‘Impact investing goes deeper than trendy ESG funds’

investmentnews.com:

Michael Reynolds, principal at Elevation Financial, is an entrepreneur at heart, having built and sold multiple businesses over two decades, including a digital marketing agency.  

For 23 years, he helmed the agency as it evolved from a fledgling startup to a thriving small business. But burned out by red tape, Reynolds sold up and took a brief hiatus to take stock before following his passion for personal finance.   

Today, as the sole proprietor of his RIA, the Indiana-based advisor cherishes the opportunity to make a tangible impact on clients’ lives across the US. “Transitioning back to working directly with individuals and families has been incredibly rewarding,” he says.   

The front and center of Reynolds’ practice is his specialty in ESG investing. He explains how he navigates greenwashing and what advisors can do to market themselves more effectively.  

IN: Why do you specialize in ESG investing?  

Michael Reynolds: How much time do you have? I like to go pretty deep because I prefer the impact component. A lot of times we see that ESG means just picking a couple of mainstream index funds that have an ESG label on them and calling it a day. A lot of that is trendy and greenwashing, and I don’t feel like it’s necessarily the right way to go or necessarily sincere.   

I like to make sure that if my clients truly want impact and they really have these progressive values that are important to them, we are choosing investments that truly make a difference. So I look for advocacy. I look for fund families that actually talk to corporate CEOs and lobby for policy change; that use their voice through shareholder advocacy and proxy voting to actually help these companies and encourage them to make real change that