While responsible investing has been around for a long time, in recent years the investing strategy has undergone many changes from available investing options to regulations to definitions of what responsible investing means.
Thrivent Asset Management (TAM) believes active management can produce favorable returns for our clients over the long term. Further, we believe success in active management depends on having skilled investment professionals, supported by rigorous investment processes.
TAM strives to take all relevant information into consideration when making investment decisions. Relevant information may include certain environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria, which may be utilized and weighted differently by each portfolio manager and may be used to inform investment decisions. While ESG considerations may be applied in varying degrees by our portfolio managers and our non-ESG funds are not required to consider ESG factors, we believe that certain factors, when considered with a range of other financial criteria, have the potential to bolster returns and reduce investment risk.1
Responsible investing principlesThe principles underlying our responsible investment philosophy allow us to focus on creating long-term shareholder value, mitigating risks and investing in quality companies.
1. Financial materiality: Our responsible investment philosophy emphasizes financial impact, adhering to our philosophy of generating long-term shareholder value through meticulous selection of investments. TAM’s investment professionals may take material environmental, social and governance factors into account to the extent that they believe such factors impact long-term shareholder value.
2. Integration over exclusion: TAM does not take an exclusionary approach to responsible investing and does not avoid investing in certain industries solely based on industry classification. Rather, TAM’s investment professionals may choose to evaluate certain qualitative or non-financial factors and weight them based on their judgment as to what is most relevant for each specific company.
3. Investing in quality companies: TAM seeks to invest in enterprises that demonstrate solid financial performance, effective leadership and promising price potential and growth prospects. As long-term investors, we believe the integration of certain factors beyond traditional financial metrics—such as corporate governance—has long been an innate feature of a successful investment strategy, predating the industry’s adoption of the term ESG.
https://fp.thriventfunds.com/insights/fund-commentary/understanding-thrivents-responsible-investing-philosophy.html
