Crystal launches ESG portfolios following client demand

ESG/louise-lakomy/

30 September 2021
| By Laura Dew |
image
image
expand image

Crystal Wealth Partners has launched a range of environmental, social and governance (ESG) portfolios following client demand, which it says has been the biggest change in how clients view their investments.

Louise Lakomy, Crystal Wealth Partners director, said increased ESG interest had been the biggest difference she noticed in her current clients compared to ones five years ago.

“More and more clients over the last five years have been asking us about ESG and asking for screening in their portfolios and I would say more of them are female,” Lakomy said.

“People are telling us they want to invest ethically and we have launched an ESG model in light of this.”

The ESG models, which could be applied to firm’s existing range of portfolios such as growth or balanced, scored companies and excluded those which failed to meet a set criteria.

However, Lakomy pointed out it was not a case of ‘one and done’ and that ESG was an ongoing process.

“ESG measurement is not a stagnant process, it is ever changing, what’s bad today might not be bad tomorrow and no company should be tarred with one brush,” Lakomy said.

She gave the example of Woodside Petroleum which had been criticised for taking on oil assets in a merger with BHP but that, she pointed out, the company also had a carbon-resilient portfolio, was lowering its greenhouse gas emissions and working with climate science researchers.

Meanwhile, she said the firm had not yet made any acquisitions but that it continued to be on the hunt for viable advice firms.

“We are always in discussions but it has to be the right fit for the company. There were some who thought they had could get better value after COVID-19 but now, with the subsequent lockdowns, we have an even bigger COVID-19 problem,” Lakomy said.

“There are a few advisers hanging around in the market but they will have to sell their companies soon if they don’t pass or don’t want to sit the FASEA [Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority] exam.”

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

2 months ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

2 months ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

4 months 1 week ago

A Sydney financial adviser has been permanently banned from providing any financial services, with the regulator deriding his “lack of integrity, trustworthiness and prof...

3 weeks 2 days ago

Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, has provided further information about the second tranche of the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms....

2 weeks 1 day ago

One licensee has lost 27 advisers in the past week, now sitting at zero, according to the latest Wealth Data figures....

3 weeks 2 days ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS