Advisor Perspectives, February 1, 2021 Burton Malkiel, esteemed author of the classic investing book A Random Walk Down Wall Street is one of the more prominent critics of environmental-, sustainable- and governance-based (ESG) investing. He called ESG investing a “self-defeating” strategy in a recent Wall Street Journal column. But Malkiel and other detractors who claim ESG is a fad…
An Unimaginable Year in Review and 2021 Outlook An Unimaginable Year As we review 2020 and position for the future, it goes without saying that the past year was exceptional and unpredictable. Who in their right mind could have imagined a global pandemic, racial injustice protests, the worst economic decline in history and a contentious…
In 2011, only 20% of S&P 500 Index companies issued a sustainability report. By 2019, that figure had quadrupled to 90%. One driver of this change is investor demand. As more people seek to invest in alignment with their values, companies have responded by providing more information. Another driver is recognition by company management teams…
[This] response to the COVID-19 health crisis is one example of how ESG efforts undertaken by public companies can benefit not only societies in which they operate, but the corporate shareholders as well. — As COVID-19 continues to spread and severely impact the economy of the United States and other countries around the world, Quest…
Riverwater Partners believes that sustainable companies perform better. Our highly integrative process can enable our clients to invest according to their values while also opening up the possibility of not only no performance disadvantage but, as is our goal over the long term, a performance advantage. For many years, the primary approach taken by “responsible”…
Survival of the Fittest The market rally that began in March continues its historic run. In stark contrast with what is happening on Main Street, Wall Street has performed exceptionally well, with the S&P 500 posting its best two consecutive quarters in the last 20 years! That incredible performance has not been uniform across all…
We recently wrote to the U.S. Department of Labor regarding the rights of shareholders and their ability to proxy vote. You can read what was sent below: — Attention: Proxy Voting and Shareholder Rights NPRM Office of Regulations and Interpretations Employee Benefits Security Administration Room N-5655 U.S. Department of Labor 200 Constitution Avenue NW Washington,…
At Riverwater, our work as “active owners” is intended to help bring to bear our clients’ values. In this way, active ownership is a natural extension of our efforts to make investment selections consistent with those values. At times, active ownership can also be a natural extension of our efforts to achieve a strong return…
THE “NEW” NEW NORMAL There are many superlatives to choose from to describe last quarter’s rally. This winter saw the quickest pivot to a bear market in history, followed by an equally rapid rebound in the spring. In fact, we just experienced the strongest 100-day rally since 1933.[1] After the market bottomed on March 23rd,…
The Arrival of COVID-19 We hope that you, your family, and loved ones are holding up and doing well in these unprecedented times. There is no need to explain in detail what happened to the markets during the first quarter; we are all too familiar with the declines. That said, it was the worst quarter…
