Social Butterflies: After adjusting for loads and taxes, socially conscious funds have provided comparable returns over the past five years

For a small but growing segment of investors, social responsibility, not high returns, motivates investment choice. So-called socially conscious (SC) funds allow investors to support certain social and ethical causes. Over the past 4.5 years, growth in the number of SC funds has matched the overall...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inFinancial planning (Atlanta, Ga.) p. 1
Main Author Craig L. Israelsen & Deanna l. Sharp
Format Magazine Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York SourceMedia 01.07.1999
Subjects
Bond funds
Comparative analysis
Efficiency
Equity
Equity funds
Large cap investments
Load
Mutual funds
Portfolio investments
Portfolio performance
Ratios
Social investing
Standard deviation
Studies
Taxes
United States > US
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:For a small but growing segment of investors, social responsibility, not high returns, motivates investment choice. So-called socially conscious (SC) funds allow investors to support certain social and ethical causes. Over the past 4.5 years, growth in the number of SC funds has matched the overall growth rate of mutual funds in general (103% and 106%, respectively), but growth in SC fund assets has been significantly more rapid than growth in total mutual funds assets (254% and 151%, respectively). When compared to like-sized funds (in terms of market cap), SC funds have provided comparable returns over the past 5 years, after adjusting for loads and taxes. They have also been less committed to a particular equity style. Despite assertions of gross underperformance, socially conscious funds appear to offer peace of mind and a good-sized piece of the action.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
content type line 24
SourceType-Magazines-1
ISSN:0746-7915