Robos Getting a Jump on SRI

Robo-advisors may be catching human advisors flat-footed when it comes to socially responsible investing, InvestmentNews says.

At least three new robos—OpenInvest, Earthfolio and Grow Invest—have sprung up in the past 18 months to capitalize on investor demand for sustainable investing. And “it’s likely only a matter of time before many of the largest digital advice platforms include an SRI component as well,” the publication writes.

Seventy-seven percent of affluent investors want their investments to positively impact society, InvestmentNews says, citing a TIAA survey. That’s especially true of women and millennials. But another TIAA survey reveals that more than a third of advisors aren’t confident they can properly gauge investments’ sustainability performance.

Currently, a minority of advisor firms focus on SRI, and a larger number of independent and wirehouse advisors can make social investments available to their clients.

“We’re constantly meeting people who asked their adviser about socially responsible investing,” OpenInvest co-founder Joshua Levin tells InvestmentNews, “but they didn’t know about it or said they don’t recommend it.”

Read the full article:
http://www.barrons.com/articles/robos-getting-a-jump-on-sri-1484284200