Impact investments are investments made in companies and funds with the intention to generate measurable social and/or environmental impact, alongside financial return. They can span various asset classes, geographies, themes, and instruments. Examples of themes are affordable housing and healthcare; access to education, financial services, and sanitation; and sustainable agriculture and environmental conservation.
GROWING INTEREST AMONG WEALTH HOLDERS
Private, institutional, and corporate investors around the world, as well as their advisers, are increasingly drawn toward investments that not only generate financial returns, but also benefit people and the planet. This trend is underpinned by the growing recognition of the scale and urgency of global challenges, the critical role of private capital in addressing them, and a paradigm shift toward models that harness the entrepreneurial spirit and resourcefulness of business, directing it toward developing systemic, sustainable, and scalable solutions to urgent societal problems. Increasingly, families are also using impact investing as a way by which to reach their personal and strategic objectives, be they finding their own productive place in society, strengthening family cohesion and culture, developing future-proof businesses, or facilitating wealth-with-values transfer.
“How money is invested today is crucial for what the world will look like tomorrow”
Queen Maxima of the Netherlands
THE GUIDE
In spite of the growing interest in impact investing, many families and their advisers find it difficult to develop pragmatic, successful strategies, often not knowing where or how to start. Based on the author’s extensive experience in advising wealth holders and wealth managers on impact investing, the success of her first Guide to Impact Investing, published in 2011, and over 160 in-depth interviews with HNWIs around the world, Julia Balandina Jaquier has developed the expanded and improved edition of the Guide. Catalyzing Wealth For Change is a unique, practice-oriented manual, capable of helping wealth holders and their advisers not only to understand impact investment, but also to become engaged in this field in a meaningful way and to navigate its complexities with success. This project is supported by a European philanthropic family, the Swiss Government (SECO), and RVVZ and DOEN foundations.