News, Blog & Ethics

What does the outcome of Brexit mean for your investments?

If you follow the news, it seems as though every few weeks there’s a story about a big corporate executive and their even bigger bonuses. These eye-watering pay packages seem to come rain or shine. Taking the recent example of BP, you might have heard about how they proposed a staggering £14million pay package to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bob Dudley. Now, while this amount of money is not far…

A recent study by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has found that wind power supplied almost half of Scotland’s total energy demand for the month of January.

Despite the perception that ethical funds are all about wind turbines and fair trade; the reality is that most of the funds are focused on finding regular businesses, doing things well. Nothing could typify this more, than investment in the mainstream retail sector and the example investee company, Dunelm, which is held in the Premier fund.

If you pay any attention to the media, it will have been hard to avoid a series of stories regarding investment market turmoil. There is no getting away from the fact that global stock markets have had a torrid time over the last six months and start to the New Year (which usually benefits from New Year optimism) has seen the worst start in investment markets for over two decades.

In January 2014, there was much excitement as websites crashed in the demand to invest in the new NS&I Pensioner Growth Bonds. These bonds, a “rabbit pulled out of the hat” by Chancellor Osborne in the 2013 Budget offered market busting rates at 2.8% for a one-year bond and 4% for a three-year bond.

Fitness trackers are set to become one of the gadgets of Christmas 2015. For those of you who are delighted with this gift, hopefully it’ll inspire you to greater health and fitness – but, have you considered what other impacts it could potentially have, especially on your finances?

Many of us will enjoy a tasty treat with a cup of tea and what could exemplify this more than the iconic Scottish brand of the Tunnocks teacake? However, Tunnocks is one of the latest firms to come under pressure for the use of unsustainable palm oil in their products. An online petition, via the website 38degree.com is currently calling for Tunnocks to stop the use of palm oil in their confectionery production.

ISO 22222 is an internationally recognised standard which defines the personal financial planning process and specifies ethical behaviour, competences and experience requirements for personal financial planners. Practitioners who hold this award are subject to a rigorous annual review of policy and practice by independent assessors. Ethical Futures are pleased to advise that Julian Parrott has recently completed his annual assessment and his ISO 22222 accreditation has been renewed.

The management team of Rathbone Ethical Bond fund visited Ethical Futures last week. As part of our process of ongoing due diligence, we were keen to meet with Fund Manager, Bryn Jones and Senior Credit Analyst Noelle Cazalis, to discuss both performance and ethical aspects of the fund.

Article written by Catherine Parrott
Ethical Futures are always interested in human rights issues and recently found out about a international artist’s spat with an international toy manufacturer. Delving further the issues are never clear cut and transparent, raising a myriad of complexities and more questions than answers. Read for yourself

Julian Parrott was invited by Social Investment Scotland to attend the Scottish Business Awards at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre on Thursday, 12th November.