A prospect’s guide, with Dr Alan Whittle, Resolve ESG fund consultant
The better question isn’t whether sustainable investing is right for you at all, but how much of your portfolio should reflect it. For most people, it isn’t all-or-nothing – a sustainable allocation can sit alongside investments focused purely on your financial security.
It is one of the most common questions we’re asked about sustainable investing. The honest answer starts by changing the question.
If you are weighing up whether a sustainable portfolio belongs in your plan, you have probably framed it as a yes-or-no decision: is Resolve right for me, or isn’t it? Alan’s answer is that the question itself is the wrong shape.
“I think the question you should be asking is: how much of my investment should be in Resolve? Not if I should have any at all.”
— Dr Alan Whittle
That reframe changes everything that follows. It moves the conversation away from an all-or-nothing choice and towards a question of balance – which, for most people, is a far more useful place to start.
Why is ‘how much’ the better question than ‘yes or no’?
Because a sustainable allocation doesn’t have to replace the rest of your portfolio – it can sit alongside investments focused purely on your own financial security, without giving up on return.
The reasoning is simple. There is always going to be a need to invest in the future – in the companies, technologies and industries the coming decades will be built on. Conventional portfolios do that too. Resolve simply leans into it deliberately.
Most of us care about the future in concrete terms: our children, our grandchildren, the wider society we leave behind. You might want your money to deliberately reflect that – without necessarily wanting all of it to. That is a perfectly reasonable position, and the portfolio is built to accommodate it.
“It’s all right to have part of your portfolio focused on this type of thing through Resolve, but allow the rest of your investments to be in something that is primarily focused on providing your own financial security.”
— Dr Alan Whittle
Two points are worth drawing out of that. First, it is not a binary. A sustainable allocation can sit alongside the rest of your investments rather than replacing them. Second – and Alan is firm on this – choosing Resolve does not mean setting financial return aside. The portfolio is built to pursue return as well as impact, a theme explored in more depth in our piece on performance.
What would I actually be investing in?
A diversified spread of equity and bond funds across the UK, Europe, the US, Asia and emerging markets – covering both environmental themes and the social side of sustainability, not a concentrated bet on a handful of green companies.
It helps to know what sits underneath the name. A Resolve portfolio is not a concentrated bet on a handful of green companies. It is a diversified spread of funds – equities and bonds, across the UK, Europe, the US, Asia and emerging markets – with each fund holding its own basket of businesses. Any single company is a small part of a much larger whole.
And it reaches further than the environmental headline suggests. Alongside climate and green technology, the portfolio invests in the social side of sustainability: companies opening up credit, logistics and opportunity in underserved markets around the world. It invests through equities, and it lends through bonds – funding the infrastructure of tomorrow as well as owning a stake in it.
Who might a sustainable portfolio not suit?
Anyone with one conviction so strong they couldn’t tolerate any exposure to a particular area – for them, a specialist investment targeting that specific issue is likely a better fit than a diversified sustainable portfolio.
Honesty cuts both ways, so it is worth being clear about the exception. If you hold one conviction so strongly that you could not tolerate any exposure to a particular area at all, a broad approach to ethical and sustainable investing may not be the right fit. In that situation, the better route is a detailed conversation with your planner about specialist investments built around that specific issue. For most people, though, that level of absolute exclusion isn’t the need – and a diversified, pragmatic approach serves them well.
The better version of the question is how much of your plan you would like working towards the future you care about, while the rest stays focused on your own financial security. There is no single correct answer – but it is, as Alan puts it, a question worth everyone asking.
“You can have both. And that’s something that is, I think, a question that everybody should be asking.”
— Dr Alan Whittle
The place to land on your own answer is a conversation. If you would like to talk through how a sustainable allocation might fit your plan, your Becketts adviser can help you find the right balance.
FAQs
Is Resolve right for me?
The better question is how much of your portfolio should be in Resolve, not whether you should have any at all – it isn’t an all-or-nothing choice.
Can I invest sustainably without giving up financial return?
Yes. The Resolve portfolio is built to pursue return as well as impact – it’s not a trade-off between doing good and doing well.
What does a Resolve portfolio actually invest in?
A diversified spread of equity and bond funds across the UK, Europe, the US, Asia and emerging markets, covering both environmental themes and the social side of sustainability.
Who might a sustainable portfolio not suit?
Anyone with one overriding conviction so strong they couldn’t tolerate any exposure to a specific area – a specialist investment targeting that issue is usually a better fit than a broad sustainable portfolio.
