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What millennial investors want

Posted on by MBC Strategic

The Millennial generation is set to receive the reins as the US undertakes the greatest generation-to-generation wealth transfer to date. The Millennial generation- those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s- has a different take on the primary role of business compared to previous generations. As presented in the WEF report From the Margins to the Mainstream, “in a recent study of 5,000 Millennials across 18 countries, respondents ranked ‘to improve society’ as the number one priority of business [36% of survey respondents]. This does not imply that the next generation of investors will not seek market returns [35% of survey respondents]. However, the emerging generation of investors is likely to seek achievement of social objectives in addition to financial returns.”

The Millennial generation also has a larger propensity to donate time, money and work than previous generations. Here are some figures from the Millennial Impact Report conducted by Achieve:

The 75 million Millennials are positioned to become the wealthiest generation ever.

The research is clear: Millennials are generous but also very conscientious of whom and where their money is going. Millennials are understandably skeptical of the investments they make. In “Leading Generation Y,” Lieutenant Colonel Jill M. Newman of the United States Army argues, “The [Millennials] have witnessed more scamming, cheating lying and exploiting than ever before from major figures especially in finance in recent years.” The skeptical nature of this generation requires greater transparency on the part of financial sector organizations to attract this demographic.

Deloitte states that the 75 million Millennials are positioned to become the wealthiest generation ever, surpassing the 80 million Baby Boomers. “From the Margins to the Mainstreams” projects “over the next 40 years, an estimated US$ 41 trillion will be transferred” from Baby Boomers to their heirs, resulting in a powerful Millennial generation. The Millennials’ beliefs and values will be the drivers behind the world’s political, social, environmental and economic changes.

Impact Investing is turning out to be an appealing investment approach for Millennials due to its differing outcomes and operations than those of traditional investing. Impact Investing provides a new way of tackling the world’s most pressing issues while still providing an acceptable financial return. It also enables investors to place their money according to their values without having to forgo financial opportunities. While impact investments may currently represent a small portion of many adults’ portfolios, JP Morgan forecasts a drastic increase in these types of investments as money changes hands on a generational scale. They estimate that impact investing may expand from about $9 billion today to $1 trillion by 2020.

Many companies have sought out to democratize impact investing, in anticipation of the growing popularity. No longer are accredited investors the only investors offered a slice of the impact investing pie. With the introduction of new retail offerings, non-accredited investors, like many Millennials, have been given the opportunity to invest in corporations and businesses that share their values through impact investing.

This generous, yet monetarily wise generation will find ways to advocate for social and environmental missions, while still maintaining financial responsibility. Of course it’s only speculation, but it would seem that impact investing is an investment approach that is in line with Millennials. Demand creates supply. With this evidence the future for impact investing looks promising. Impact investing and Millennials go hand in hand.

Millennials and Impact Investing Go Hand in Hand

Posted on by MBC Strategic

The Millennial generation is set to receive the reins as the US undertakes the greatest generation-to-generation wealth transfer to date. The Millennial generation? those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s? has a different take on the primary role of business compared to previous generations. As presented in the WEF report From the Margins to the Mainstream, “in a recent study of 5,000 Millennials across 18 countries, respondents ranked ‘to improve society’ as the number one priority of business [36% of survey respondents]. This does not imply that the next generation of investors will not seek market returns [35% of survey respondents]. However, the emerging generation of investors is likely to seek achievement of social objectives in addition to financial returns.”

The Millennial generation also has a larger propensity to donate time, money and work than previous generations. Here are some figures from the Millennial Impact Report conducted by Achieve:

  • 52% of Millennials would be interested in monthly giving.
  • 72% of Millennials are interested in participating in a nonprofit young professional group.
  • 83% of Millennial respondents made a financial gift to an organization in 2012.

The research is clear: Millennials are generous but also very conscientious of whom and where their money is going. Millennials are understandably skeptical of the investments they make. In “Leading Generation Y,” Lieutenant Colonel Jill M. Newman of the United States Army argues, “The [Millennials] have witnessed more scamming, cheating lying and exploiting than ever before from major figures especially in finance in recent years.” The skeptical nature of this generation requires greater transparency on the part of financial sector organizations to attract this demographic.

The Deloitte report Catalysts for Change states that the 75 million Millennials are positioned to become the wealthiest generation ever, surpassing the 80 million Baby Boomers. “From the Margins to the Mainstreams” projects “over the next 40 years, an estimated US$ 41 trillion will be transferred” from Baby Boomers to their heirs, resulting in a powerful Millennial generation. The Millennials’ beliefs and values will be the drivers behind the world’s political, social, environmental and economic changes.

