Faith-based investing on the rise as world grows more chaotic

investmentnews.com:

In an increasingly chaotic world, more clients are asking their advisors to have a little faith.

ESG may have dominated the headlines, but faith-based investing has steadily — and quietly — been on the rise, according to a number of faith-based advisors contacted by InvestmentNews. Chris McMahon, CEO of Aquinas Wealth Advisors, for example, says the number of referrals and inquiries at MFA Wealth, the sister firm to Aquinas and a traditional RIA with over $500 million in assets under management, have surged in the past year.

“Clients couldn’t invest this way for a long time because they didn’t have the means to do it. Now they’re saying to their advisors, ‘This is important to me, I want to do it,’” McMahon said.

Faith-based investing inquiries to the combined firms have reached a new high of approximately 80%, McMahon said. That includes institutional investors such as religious organizations and faith-based groups. 

Aquinas Wealth Advisors developed the Faith In Finance program, which allows clients to assess their current portfolios for performance and faith alignment. Aquinas’sCatholic values investment strategy is guided by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ framework for economic life.

As to the question of whether his clients can do well and have faith, McMahon says the firm’s “faith-based model portfolio has outperformed our non-faith-based model portfolio over the last 24 months.” 

Similarly, Robert Netzly, CEO of Inspire Investing, said he continues to see a groundswell of interest and adoption of faith-based, biblically responsible investing. In Netzly’s view, Christians all over the world are beginning to realize the critical importance of aligning their investment dollars to support the biblical values