Responsible Investment Service (RIS)

Our Responsible Investment Service (RIS) has a track record of 7 years. We seek to simplify what can be a complex landscape into two differentiated strategies: Advance and Avoid.

Our RIS proposition offers portfolios designed to reflect both values-based and financial objectives.

Two ways to invest

Choose from two strategies: Advance or Avoid, both of which invest through third-party funds.

Seeks to invest in issuers that are taking positive steps to support the development of a sustainable society with respect to both people and the planet.

Seeks to exclude sectors that are considered harmful.

Choose your platform

The Advance strategy is available across a range of different risk levels, through our Platform Managed Portfolio Service (PMPS), Direct Custody MPS and Bespoke Portfolio Service (BPS). Avoid is available through our BPS.

Risk: it’s up to you

We can cater to a number of risk appetites, meaning there’s a level for your clients, no matter what their preferences are.

Tested (and tested again)

Every investment within our diversified range of portfolios is ratified by our unique Centralised Investment Process (CIP). The RIS investment process is embedded in our Centralised Investment Process, with additional steps involved to ensure alignment with our values-based objective. Portfolio asset allocation is closely aligned to Brooks Macdonald’s internal view, as determined by the Asset Allocation Committee, with some adjustments to reflect the values-based approach. Portfolios are regularly monitored and rebalanced when appropriate.

Our Responsible Investment Service (RIS) offers two strategies, for clients who wish to combine financial and values-based objectives. Both RIS strategies offer an actively managed, multi-asset investment solution that benefits from our investment expertise and oversight.

Advance - what it is

Alongside the financial return objective, the values-based objective of the service is to invest in issuers that support the development of a sustainable society with respect to both people and the planet.

Advance - how we invest

Advance invests in third-party funds providing exposure to companies that are deemed to be:

Addressing sustainability challenges through their products and services.
Managing their material environmental, social and governance risks and/or impacts.
Developing their sustainability‑related policies and practices.

Avoid - what it is

The Avoid strategy’s values-based objective is to exclude investments in adult entertainment, armaments, gambling, tobacco and alcohol. These are sometimes referred to as ‘sin sectors'

Avoid - how we invest

We expect the values-based objective to be achieved either through explicit exclusionary screening applied by a fund or as an implicit outcome of a fund’s process, thematic focus or asset class characteristics.

As the portfolio is primarily implemented through third-party fund managers, it should be noted that complete exclusion cannot be guaranteed. Exclusionary screens are often based on revenue thresholds, meaning some exposure may still arise.