Impact Investing is turning out to be an appealing investment approach for Millennials due to its differing outcomes and operations than those of traditional investing. Impact Investing provides a new way of tackling the world’s most pressing issues while still providing an acceptable financial return. It also enables investors to place their money according to their values without having to forgo financial opportunities. While impact investments may currently represent a small portion of many adults’ portfolios, JP Morgan forecasts a drastic increase in these types of investments as money changes hands on a generational scale. They estimate that impact investing may expand from about $9 billion today to $1 trillion by 2020.

Many companies have sought out to democratize impact investing, in anticipation of the growing popularity. No longer are accredited investors the only investors offered a slice of the impact investing pie. With the introduction of new retail offerings, non-accredited investors, like many Millennials, have been given the opportunity to invest in corporations and businesses that share their values through impact investing.

This generous, yet monetarily wise generation will find ways to advocate for social and environmental missions, while still maintaining financial responsibility. Of course it’s only speculation, but it would seem that impact investing is an investment approach that is in line with Millennials. Demand creates supply. With this evidence the future for impact investing looks promising. Impact investing and Millennials go hand in hand.

Symbiotics Partners with TriLinc Advisors Ahead of SOCAP17

Posted on by MBC Strategic

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Symbiotics has partnered with TriLinc Advisors (“TriLinc”) as part of its impact investing strategy after an in-depth due diligence process evaluating both investment performance and impact measurement.

Symbiotics Partners with @TriLinc Advisors Ahead of #SOCAP17 | CC: @SymbioticsNews @SOCAPmarkets #IMPINV

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Impact Investing is defined as investing with the specific objective to achieve a competitive financial return as well as creating positive, measurable impact in communities across the globe.

TriLinc is an innovative impact investing fund manager with a mission to link market-rate returns, positive impact, and scalable solutions. It provides growth-stage loans and trade finance to established small and medium enterprises (“SMEs”) in developing economies where access to affordable capital is significantly limited. Borrower companies must demonstrate the ability to pay market rates, pass TriLinc’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) screens, and commit to tracking and reporting on self-identified impact metrics. Since inception, TriLinc has invested over $718 million in private debt globally and seeks to demonstrate the power of the capital markets in helping to solve some of the world’s pressing socioeconomic and environmental challenges.

Symbiotics, incorporated in 2004 in Geneva, is an investment company specialized in emerging, sustainable, and inclusive finance. Symbiotics offers market research, investment advisory, and asset management services through its Swiss operations, and advisory services through its subsidiary in the UK.

“Symbiotics is very happy to partner with TriLinc, as an innovative impact investing manager based out of the United States, having built a model to reach the missing middle in emerging and frontier markets,” said Roland Dominicé, CEO of Symbiotics. “Our shared goals and vision create a natural alignment for our investors and target markets; we look forward to continue financing their operations and sharing on this experience at SOCAP this year.”

“TriLinc is looking forward to growing our partnership with Symbiotics,” said Gloria Nelund, Chairman and CEO of TriLinc. “Our firms share the vision of helping investors engage the capital markets to make investments that both meet their financial objectives and pursue positive socioeconomic and environmental impact, to change the world for the better.”

TriLinc and Symbiotics are co-hosting a private, invitation-only breakfast at SOCAP17, a gathering of leaders focused on fostering capitalism for good. For details, please contact Amy McCance at amccance@trilincglobal.com.

About TriLinc Global, LLC

TriLinc Global, LLC (“TLG”), founded in 2008, is a leading sponsor of global impact investment funds dedicated to providing investors with access to unique and competitive yield-oriented strategies that change the world for the better. Founded on the conviction that significant private capital is needed to help solve some of the world’s most pressing issues, TriLinc’s primary goal is to deliver sophisticated, institutional quality impact investment products that will attract private capital at scale. TLG sponsored funds are managed through its two SEC Registered Investment Advisor subsidiaries, TriLinc Advisors, LLC and TriLinc Global Advisors, LLC. For more information, please visit www.trilincglobal.com.

About Symbiotics

Symbiotics is an investment company specialized in emerging, sustainable and inclusive finance. Since its inception in 2005, it has invested USD 3.8 billion in more than 360 financial institutions in 75 emerging countries, working as an advisor or manager of about 30 investment funds and many institutional investors. The firm is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices in Cape Town, London, Zurich, Mexico City, and Singapore, employing over 120 staff globally. Symbiotics currently reaches out, indirectly through its investments, to more than 1,600,000 small enterprises and low income households at the base of the pyramid in emerging and frontier markets. For more information, please visit www.symbioticsgroup.com.

