Socially responsible investing continues to expand in popularity as a way to invest with your values. From socially responsible mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to robo advisors and mobile apps, there’s easy access to this investing trend.
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Popular among younger and older investors alike, here are six apps that put socially responsible investment firms at your fingertips:
— EarthFolio
— Sustainfolio
— Aspiration
— Ellevest
— Wealthfront
— Vanguard
EarthFolio
EarthFolio is the natural place to start this list, as one of the first robo advisors for sustainable investing. The company was founded in 2000, so you’ll have over two decades of experience behind your investment in one of its environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds and ETFs. Each fund is screened for up to a dozen ESG criteria, from equality and healthy living to shareholder advocacy.
The process starts with a quick online questionnaire to home in on your risk tolerance and goals. Next, you’ll get a personalized portfolio of ESG funds based on this information. If you’re concerned about the recommendation or have more questions, you can schedule a one-on-one call with an EarthFolio advisor.
The one potential drawback to EarthFolio is that you need to invest $25,000 to get started. After that, there’s a 0.5% annual fee, but this includes your trading costs, commissions and rebalancing.
Sustainfolio
Like EarthFolio, Sustainfolio is backed by a firm solely engaged in sustainable investing. Sustainvest Asset Management created Sustainfolio to further the sustainable investing mission by making ESG investing more accessible. The firm partners with Charles Schwab to serve as a custodian for assets, meaning if you open a Sustainfolio account, you’ll create a Schwab account. That might bring you peace of mind since it means your financial and personal information is protected by Schwab security measures.
It’s easy to get started with Sustainfolio by answering a few quick online questions, but you do need at least $5,000 to meet the minimum initial investment. You’ll be invested in a range of ESG ETFs based on your risk tolerance — and not only Schwab funds, either. Expect to see funds from companies such as iShares, Nuveen and WisdomTree in your portfolio.
There’s a flat 0.5% annual management fee to use the app, which equates to about $50 per $10,000 you invest. The app automatically rebalances for you at no additional cost, and you can also get an annual review.
Aspiration
Aspiration isn’t just an investing app. It’s an online bank built around furthering climate-friendly finance. Part of that mission includes a banking app and ESG mutual fund called Aspiration Redwood Fund (ticker: REDWX). It invests in socially responsible companies that are furthering sustainability.
Aspiration sets itself apart from its banking brethren with a stance against hidden fees — or any fees, for that matter. It offers a “pay what is fair” fee structure for both its mobile banking app and REDWX. This lets you decide how much you’re willing to pay in fees. What’s more, 10% of whatever fee you choose to pay goes to climate-focused nonprofits. So even your fees are going toward furthering the greater good.
There’s only a $10 minimum investment to get started. So while you get only one fund choice here, you can trust you’re getting a good deal. And you can combine your banking and investing under one roof, if you’d like.
Ellevest
If gender equality is a top value, this is the socially responsible investing app for you.
Ellevest was built by women for women. Don’t worry, guys, men are welcome, too, and may in fact appreciate its user-friendly platform. It offers two portfolios: Ellevest Core, which is your standard robo advisor, and Ellevest Impact Portfolios, the socially responsible option.
With Ellevest Impact Portfolios, more than half of your portfolio is invested through ESG and gender lenses. The portfolios not only include socially responsible investing (SRI) criteria but also focus on diversification and tax minimization strategies.
It takes only minutes to get started: Open an account, choose an investing goal, answer a few questions and the app will recommend a portfolio for you. There’s no account minimum, but the app does charge a $12-per-month fee.
Wealthfront
Wealthfront is another popular robo advisor with a highly rated app — it gets 4.8 out of 5 stars in the app stores of both Google and Apple. Through Wealthfront’s automated investing and fractional shares services, you can design an SRI portfolio with as little as $1.
The app uses BlackRock’s ESG-aware funds, which track socially responsible indexes, as the primary investments in its SRI portfolios. The underlying indexes use a scoring method that weights ESG criteria based on how relevant they are to the company’s industry.
Note that not all funds in Wealthfront’s SRI portfolios are necessarily ESG-approved. When a good ESG pick isn’t available for a given asset class, Wealthfront either removes that asset class entirely or uses a traditional fund.
This is to abide by Wealthfront’s objective to create SRI portfolios that provide similar expected returns to the non-SRI “classic” portfolio, so you won’t have to worry about sacrificing returns by investing for the greater good. The SRI portfolios have the same 0.25% annual fee as the classic portfolios.
Vanguard
If you want to invest with a big brokerage firm without sacrificing your ethics or your time, Vanguard has you covered. The firm’s robo advisor, Vanguard Digital Advisor, has an ESG option. This lets you swap out some of the non-ESG Vanguard ETFs the robo advisor may recommend for ESG ones.
However, you may not be able to replace all of the funds. The platform may include non-ESG fixed-income investments to maintain diversification.
The ESG portfolios come with an annual 0.2% advisory fee, but this is waived for the first 90 days. So you can try it out for free. You just need $100 and to complete a personalized online risk assessment to get started. Note that Vanguard takes this process seriously, so it may take up to 30 minutes to complete.
The robo advisor starts by creating a portfolio around a retirement goal, but you can add additional goals like saving for college. There are also premium tools, such as a debt payoff calculator and a tax-loss harvesting option to help you minimize taxes. Best of all, you’ll have Vanguard’s wealth of experience and expertise at your back.
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6 Apps for Socially Responsible Investing originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 12/11/24: This story was previously published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
