We Care About You AND Doing the Right Thing
By John Furlow, Jr., TPF’s Executive VP & COO
Sustainable. Responsible. These are words that we actively associate with environmental conservation and social programs. But if you don’t already, you should also consider the importance of their application to investments. Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is an investment discipline that is difficult to clearly define. Generally, an investment is deemed to be SRI based on the nature of the business that the company conducts.
So, you might wonder, how does TPF manage SRI expectations and requirements? As part of our investment policy, TPF does not employ socially responsible screens. We do not blacklist companies. However, make no mistake, we do very much care about the type of companies with which we place our investments.
We DO employ a corporate governance screen on our portfolio. In our experience, companies that do not pass this screen, rarely qualify as high quality businesses with whom our managers choose to invest. Additionally, we DO vote our proxies in line with Christian and Presbyterian beliefs.
TPF uses the following factors in our governance screen:
- Board composition and internal governance
- Audit
- Charter/Bylaws
- Anti-takeover provisions
- Executive and director compensation
- Ownership
- Director education
- Regulatory
Through the utilization of this governance screen, rather than a socially responsible screen, we can better serve each of our partners to increase their ability to enable and expand mission.