Contacts

TriLinc Global, LLC
Gloria Nelund, 310-220-0871
Chief Executive Officer

Increased Investment as well as Diversification across Impact Themes

Posted on by MBC Strategic

As we start off the New Year, TriLinc Global will be discussing notable trends from 2015 that we see as relevant to the development and growth of the impact investing sector in 2016 and beyond. This is the final post in a four-part series.

In line with better ESG scoring and standardization, research on asset allocation in impact investing highlights a trend among asset owners and investment managers to both increase the investment volume and broaden the thematic focus of their portfolios. In Eyes on the Horizon: The Impact Investor Survey, co-produced in 2015 by JPMorgan Chase and the Global Impact Investing Network, 67 percent of survey participants indicated that they expected to increase their allocations to impact investments in 2015, totaling $12.2 billion in collective assets. Similarly, respondents projected an increase in sector diversification in their portfolio across the 13 sectors identified for impact investment. In terms of key sector projections, 26 percent of institutional investor survey participants said they expected to increase their exposure to energy, food and agriculture, while roughly 24 percent of respondents planned to increase their investments in healthcare and education. This projected asset allocation shift parallels a reduction in the growth rate of the microfinance and housing sectors, an indication that as the impact investing industry continues to mature, investors have more options and are expanding beyond the impact sectors that were the first to offer market-based investment opportunities.

Further research supports the view that impact fund managers are diversifying impact themes across their portfolios. An analysis of data from ImpactAssets’ IA 50, an annual directory of 50 impact investment funds, shows that in 2011, 13 fund managers were solely focused on providing funding to microfinance and financial services, decreasing to only one fund manager exclusively targeting this sector in 2015. On average, in 2015 fund managers had 3.5 different investment focuses, a 60 percent increase from 2011.

In summarizing key impact investing trends and their implications for 2016 and beyond, we believe that an enabling regulatory environment, more investment product choices and better ESG and impact integration are well-aligned to support the sector’s growth. We expect that these factors will incent foundations, pension funds and retail investors to make increasing allocations to impact.  Furthermore, we believe that asset owners and investment managers, with the support of industry thought leaders and ESG service providers, will continue to refine ESG and impact measurement, monitoring and reporting given the increasing body of evidence that these practices contribute to improved investment performance.

We also note that many challenges to mainstreaming impact investing remain, and that overcoming them will require a concerted effort of industry leaders, associations and practitioners. On our own and in collaboration, we must continue creating scalable investment products, working toward uniform ESG integration methodologies, generating risk-adjusted returns, improving liquidity/exits, and educating financial advisors on the market-based, non-concessionary nature of impact investing. TriLinc is committed to its leadership role in helping build a robust, transparent and effective impact industry so that investors can achieve their goals for competitive returns and a better future for our world.

– This post is the final in the four-part series, “Impact Investing: What’s to Come in 2016,” written by Melissa Tickle, TriLinc Global Impact & ESG Analyst.

The Increasing Demand for ESG Scoring and the Benefits of Standardization

Posted on by MBC Strategic

As we start off the New Year, TriLinc Global will be discussing notable trends from 2015 that we see as relevant to the development and growth of the impact investing sector in 2016 and beyond. This is the third post in a four-part series.

Coinciding with the rise of entrants in the impact investing space is a similarly mounting demand for increased rigor and standardization around ESG reporting. According to US SIF Foundation’s biennial survey, “Unlocking ESG Integration,” the inclusion of ESG factors into portfolio management grew at a rapid pace between 2012 and 2014, reaching almost $5 trillion in US-domiciled assets. However, a key challenge for asset owners and investment managers has been the lack of an effective, uniform and all-inclusive way to measure ESG factors and impact goals.

Ernst & Young’s 2015 global survey, “Tomorrow’s Investment Rules 2.0,” reported that although 71 percent of institutional investor respondents considered integrated reports – which include both financial and ESG information – essential to making investment decisions, over 25 percent said that nonfinancial information had not affected their investment decisions over the past year.  The reason for this was primarily due to the difficulty of verifying and comparing ESG and impact data across firms.

