ETFs focused on Environmental, Social and Governance issues have made headlines and brought in Billions in 2020. But ESG is, for many, in the eye of the beholder. How do you pair the personal nature of ESG with the myriad of packaged solutions out there?
In the upcoming webcast, Going Beyond ESG: Impact Investing for 2021, Keith Dixson, Head of International Business Development, Candriam; and Chris Hempstead, Director of Institutional Business Development, IndexIQ, will walk through the alphabet soup of ESG investing, with a particular focus on how impact investing can yield great outcomes for both investors and your clients’ values.
New York Life Investments recently launched its “One-Talk, One-Ton” Challenge to encourage financial advisors to discuss sustainable investing with their clients. New York Life Investments is committed to offsetting one ton of carbon emissions for each conversation financial advisors pledge to have with clients on sustainable investing, beginning Zero Emissions Day on September 21 through October 23, 2020.
In order to prepare themselves, financial advisors can use New York Life Investments’ educational resources, including the U.S. CANDRIAM Academy, the first free-to-access, accredited ESG training platform, to learn more about sustainable investing. The Candraim Academy aims to raise the awareness, education and knowledge of financial intermediaries on the topic of sustainable investing via an innovative online platform of inspiring and actionable content and materials.
IndexIQ, a New York Life Investments company and a leading provider of innovative investment solutions, also offers a line of environmental, social and governance, or ESG, related ETFs, including the IQ Candriam ESG US Equity ETF (IQSU) and the IQ Candriam ESG International Equity ETF (IQSI), which incorporate CANDRIAM’s industry-leading ESG research and data for the first time in a cost-effective ETF wrapper.
The new funds track the two IndexIQ indexes: IQ Candriam ESG US Equity Index and the IQ Candriam ESG International Equity Index. IQSU focuses on U.S. equity securities of companies meeting certain ESG criteria while ISQI tracks foreign developed equity securities of companies meeting certain ESG criteria.
The ETFs track indexes which offer broad market exposure to large- and medium-cap companies satisfying the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria developed by CANDRIAM, a fellow New York Life Investments business, and global multi-specialist asset manager with over 20 years of expertise in sustainable investing.
CANDRIAM’s proprietary ESG evaluation process includes a dedicated ESG research team, which reviews companies on environmental, social and governance considerations, either in absolute terms or relative to their peers in each sector, focusing on the most material ESG factors.
The CANDRIAM research is supported by a team that engages with companies as part of collective initiatives or individually, with the aim to improve corporate disclosure on ESG topics or foster better corporate practices on ESG matters. Using the research as a key input, CANDRIAM applies sustainable investing criteria across the firm.
Financial advisors who are interested in learning more about ESG investments can register for the Wednesday, October 14 webcast here.