{"id":118,"date":"2006-02-14T08:28:45","date_gmt":"2006-02-14T12:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/2006\/02\/14\/socially-responsible-funds\/"},"modified":"2006-02-14T08:28:45","modified_gmt":"2006-02-14T12:28:45","slug":"socially-responsible-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/2006\/02\/14\/socially-responsible-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"“Socially Responsible” Funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

from the Wall Street Journal Online<\/span><\/p>\n

By JOSHUA ALBERTSON, <\/strong>February 14, 2006; Page D2<\/span><\/span> <\/div>\n

Sky-high oil prices haven’t been kind to mutual funds with a mandate for socially responsible investing.<\/p>\n

Over
\nthe past 12 months, equity funds with a socially responsible bent have
\ngained 11.54%, nearly four percentage points less than the average for
\nall equity funds, according to investment-research firm Lipper. Over
\nthree years, it’s an annualized 17.2% for socially responsible
\nportfolios versus 20.67% for all equity funds. SRI equity funds account
\nfor only 0.62%, or $32.4 billion worth, of all equity-fund assets.<\/p>\n

Though
\ncriteria vary, socially responsible funds generally avoid sectors that
\ngo against certain ethical guidelines. The biggest such sectors are
\nalcohol, tobacco, defense, pornography and gambling.<\/p>\n

\"[fundscreen]\"<\/a>1<\/sup> SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE FUNDS<\/span> <\/p>\n
 <\/div>\n

•<\/span> These nine funds are<\/a>2<\/sup> top performers in their categories and have low costs.
 
<\/span> MORE ON FUND SCREENS<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/div>\n
For more information about Fund Screens, sign up for a free trial at www.smartmoney.com\/wsj_fund<\/a>3<\/sup>.<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Energy
\nstocks, particularly those that focus on fossil fuels like oil and
\ncoal, also violate the tenets of many socially responsible funds. Much
\nof the group’s underperformance of late can be attributed to its
\nrelative distaste for the energy concerns that have led the market for
\nthe better part of three years. The top two funds on our screen this
\nweek, Ariel Fund and Ariel Appreciation, eschew the sector entirely.<\/p>\n

But
\nbefore we paint socially responsible funds into the
\ntoo-constrained-can’t-compete corner, it’s worth noting that Lipper
\nonly requires that they include some sort of moral criteria in their
\ninvestment philosophy. That’s a pretty low entry barrier that leaves
\nroom for a large amount of discretion from fund to fund — and a lot of
\nstock-picking options for most socially responsible fund managers.<\/p>\n

This
\nweek, we searched for equity-fund portfolios tagged with the socially
\nresponsible investing label. We demanded five-year returns in the top
\n50% of each fund’s classification and expense ratios in the bottom 50%.
\nEach of the nine no-load funds on our list is open to new investors,
\nrequires a minimum initial investment of $5,000 or less and has total
\nnet assets of at least $50 million.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\" <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n URL for this article:
http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB113988128252573020.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
 <\/td>\n Hyperlinks in this Article:<\/strong>
(1) http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB113805873919454073.html<\/a>
(2) http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB113988158415673035.html<\/a>
(3) http:\/\/www.smartmoney.com\/wsj_fund<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from the Wall Street Journal Online By JOSHUA ALBERTSON, February 14, 2006; Page D2 Sky-high oil prices haven’t been kind to mutual funds with a mandate for socially responsible investing. Over the past 12 months, equity funds with a socially responsible bent have gained 11.54%, nearly four percentage points less than the average for all equity funds, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[782],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-multinational-corporate-responsibility"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}