Socially conscious funds on a roll

Socially conscious funds are one of the highest growth areas of the mutual fund industry and have outperformed their peers in recent time periods, according to a study released today by New York-based Lipper Inc. Since 2001, assets in socially conscious funds have grown 71% to $26.9 billion as of Oct. 31. Among them, green funds, which seek investments with a positive environmental impact, have experienced a 640% increase in assets to $1.1 billion, from $153 million over the same time period. Recently, socially conscious funds have also outperformed their peers on average. In the six-month period ending Oct. 31, they outstripped their classification average by 0.07%. Over the one-year period, the funds outperformed by 0.40% on average and 0.02% for the three-year period. The study also found that the funds tend to have higher-than-average expense ratios than their peers.