Investing in stock - which ones?

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vineyard1

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My husbands employer allows him to choose which company’s stocks to buy for 401K investment. They also match.

My problem is that, while I can find lots and lots of companies to avoid and boycott, I cannot find the names of any companies in which to invest. I know I must not be looking in the right places, but I don’t know where else to look.

The Ave Maria Mutual funds link does not help. We cannot use Ave Maria Mutual Funds as an investment firm. We have to use my husbands employer’s choice. If we don’t, we loose the matching dollars. To throw the match away seems pretty silly to us.

We need a list of PRO-LIFE COMPANIES that are traded on the NY stock exchange or NASDAQ so we can purchase their stock (and have my husbands employer also buy their stock - what a deal for us and for them).

So called neutral companies, (Exxon was suggested) isn’t what we’re looking for. Does anybody know of any PRO-LIFE PRO-CATHOLIC companies that are publicly traded? They don’t have to declare destruction of PP as their primary product, but they do have to be actively working in their business practices toward that Culture of LIfe we all talk about so much. The specific industry is not important to us. Manufacturing, entertainment, pharmaceuticals, publishing, agriculture products? the industry isn’t as important as respect for true human dignity.

Is there such a thing? Shouldn’t there be? Seems unlikely there is no such company or companies or such a list. Ave Maria investments seems to have a list. I can’t get their list unless they are investing for us. Then we loose the matching money from DH’s employer . . . . goin’ round in circles . . .

Thanks,
Pat
 
Ave Maria funds will probably have a list of holdings in their annual report. I think all funds are required to do this.

It seems odd that your employer allows you to pick stocks but no mutual funds for your 401K. This is pretty risky.

Also, how do they expect you to invest in asset classes other than stocks, if you’re only allowed to invest in stocks? I don’t know much about 401K programs, but this seems odd to me. Maybe someone more knowledgeable could enlighten me.
vineyard1 said:
My husbands employer allows him to choose which company’s stocks to buy for 401K investment. They also match.

My problem is that, while I can find lots and lots of companies to avoid and boycott, I cannot find the names of any companies in which to invest. I know I must not be looking in the right places, but I don’t know where else to look.

The Ave Maria Mutual funds link does not help. We cannot use Ave Maria Mutual Funds as an investment firm. We have to use my husbands employer’s choice. If we don’t, we loose the matching dollars. To throw the match away seems pretty silly to us.

We need a list of PRO-LIFE COMPANIES that are traded on the NY stock exchange or NASDAQ so we can purchase their stock (and have my husbands employer also buy their stock - what a deal for us and for them).

So called neutral companies, (Exxon was suggested) isn’t what we’re looking for. Does anybody know of any PRO-LIFE PRO-CATHOLIC companies that are publicly traded? They don’t have to declare destruction of PP as their primary product, but they do have to be actively working in their business practices toward that Culture of LIfe we all talk about so much. The specific industry is not important to us. Manufacturing, entertainment, pharmaceuticals, publishing, agriculture products? the industry isn’t as important as respect for true human dignity.

Is there such a thing? Shouldn’t there be? Seems unlikely there is no such company or companies or such a list. Ave Maria investments seems to have a list. I can’t get their list unless they are investing for us. Then we loose the matching money from DH’s employer . . . . goin’ round in circles . . .

Thanks,
Pat
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Surely you recognize that this is not the place to come for reliable investment advice. If you are inexpereinced investors, your husband’s employer can certainly refer you to investment professionals who can give you some direction or refer you on to yet other professionals who can meet the investment criteria you are seeking.
 
My husband’s employer offers typical 401K. Yes we can pick from the mutual funds provided by the investment company, there are 4 or 5 available and we can adjust the percent according to the risk we would like to take, just like any 401K provider with any large company. These funds are structured by the investment company based strictly on payback, just like any and every other 401K program. They perform as well as any. HOWEVER these funds include major pharm companies, entertainment corporations and others that we do not want to invest in. THAT is the ISSUE. One option excludes tobacco companies and the like and one includes some “green” environmentally focused companies that, on further investigation, turn out to be incredibly pro abortion internationally - activist types. There is no option, provided by the employer’s participation in the Federal 401K program, to invest through a Fund in the areas we hold dear. I thought I made that clear.
My husbands employer only recommends representatives of the investment company they use for 401K, which is probably stipulated in the contract between the employer and the investment corporation. We’ve already been down that road.

In my investigation on the internet with Ave Maria and one other Catholic and one Christian investment firm, I’ve found that they do NOT list the companies in which they invest, at least not that I could find. I thought that was clear too. Perhaps Ave Maria would provide me with a list if we invest with them, but we do not choose to, partly because of the match opportunity with my husband’s employers and partly because we stopped donating to AMU after the Fr Fessio fiasco. The advisors for the Ave Maria Funds are some of the same ones that run Ave Maria University in Florida.

His employer presented an opportunity for some self management while still generously providing corporate matching. We appreciate them providing this opportunity and would like very much to take advantage of it.

I don’t know how to make this any more straight forward. It is not just “ok” with us to allow our retirement to be funded through our support of the highest payers who are also culture killers. I assumed there would be others here who had been down this road with their money.
 