In response, industry players are making strides to develop ESG assessment tools and services, so that investors can use ESG data to more effectively drive investment decisions and portfolio monitoring practices. As of 2014, Bloomberg, one of the largest information gathering and dissemination models in the investment management industry, had gathered and reported ESG data to 17,000 ESG data service subscribers on over 11,000 companies spanning 65 countries.  By adding “non-financial” ESG data to its product offering, Bloomberg has been an active change agent in the sector.

Another new player in the field is Morningstar, which is partnering with Sustainalytics to bring ESG scoring into the mainstream by assigning ratings to global mutual and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).  Resulting from heightened investor demand for more transparent information about ESG practices, Morningstar will test how companies and investment managers effectively gather, report and incorporate ESG information into the analysis and risk profile of their investments.  The new Morningstar ESG ratings will guide institutional firms that create and manage mutual funds and ETFs for the retail market, and will empower “main street” investors to make investment decisions that are both value-based and values-based.

Another industry partnership seeks to offer institutional investors insights into ESG risks, including those not reported through public companies’ mandatory public disclosures. In September 2015, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), which provides corporate governance and proxy voting services, began offering its clients ESG screening, analysis and stewardship tools using analytics and metrics provided by RepRisk.  This partnership helps ISS clients – asset owners, investment managers, hedge funds, broker-dealers and custodian banks – manage compliance, reputational and investment risks related to their portfolio companies’ ESG activities.

The burgeoning development of analytical frameworks underscores the demand for the integration of ESG variables into investment management practices.  However, the industry has not yet established a universally accepted approach to ESG methodology, measurement, benchmarking and reporting, as it has for other investment performance metrics.  A growing but still nascent trend, ESG integration will achieve mainstream proportions as sector players assess the various options and coalesce around broadly accepted approaches. Such standardization is crucial to better investment decision-making practices, and will lead to improved risk management and an enhanced understanding of ESG across a portfolio’s performance.

– This post is the third in the four-part series, “Impact Investing: What’s to Come in 2016,” written by Melissa Tickle, TriLinc Global Impact & ESG Analyst.

Retail Investors: Rising Interest and Opportunity in Impact Investing

Posted on by MBC Strategic

As we start off the New Year, TriLinc Global will be discussing notable trends from 2015 that we see as relevant to the development and growth of the impact investing sector in 2016 and beyond. This is the second post in a four-part series.

As TriLinc looks toward 2016, it is clear that the evolving regulatory landscape is creating a more enabling environment for a myriad of investors to align their capital with their values in pursuit of economic, environmental and social goals.

This environment has facilitated the expansion of impact products available in the market – from social impact bonds, to mutual funds and exchange-traded funds – and has transcended traditional product offerings to more closely meet investors’ specific ESG and impact interests. Until recently, however, few products were specially tailored to retail investors, compared to institutional and high net worth investors. With the arrival of retail, market-rate impact products in the past few years, retail investors at last are receiving due recognition as essential participants in the impact investment space.

Recent studies validate the retail channel’s importance to the sector. A report by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) dated April 2015, “ImpactBase Snapshot: An Analysis of 300+ Impact Investing Funds,” found that 17 percent of market-rate impact funds targeted retail investors. Given the relative size of the retail investing market – roughly 91 million investors according to BNY Mellon – the retail channel represents a significant market opportunity for the impact investing community.

Financial advisors are in agreement. A recent survey by SRI examining financial professionals’ views on impact investing found that over half of surveyed financial advisors either currently offer, or have offered, SRI and/or ESG investment strategies to their retail clients. Perhaps even more revealing is that 73 percent said impact investing would become a “somewhat bigger” or “much bigger” part of their practice over the next five years.

This is in large part because retail investors are driving the demand for impact and ESG products across their portfolio allocations. A study conducted by Morgan Stanley showed that 71 percent of individual investors are interested in sustainable investing.  According to SRI, 58 percent of advisors claimed the foremost reason they offered impact investing to their clients was in response to demand. Millennials, women, and college-educated investors were among the top three investor profiles requesting impact strategies from their advisors, followed by high net worth individuals, baby boomers and senior investors.

With demand for impact investing in the retail space being driven from the bottom up, the development of tailored impact product offerings for retail investors will continue to be of vital importance. As retail investors continue to increase their knowledge and appetite for impact, and gain access to more market-based investment options, they will exponentially increase the flow of capital dedicated to solving challenges facing our society.

– This post is the second in the four-part series, “Impact Investing: What’s to Come in 2016,” written by Melissa Tickle, TriLinc Global Impact & ESG Analyst.