Investments - should Christians care?

Many UK Christians will have investments - in a pension fund, shares, units in a unit trust or a PEP or whatever. We are to be good stewards but stewardship is not limited only to obtaining a good return on investments.
Do you know where your money is invested? Perhaps in companies which produce pornographic material, manufacture or distribute drugs for abortion, ors sell weapons to oppressive regimes.
EN discussed Christian responsibility in investing with David Alton and asked him about a pro-life unit trust that he has helped establish.

EN: Should Christians be concerned about where their money is invested?

DA: Ultimately, most people have investments of one kind or another that they have responsibility for investing, company savings or charitable body savings. We should remember the parable of the talents, that if you just bury money and don't do anything with it, then you are going to be answerable for that. Equally, if you use money in ways that lead to exploitation which destroys the sanctity of human life, then you are going to be answerable for that, too. And then there'll be no point saying: 'I didn't know it was being used in that way.' All of us have the opportunity to find out how our money is being used. There is a responsibility to be a good steward of the funds which have been entrusted to you. There is nothing wrong with money itself. Scripture says that it is the love of money which is wrong.

EN: Christians may feel remote and unable to influence where their money is invested by a pension fund or insurance company.

DA: Well, that is the problem. It is so remote. People feel powerless about how their money is being used and that is why the Banner Real Life Unit Trust is so exciting People can feel reassured about how that money is being used, instead of worrying about whether their own savings are actually being used to prop up an arms manufacturer or manufacturer of abortificants.

EN: What is different about the Banner Real Life Unit Trust (the 'fund'?)

DA: I think the fund is unique in specifically excluding anti-life investments that affect the human species and in having a Council of Reference which makes it far more accountable than any other fund in the field. . Part of the purpose of the fund is to be able to exert pressure in the market on companies who may themselves think that there is no ethical issue involved in investments, or in activities leading to experiments on human embryos, for instance. There are many millions of people whom I don't think would share that view, and it is important that they have a way of being able to voice their concerns. Money talks, and obviously if you have a fund with millions of pounds in it, you have a better chance of persuading a company to withdraw from those activities than if you have no financial muscle.

EN: What was the reason for setting up the Banner Real Life Unit Trust?

DA: It had caused me immense irritation for a very long time that if I wanted to invest my money ethically, the only way I could do it was to invest in funds that screened out things like the sale of arms or environmental issues, and although I do care about those issues, I think that in the pecking order of priorities, I'm much more concerned about what we do to the human race. I often joke that when a seal marches down to Westminster holding a placard saying: 'Save the human race', we might see the parallel with some of the positions that we take up - you can care about every other species but your own. There are many church-based organisations, institutions, dioceses, who have substantial investment funds, and I think the people in the pews of those churches would be horrified if they knew precisely where some of those funds were going. Now we provide an alternative.

EN: Before the fund invests in a company, the positive and negative investment criteria are applied (see box) and the Independent Council of Reference (with representatives from LIFE and SPUC) reviews all investments. How does this work?

DA: Well, we have our own list of companies which we invest in at the moment, and they are the ones we scrutinise in each Council meeting. LIFE and SPUC then go away and ask their own members about these companies. It is also important to emphasise that we are looking at things like working practices as well as exploitation of workers and Sunday trading. We have been given information by the Keep Sunday Special campaign about a number of companies who have violated the right to give their workers the option not to work on Sundays and whose family life is therefore being placed under threat. And those are companies that we will scrutinise carefully and decide whether or not to invest in as a result of the response that they make to the overtures that we now make to them about such practices.

EN: The fund offers the prospect of influencing companies that might otherwise not consider pro-life issues. Is the fund having the sort of impact you hoped for?

DA: I think that the level of interest in what, after all, is initially a very small player in the market is entirely disproportionate to the size of the fund, which I think shows that there is the opportunity for exponential growth of the fund, but also the huge influence as well, which was the motivation for creating the fund in the first place. It is also important to say that being pro-life is not just being opposed to abortion or being opposed to euthanasia; it is being positive in your support for the family, positive in your support for the unborn child, positive in your support for vulnerable women who are being pressurised into abortion, and, of course, part of what this fund is also about is returning some of the resources that it creates back to the caring work that organisations like Life do.

EN: In the fund literature, you have asked for feedback from investors. Have you had many people ringing up with ideas and comments?

DA: We have had a lot of people ringing up. What's encouraging for me is that a lot of the investment has been sort of 'widow's mite', and with the widow's mites comes as great a claim as someone putting £100,000 in the fund, and they have as much right to come and say that we want money used in this way or that way, or we are not happy with this or the other. And so I think we have an articulate, eloquent group of investors who care passionately enough to want to put their money into this kind of ethical trust, and I would be surprised if they were not prepared to come along and ask questions.

EN: How has the fund performed to date?

DA: So far there has been a wonderful coincidence between the criteria, which are very positive, and the results of some of the investments themselves. Therefore, on one hand, you can feel very easy about where the money is going, and on the other, those who have invested are actually getting a better than average return on their investments.

If you are looking to invest money in a unit trust, EN would recommend that you look at the fund. Whether you invest in the fund or any other product is your decision and should be taken with help from a financial adviser.

The investment objective of the fund is to provide unit holders with long-term capital growth, and a reasonable level of income, derived from a diversified portfolio of securities which publicly profess their commitment to pro-life values, supply the basic necessities of life, provide pro-ducts and services of long-term benefit to the community and the environment, and those which avoid any significant involvement in armaments, alcohol, tobacco or gambling.

Statement of policy

Positive criteria examples

It is intended that the fund will consider investing in companies which:

* publicly profess their commitment to pro-life values;

* support or sponsor pro-life agencies;

* provide positive support for employees during pregnancy and make generous provision for maternity and paternity leave;

* make special provision for disabled employees and in general provide a high standard of employee welfare;

* supply the basic necessities of life;

* provide products and service of long-term benefit to the community and environment;

* strive to avoid handling goods produced by exploited labour forces overseas;

* act to conserve energy and natural resources, and to reduce waste and to control pollution.

Negative criteria examples

It is intended that the fund will not consider investing in companies which:

* manufacture, sell, distribute or in any way promote the sale of abortion equipment or abortion-linked drugs including RU486, the 'morning-after' pill and any other pills described as 'emergency contraception';

* support or subsidise destructive human embryo research or morally- questionable genetic engineering;

* are involved in the provision of pharmaceuticals for or research into euthanasia. The fund will exclude pharmaceutical companies unless they have confirmed that they are not involved in any of the above.

* are involved in the production, distribution or sale of pornographic material of any kind, (Cert. 18 films or videos, or advertising or adult TV) or have been the subject of complaint on the grounds of decency to the ASA or ITC;

* support oppressive regimes or companies which exploit labour in the developing world or whose products are detrimental to the general population or in countries with a poor human rights record;

* perform tests on animals for purposes other than the advancement of human health.

While the theme of the fund is the sanctity of life, the fund will not consider investing in companies which are involved in the manufacture or sale of alcoholic drinks; are involved in the production of tobacco or tobacco-related products; derive more than 3% of their reported turnover from gambling; are involved in the manufacture or sale overseas of armaments; or have a poor environmental record.
More details of the fund can be obtained from Banner Financial Services on 01342 717 917.