When better than Pride Month for Morningstar to launch a new index focused on companies that are supportive of the LGBTQ+ community.
The new Morningstar Developed Markets LGBTQ+ Leaders Index is designed to deliver exposure to 100 large and mid-cap companies from across regions and sectors that demonstrate strong LGBTQ+ inclusive policies and practices.
Companies are screened for controversial product involvement, UN Global Compact compliance, and severe ESG controversies using Morningstar Sustainalytics leading ESG data and research and are then ranked by ExecuPride score and size with the 100 highest scorers making it into the index.
“We are thrilled to add this new capability to our growing suite of indexes to empower investors while expanding our global sustainability index offering,” said Ron Bundy, president of Morningstar Indexes & Morningstar Sustainalytics. “Our new index fulfills a market need by enabling investors to tap into global companies with leading LGBTQ+ policies to pursue their investment objectives, whether for values alignment, or to pursue investment opportunity, or a combination.”
The new index enhances Morningstar’s growing suite of socially focused indexes which also includes the Morningstar Minority Empowerment Index, Gender Diversity Index and Women’s Empowerment Index.
“The index industry has made great strides in recent years to develop products that fall under the ‘S’ in ESG,” said Rob Edwards, global director of ESG Product Management, Morningstar Indexes. “ Yet, while there are a number of broad socially focused indexes available in the market today, few options focus on sexual orientation or gender identity. In developing the Morningstar Developed Markets LGBTQ+ Leaders Index, our objective was to bring greater transparency to LGBTQ+ practices and policies in the workplace and how companies are incorporating these approaches into their strategy. We opted to do this in a way that stresses an objective, data-based approach.”
The move follows earlier dealmaking and leadership changes as the Overland Park-based hybrid RIA builds toward a nonprofit-focused institutional platform.
From building multigenerational relationships to entering new adult planning areas and building healthy financial habits, higher education can be a gateway for advisors to become trusted partners to families.
The wirehouse-focused aggregator's rollout to more than 100 advisors lands as financial advisors race to add tax and estate planning tools.
Also, Orion has added BlackRock, Fidelity, and Vanguard to its custom portfolios suite, and RedBlack has set up a new headquarters after crossing a trillion-dollar milestone.
Also, New York-based Legacy Edge Advisors names its first-ever CEO, while Novare Capital Management hires a Vanguard veteran with a multigenerational planning focus.
Northern Trust’s Ken Lassner shows advisors how to convert volatility into after-tax portfolio gains
Dan Biagini of American Equity says the steady decline of pensions, longer lifespans and a reset in interest rates are rewriting how advisors build retirement income