Ave Maria Funds’ investment company holdings are included in their annual report. If you go to their website, click on shareholder reports, and click on Annual Report you will see the Schedule of Investments in the Table of Contents for each fund. I don’t know any of your personal information so I am not recommending any of these investments, just passing on the info.

Anyone who is looking for similar information in the future could find this information either at the fund’s website or at SEC.gov by searching the system called EDGAR.
 
Dear Pat,

I have done a considerable amount of research on this putting together a portfolio for my mother’s retirement account. I have unfortunately found that a number of companies listed in Ave Maria Funds are not pro-life and pro-family. Exxon and Cisco are a couple of examples, as they actively support groups which contribute to Planned Parenthood. For more thorough information, check out the following link to 2nd vote, which does a lot of good research on this:

2ndvote.com/scores

Unfortunately, there are almost no companies that are publicly traded that actively support pro-life and pro-family stances. However, if you are interested in the portfolio information that I put together which is to the best of my knowledge and research solid, strong, profitable, and moral, I am happy to share it with you. I have my Catholic answers account set up to receive e-mails.

God bless you!

Michael DePauw
 
vineyard1 said:
they do have to be actively working in their business practices toward that Culture of LIfe we all talk about so much.

Is there such a thing? Shouldn’t there be?
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I’m not entirely certain what you are looking for, but most companies with a philanthropic, social, or religious focus are 501c3 and not publicly traded for profit companies.

Publicly traded companies are owned by the shareholders-- the public-- and therefore not typically Catholic or Christian focused.

Companies that are focused specifically on Christian or family values are more likely to be closely held corporations-- private or family-- such as Hobby Lobby, Chick-fil-a, etc.
vineyard1 said:
Seems unlikely there is no such company or companies or such a list. Ave Maria investments seems to have a list. I can’t get their list unless they are investing for us. Then we loose the matching money from DH’s employer . . . . goin’ round in circles . . .
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I believe that most ethical investing companies look for *absence *of specific problematic operations and practices, not the *presence *of a Catholic-specific agenda.

Our diocese has all its investments in funds that specifically avoid those practices opposed to Catholic teaching, but of course they’ve negotiated that with the investment firm as a contractual obligation to avoid: abortion, fetal tissue and embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, cloning, and vices such as gambling, pornography, etc.

You’ve gotten good advice to look at Ave Maria’s SEC filings, that may be the best you can do.
 
Chovy said:
Ave Maria Funds’ investment company holdings are included in their annual report. If you go to their website, click on shareholder reports, and click on Annual Report you will see the Schedule of Investments in the Table of Contents for each fund. I don’t know any of your personal information so I am not recommending any of these investments, just passing on the info.

Anyone who is looking for similar information in the future could find this information either at the fund’s website or at SEC.gov by searching the system called EDGAR.
Click to expand...
Just keep in mind that these reports can be a bit out of date to very out of date depending on the date of the report vs the day you’re checking it out.

CAF isn’t the place for investment advice, but I’m sorta surprised there doesn’t seem to be anyone aside from Ave Maria Funds that collates the relevant info for discerning Catholic investors. In other words, is there a site that just rates them for adherence and support for Catholic guidelines? Then the typical investor could do his own due diligence to figure out which pro-Catholic values companies were worthy of his investment.

Along those lines, one might expand the pool of companies to invest in by looking for those companies that don’t make any political stands. If they’re not standing for pro-Catholic values, at least they’re not showing anti-Catholic values either. Keep in mind that all publicly traded companies are subject to federal and state laws surrounding discrimination on sexual origin, provision of birth control in benefits, provision of benefits to same-sex partners, etc. So no one is going to be absolutely pure on this.

That said, the corporate match in a 401k is a very, very good thing to have. It’s basically free money and one would have to be a fool to pass it up. Further, pension plans invest in a lot of companies with questionable morals, but the devout Catholic employee typically has little to no recourse for this.
 
I need to repeat this again because I don’t think the message got through:

YOU CAN’T TRUST AVE MARIA MUTUAL FUNDS!

If you look at the listing of their holdings which can be easily found on many ratings companies like morningstar.com , you will find numerous companies in their funds that have been shown to support Planned Parenthood or other abortion supporters. Just Google AVEFX holdings or AVEGX holdings, and you will see what I am talking about. The following companies are in their “pro-life” funds:

Cisco Systems
Exxon Mobile
Laboratory Corporation of America
Hewlett-Packard

There are more than these I’m sure, but these stood out to me. I don’t necessarily say that Ave Maria Funds are deliberately doing this. I do not know that for sure. However, given what I know, I cannot in good conscience recommend them to others. Also, these funds are terrible investments from a purely monetary standpoint.

I hope this helps.

God bless,

Michael DePauw
 
Dacinom said:
This thread is almost 8 years old, I would imagine the original poster has solved this problem at least on some level by now.

Just wanted to point that out kindly, since you are a new member here, will need to look at the dates of postings in order to engage other forum members. God bless and welcome!
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Oh my gosh, I didn’t even notice the date!

thanks Monica!
 
Thank you! Sorry, I can’t believe I didn’t look at that.

God bless!

Michael DePauw
 
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