Dealers Association of Canada, IDA. In his 20 year tenure with the IDA and the IIAC, he has participated actively in many committees and working groups involved in regulatory and tax issues related to the securities industry and capital markets. He is a frequent commentator in the media, a regular columnist in industry publications and a sought after speaker on industry issues and developments. In January 2014, Mr. Russell was appointed Chair of the International Council of Securities Associations, ICSA. Mr. Russell has an Honours degree in Economics and Business from the University of Western Ontario, and a postgraduate degree, MSc Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has completed the Partners, Directors and Senior Officers Qualifying Examination and is a Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute. Nick Barisheff is the founder, president and CEO of Bullion Management Group Inc., a company dedicated to providing investors with a secure, cost effective, transparent way to purchase and hold physical bullion. BMG is an Associate Member of the London Bullion Market Association, LBMA, as well as the Responsible Investment Association, RIA. Widely recognized as an international bullion expert, Nick has written numerous articles on bullion and current market trends, which have been published on various news and business websites. Nick has appeared on BNN, CBC, CNBC and Sun Media, and has been interviewed for countless articles by leading business publications across North America, Europe and Asia. His first book $10,000 Gold: Why Gold's Inevitable Rise is the Investors Safe Haven, was published in the Spring of 2013. Every investor who seeks the safety of sound money will benefit from Nick's insights into the portfolio preserving power of gold. www.bmgbullion.com Greg Greer is managing Director and Head, Global Debt Capital Markets. He is currently responsible for Scotiabank's Global Debt Capital Markets business, as well as our EMEA and Asia Pacific Risk Solutions businesses... Speaker: Ian Russell, President and CEO of the Investment Industry Association of Canada Nick Barisheff, President and CEO of Bullion Management Group Inc. Greg Greer‎, Managing Director and Head, Global Debt Capital Markets, Scotiabank *The content presented is free of charge but please note that the Empire Club of Canada retains copyright. Neither the speeches themselves nor any part of their content may be used for any purpose other than personal interest or research without the explicit permission of the Empire Club of Canada.* *Views and Opinions Expressed Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the speakers or panelists are those of the speakers or panelists and do not necessarily reflect or represent the official views and opinions, policy or position held by The Empire Club of Canada.*