IMPACT U

Authenticity comes from intrinsic motivation according to Jina and this is her commitment to her clients who are looking to take action in their own lives with their money. As a socially responsible investor since the 90’s and an advisor as of 2004 Jina has been working on impact investing with a strong sense of purpose. Finding the best impact investments hasn’t always been easy and Jina set out to be the very advisor she wishes she had early on in her career. Stephen and Jina go deep on how and why Impact investing is not philanthropy. Tune in and listen.

This week’s Expert Spotlight is focused on a very good friend of ours, Chintan Panchal. We like to call Chintan “the Impact Attorney”. His firm, RPCK|Rastegar Panchal is a global private equity focused law firm with offices in New York and Vienna, providing legal services to growth business enterprises at all stages of development. Their clients range from global enterprises to entrepreneurial start-ups, as well as the private investment funds, investment advisors, foundations, and other institutions that finance them. Many of Chintan’s clients have a focus in Impact Investing. As Chintan says, I work with incredible people doing amazing things, around the world.

Chintan was selected as a 2014 and 2015 New York Metro Rising Star by Super Lawyers. Well regarded in the sustainable community, Chintan can often be found speaking at Impact and ESG events.

If you’ve read our blog post, “A Story of Two Impact ‘Aha! Moments’” you’ll recall that a conversation that Chintan had with our Founder Steve Distante was the spark that inspired the ultimate creation of Impact U.

Check out Chintan’s Impact U content, including “How to Have Impact with your Investments” and “Impactful Insights”

To learn more about Chintan Pancahl, and to check out more of his content, find his expert page here.

You may remember our blog “Impact Investing: Aware, Unaware, and Just Don’t Care”, in which we acknowledge that many advisors are unaware to impact investing, or just don’t care about it until they hear a story that leads them to their Impact Aha! moment. This story can be from a fellow advisor who has attracted many millennial investors, from a fund company outperforming their competition or from a seminar discussing the imminent $30 trillion dollars in wealth transfer with much of it expected to go ESG.

In 2013, our CEO Steve Distante was sitting with his friend Chintan Panchal, an attorney. The conversation turned to Steve’s desire to align his personal passions and values with his business, when Chintan explained Impact Investing. Chintan’s law firm, RPCK Rastegar Panchal is dedicated to structuring and advising their clients from an impact investing perspective. Steve’s Impact journey began that day as he discovered how to tie his personal passions with his broker dealer and RIA, Vanderbilt Financial Group.

Since then, Steve has founded Impact U, an online community focused on connecting main players in the Impact Space and pushing the movement forward through education, collaboration, and crowdfunding. As a champion of the space, Steve has received speaking engagements and interviews like the one published by InvestmentNews on July 25th, “Independent Broker-Dealer Vanderbilt Revamps to Focus on Impact Investing” by Liz Skinner.

Jeff Gitterman had a very similar experience to Steve’s as he explains in the August/September 2017 issue of Morningstar Magazine. In the article, “Re-Energized by Sustainability: A Shift to ESG helped Jeff Gitterman rediscover his passion for the profession” by Ilana Polyak, Jeff discusses how his Impact journey began. For a while, Jeff was expressing his passion for ESG through projects in his personal life, like being a producer for the film Planetary which explores our relationship to our environment, and through his book, consulting company and radio show, Beyond Success: Redefining the Meaning of Prosperity which focuses on success and happiness not just in a professional sense but in all aspects of one’s life.

A Financial Advisor for over 25 years, Jeff established a successful firm, Gitterman Wealth Management, made up of a team of advisors managing $450 million in assets. In 2016, Jeff had the same desire Steve did, and set out to create ESG portfolios. Within a year, the firm was able to move $20 million into their newly created ESG portfolios, called SMART Portfolios (Sustainability Metrics Applied to Risk Tolerance).

In 2017, Gitterman Wealth Management made the decision to leave their broker dealer to go somewhere that valued and supported their ESG focus. When they discovered Vanderbilt, The Sustainable Broker Dealer, they knew they found an accepting and innovative firm that would take their SMART Portfolios to new heights.

Now that you’ve heard Steve and Jeffs’ stories, you may be feeling more like an “Impact Aware” financial advisor. Ready to take the next step? Join us in New York City on October 19th for the Sustainable Investment Conference to learn how you too can adopt Impact Investing and easily incorporate this investment strategy into your practice to drive growth and find passion and purpose in your profession. 

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About Vanderbilt Financial Group: Founded over 50 years ago in 1965 and located in Woodbury, NY, Vanderbilt Financial Group is the Entrepreneurial Broker Dealer known as the Sustainable Broker Dealer and RIA committed to investing with purpose. Vanderbilt is a full service Broker Dealer and Advisory firm with a focus on Impact Investing. Vanderbilt’s refreshing, unique, and innovative culture is a driving force to constantly strive to positively impact their community.

Kevin is the Chief Investment Officer of SmartTrust® UIT. Steve nicknamed Kevin, the “Chief Impact Officer” after learning of his passion for sustainable and responsible impact investments, what Kevin calls, “the new SRI”. 

In the video below, Kevin talks about why investors should consider Impact for their portfolios, highlights SmartTrust® UIT, and discusses the companies partnership with Argus Research and IW Financial.

Like all Impact Advisors, Kevin believes that investors should consider impact for their portfolios, but understands the hurdle of encouraging clients to join the Impact Movement. Kevin says the solution starts with better educating your clients.  Many investors are still unsure of the differences between Socially Responsible Investments and Impact Investments. Once they understand Impact, you’ll find that both young and old investors care about Impact and they will feel good about where their investments are going.

Kevin also explains that it’s important for advisors to be paying attention to the impact movement due to the wealth transfer from the baby boomers to the Millennials.  In order to be prepared for this huge shift and to create sustainability in their practices, advisors must orient themselves with the investing goals of Millennials, and Impact Investing is where to start.

Impact products can be difficult to find – SmartTrust is the only UIT in the industry that is focused on Sustainable Impact Investing.  SmartTrust has partnered with Argus Research and IW Financial to create an extremely in depth and well-rounded product that applies a diverse set of ESG criteria combined with Argus Research to identify Sustainable Impact Investments that are expected to perform in rising cost over the next12 months.

This blog was originally posted on www.blog.joinvanderbilt.com

Kevin is the Chief Investment Officer of SmartTrust® UIT. Steve nicknamed Kevin, the “Chief Impact Officer” after learning of his passion for sustainable and responsible impact investments, what Kevin calls, “the new SRI”. 

Kevin explained why SmartTrust® has taken a stand in the space of Impact Investing, becoming the first and only Impact based UIT. Steve expressed a frustration that seems to be a common pain for Impact enthusiasts; “I love Impact Investing, but the most frustrating thing about the space is trying to find products. That’s why I love what SmartTrust has done.”

In this video, Kevin shares SmartTrust’s perspective on Impact Investing, its place in the market and details how SmartTrust has partnered with IW Financial and Argus Research to create Impact based portfoliosfor investors.

This blog was originally posted on www.blog.joinvanderbilt.com