Worthstone announces launch of new Impact Investment rating methodology, to provide independent rating service of funds across the Impact spectrum
Worthstone, the UK’s first targeted impact investment resource platform for Financial Advice professionals, announces the launch of it’s new Impact Investment rating methodology. This service is a significant development in providing UK Financial Advice professionals with independent, market wide analysis across the Impact Spectrum and provides advisers with market leading insights on the impact performance of funds within the growing sustainable and impact investment sector.
The new methodology provides the retail adviser community with fund ratings that:
- Cover the entire impact spectrum – we aim to cover all funds in the sector, ranging from ethical funds to responsible, sustainable investing and through to impact investing in one rating methodology. We anticipate covering close to 300 funds on launch;
- Are independent and objective – our analysis is not supported by asset managers or limited to any pay to play service;
- Are reliable and continually updated, with source data from world leading data providers that has been subject to substantial research and development over an 18 month project;
- Extend the analysis that advisers have available to explain impact performance to their clients. We will offer advisers the ability to benchmark impact performance to peers in the sector and will also illustrate how the funds are contributing towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs.
Worthstone also announced that the new methodology will allow advisers to produce consolidated impact portfolio reports from Q1 2021. The new methodology will be available to Worthstone subscribers and will be launched on Worthstone’s online Impact Portal in early 2021.
Gavin Francis, founder and CEO of Worthstone, commented:
“Our long term vision at Worthstone is to see impact embraced as a valued metric in every investment decision. We are the first independent specialist to be focused exclusively on delivering sustainable and impact investment support to the financial planning community. Our new ratings methodology will provide financial advisers with the ability to receive independent ratings for all funds within the ethical, sustainable and impact investing sector.
The area of sustainable and impact investment can be confusing for advisers, unsure of how to compare the sustainable & positive impact claims across different funds. Our ratings methodology offers a comprehensive, independent solution to this issue; providing advisers with the ability to analyse impact performance across all funds in the sector. Advisers can also examine relative performance in sub-categories such as Environmental, Social and Governance or exposure to controversial sectors and we also assess the role of Asset Managers in making an active contribution towards positive impact in how they engage and manage their investments.
Consolidated Impact Portfolio reporting will allow advisers to combine impact performance from all funds within an impact portfolio into one consolidated report for clients.
We believe this new methodology is unrivalled in terms of the insights it provides across such a broad range of funds in the sustainable and impact universe; evidencing Worthstone’s commitment to being at the forefront of impact investing developments for financial advisers and it’s mission to see impact investment become the investment style of choice amongst UK financial planners.“
About Worthstone:
Worthstone, a certified B Corp, with a vision to see the establishment of impact investment as the lead offering by the UK investment advisory community to its client base.
We are a completely independent and impartial one-stop knowledge centre for financial planners whose clients are interested in investing for good i.e. making investments that achieve a financial return, but also make a positive impact on society or the environment.
In other words, we help financial advisers enable their clients to generate more positive social impact, as well as money, from their investments.
Gavin Francis
Founder and Director