In this episode of the Kingdom Investor podcast, host Daniel White interviews Robert Netzly, the CEO of Inspire Investing. They discuss the concept of biblical responsible investing, which involves paying attention not only to the financial returns of a portfolio but also to the moral aspects of the companies being invested in. Netzly shares his personal story of how he stumbled upon this concept and how it led him to start Inspire Investing. He also talks about their current project, "Blessing Generations," which involves strategically thinking about the long-term future of the company and how it can continue to glorify God.
Key takeaways:
- Aligning investments with personal values is important.
- Companies have a significant impact on society.
- Long-term planning is essential for a successful business.
- Following God's calling, even when it seems risky and uncertain, can lead to great success.
- The exclusionary process involves a dozen categories such as abortion drugs, pornography, and human trafficking, and legislative efforts that promote immoral activities.
- The majority of businesses (about 85%) pass all exclusionary criteria and are not involved in heinous business or moral issues.
- Companies are evaluated based on how they are being a blessing to their customers, workforce, communities they operate in, and the world in general. There are a few dozen categories to evaluate these aspects.
- Industry best in class is also taken into consideration, such as oil companies that are responsible in drilling and transportation of oil, and companies that score higher in these areas are awarded more points.
- A theoretical positive 100 is awarded to companies that score the highest above average in all categories.
- There are over 40,000 ticker symbols of stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs that are available and scrubbed daily for various data points and refreshed daily, and can be accessed for free on inspire insight.com.
- The faith-driven investing space has been around for a long time, but it has been a really sleepy market until recently.
- Faith-driven investing is growing by leaps and bounds and more and more financial advisors are becoming aware and integrating it into their practice.
- The market for faith-driven investing is huge, estimated to be about $21 trillion in stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, bonds, and retirement plans in the United States that are controlled by Protestants, evangelicals, and Catholics.
- The main roadblock for investors to participate in biblically responsible investing is awareness and knowing what to do once they become aware of it.
- Investors need to ask questions about who is managing their money, their convictions, and options available to them, and they may need to find a different place to invest for the glory of God.
Links:
https://inspireinsight.com/
About Robert Netzly
Robert Netzly is the CEO of Inspire Investing and a frequent contributor on FOX, Bloomberg, New York Times, and other major media. Read more from Robert in his #1 bestselling book Biblically Responsible Investing, available at Amazon.com and other major retailers.
