Catholic Mutual Funds

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utunumsint

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Hi all,

I’m looking into any information you can provide on whether certain mutual funds follow Catholic moral guidelines, or a least do not actively support immoral things, such as abortion, etc…

I’m looking forward to any suggestions you may have (e.g. links, books, etc…)

I hope this is the right forum for this kind of question.

God bless,
Ut
 
utunumsint said:
Hi all,

I’m looking into any information you can provide on whether certain mutual funds follow Catholic moral guidelines, or a least do not actively support immoral things, such as abortion, etc…

I’m looking forward to any suggestions you may have (e.g. links, books, etc…)

I hope this is the right forum for this kind of question.

God bless,
Ut
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Put your money in the Quantum Fund.
 
Bump.

There are no Catholic Financial advisors on this forum at all? This is something we should be concerned about. Especially since we may be morally culpable for the actions of the stocks we invest in.

God bless,
Ut
 
Don’t know much about them, but if you do a search the first one that came up was Ave Maria Funds.
 
Wedgewood said:
Don’t know much about them, but if you do a search the first one that came up was Ave Maria Funds.
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Thanks. That was the only one I found. I was hoping to get more options so I could choose the one with the best moral credentials, and the one that makes money. I’m not too happy with their performance. Too many minuses.

Thanks again,
Ut
 
utunumsint said:
Thanks. That was the only one I found. I was hoping to get more options so I could choose the one with the best moral credentials, and the one that makes money. I’m not too happy with their performance. Too many minuses.

Thanks again,
Ut
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Ave Maria is the only one that markets themselves that way, and as you say they underperform by taking a very narrow and mean spirited approach (in one investment goal) to what they look for. They do not take Catholic Social Teaching justice (pun intended) in their approach.

I would be wary about any funds who market themselves as “Catholic” or any other religion, as they are often just buzz words.

Some things to look for are funds who invest in companies who invest in their workers and the world in general for the betterment of all. Of course that needs to be followed up on to see if the marketing is not just spin.

My ideal Catholic fund would be a fund which invests companies who encourage unions, good worker funds, least impact on the environment, policies that encourage workers to be able to stay in their own countries and not forced to migrate. Those are the most tangible goals that stand out towards the top in today’s investment world.
 
NewUlm1976_2000 said:
Ave Maria is the only one that markets themselves that way, and as you say they underperform by taking a very narrow and mean spirited approach (in one investment goal) to what they look for. They do not take Catholic Social Teaching justice (pun intended) in their approach.
I would be wary about any funds who market themselves as “Catholic” or any other religion, as they are often just buzz words.
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I’m no investment consultant, but what you say makes sense.
Some things to look for are funds who invest in companies who invest in their workers and the world in general for the betterment of all. Of course that needs to be followed up on to see if the marketing is not just spin.
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I have an office next to the marketing department of my company so I understand completely. The trick is, how does one do the follow up? I mean the amount of retirement investment money invested in mutual funds must be enormous. That gives these funds enormous amounts of financial power. Shouldn’t there be some kind of oversite? Maybe from the bishops (UCCB)? At the very least for the basic minimum standards: are the workers payed a decent wage, are the company environmental practices adequate, do they support planned parenthood, or a similar type of organization, etc…
My ideal Catholic fund would be a fund which invests companies who encourage unions, good worker funds, least impact on the environment, policies that encourage workers to be able to stay in their own countries and not forced to migrate. Those are the most tangible goals that stand out towards the top in today’s investment world.
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A good list. My point here is that we do have a moral responsibility to make sure we do the follow up. I wish there were better resources out there to do it.

Thanks for your response.

God bless,
Ut
 
I’ve started researching this myself. Here are the three fund groups I’ve found, and their respective funds.

www.avemariafund.com
AVESX, AVEGX, AVEMX, AVEDX, AVEFX, Money Market Account

www.epiphanyfund.com
EPVNX, EPFNX, EPINX, EPCNX

www.aquinasfunds.com
AQEIX, AQEGX, AQBLX, AQFIX

As with all “social values” funds, you need to weigh your convictions against the trade-off in performance. One of the funds calls this the “Moral Risk.” Just as there’s an 'investment risk" with any investment, there’s also the risk that by excluding certain companies from your investment strategy, your return may suffer.

I can’t vouch for any of the companies listed above. As I said, I’ve just started this process myself. But, they’re certainly worth looking into.
 
Being a person without anything to “invest” in the market, living month to month, I do have an M.B.A.

There are “ethical” funds on the market and most of them do under-perform the S&P 500 which is commonly taken as the standard of the American market. There are no specifically Catholic funds but any of the ethical funds make every attempt to avoid companies involved in tobacco, arms, alcohol, gambling and other such “industries”.

Perhaps starting such a fund with Catholic investors would be a market niche.
 
bumping thread to see if there are any catholic investors here
 
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