SINCE Friends Provident set up its pioneering Stewardship fund in 1984, there has been a growing movement towards ethical investment. Initially, it was concerned primarily with not putting money into pornography, tobacco, or arms manufacture, but “things have very much moved on from that,” explains Simon Carlin, a financial planner in Bristol who trades as the Lost Coin.
“At one end of the spectrum now, there are what are known as ‘light green’ investments, which are tested against a set of ‘environmental, societal, and governance’ [ESG] criteria. You’ve then got more sustainable or socially responsible investing, where clients want to know that their money is doing some good as well as achieving some growth. And then you’ve got ‘impact investing’, where the social return very much comes first.”
How have Christian financial advisers played their part in these developments? How far have such ethical considerations impinged on the advice they give, and are they actively steering their clients in a similar, or a different, direction?
Dave Chamberlain, a director of Qi Financial Solutions, in Croydon, who sits on the committee of the Association of Christian Financial Advisers (ACFA), says that the Christian viewpoint is that “we are stewards of God’s money, to use it in a way that works for us, but ultimately, more importantly, works for God.”
Jon French, a partner in AW Financial Management, based in Sidcup, recognises that there is a variety of teaching on money in the Church, but says that “the one key theme across all different understandings of Christianity is Jesus’s teaching that it should not be our goal in life just to amass wealth. Money is to be used to provide for our needs, but is also to be used for the Kingdom.”
His firm’s website picks out three of the eight “biblical principles of financial planning” which ACFA promotes: Spend less than you earn, borrow cautiously and repay, and plan ahead.
He emphasises that his job is simply to advise. “When the client is a Christian, part of that will be helping them to explore what it means to use their money in a way that honours God, and helps to achieve God’s objectives for their lives. We’re not trying to push people down what we see as the right route, because everyone’s got different views on money and morals. We would definitely take the lead from our clients, focusing on their plans and desires. At the end of the day, we’re financial advisers, not pastors or teachers.”
None the less, he says, “there are times when it feels appropriate to gently challenge the client, to get them thinking. Often, that might be in the area of giving: ‘Have you considered that a tithe of your income would be this much?’ They might have heard tithing talked about in church, but never really put two and two together about how it affects their money.”
Mr Carlin (whose business uses the strapline “Finding true wealth”) challenges his Christian clients “at times” about what they do with their money. He encourages them to think in terms of “giving, saving, and spending”, in that order, “on the basis that, yes, we need to spend some money — we need to live and all the rest of it — but all our money belongs to God.”
NORMALLY, Mr Chamberlain says, a client comes with a particular concern, such as debt or investment. “My starting point would probably be ACFA’s eight principles, and obviously that introduces Bible verses into the conversation.”
“Most of my Christian clients come from a fairly Evangelical background, and generally have had pretty good teaching on money already. When you talk about being stewards of God’s money, they get it.
“However, some have a very rigid approach to giving, which is stuck on tithing, and I do try to challenge that. It’s an Old Testament principle that the New Testament overrules, really, with verses such as 2 Corinthians 9.7 — about giving cheerfully; and 1 Timothy 6.18 — about being generous and willing to share.”
Most Christian clients, Mr French says, already know what their principles and priorities are, and simply want an adviser who understands them. “For a non-Christian adviser, prioritising tithing over, say, saving or insurance wouldn’t make any sense, whereas as Christians we would understand their desire to give God the first fruits. Again, it’s not going to come as a surprise to us if they suddenly want to give away a large sum of money. And there are times when we will pray with clients, for guidance or wisdom.”
What if a client has taken to heart Jesus’s instruction to the rich young man, and feels compelled themselves to sell all they have and give the proceeds to the poor?
“I wouldn’t accept it at face value,” Mr Carlin says, “but I wouldn’t say they’re wrong, either, because who am I to say whether they’ve been prompted by God or not? What I would do is encourage them, if they haven’t already, to test that [conviction] with a trusted friend, and maybe their [church leader], and really be sure before doing something as extreme as that. I would be more of a sounding board in that kind of scenario.”
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What of Jesus’s injunctions not to worry about tomorrow nor “store up treasures on earth”? “Some older people come to us who maybe have taken that very strict approach,” Mr French says. “You say: ‘You haven’t got much to provide any income for your retirement years. How are you going to cope?’ There’s always the response ‘Oh, God will provide for me,’ and, yes, that’s definitely true; but God also has given us ways and means to use our time and talents, to do good in this world, but also to make money and make provision for ourselves.
“It’s a very difficult balance. I think the answer has got to be Spirit-led, what feels right to each individual.”
One issue that many Western Christians wrestle with, he says, is the threat that money can present to spiritual health. “We might not feel very wealthy, and yet a lot of us are in the top one per cent globally, which is a difficult place to be when we think about some of the things Jesus said to the rich of his day. I think it requires a lot of thought and prayer.”
SOME of ACFA’s eight biblical principles, such as “Deal fairly with others,” are uncontentious. Others are more controversial, Mr Chamberlain suggests. “Spending less than you earn is pretty countercultural nowadays. We live in a society that expects to have it now, pay for it later. The same goes for giving generously. My non-Christian colleagues find it very difficult to understand why I give what I do.”
The most demanding of all is the first: “God owns 100 per cent of everything.” How far should one take this? Should a Christian be saving some of God’s money for a putative “rainy day”, for example, when other people are getting drenched today? Should a Christian spend God’s money on private schooling to give their child “the best start in life”, when other people’s children are just as important to God?
“It’s difficult,” Mr Chamberlain admits. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with private education per se, but it’s all about where your priorities lie. Are you stewarding properly the resources God has entrusted to you? One of the challenges of our world, and our country, is the growing divide between the haves and have-nots.”
ACFA’s final principle makes a distinction between providing for dependents and trying to protect them. “Only God can protect someone,” Mr Carlin explains, but some life insurance can pay off the mortgage, for example, if the primary earner dies. The authority that ACFA refers to is Paul, in 1 Timothy 5.8: “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
Curiously, ACFA makes no reference to ethical investing, but all three of its members interviewed for this article are strong advocates of it. “It has always been a part of what our firm offers clients,” Mr French says, “although we don’t insist upon it by any means; we also offer what we call an ‘unrestricted’ portfolio — which sounds better than ‘non-ethical’. A large proportion of our Christian clients invest ethically, but not all of them. That’s obviously their decision.”
Mr Chamberlain estimates that 80 to 90 per cent of his Christian clients choose ethical funds; but, again, not all. “That has surprised me. Some people don’t see it as a priority. Even within ACFA, some advisers haven’t got their heads around this and seen how important it is. Personally, I think it’s an integral part of living out your faith.”
Most of his Christian clients lean towards the most ethical (“dark green”) end of the spectrum. “You don’t really get Christians who are in the middle: they either say, ‘I’m very green’ or they say, ‘Actually, I’m not bothered.’”
Mr Carlin, too, has been taken aback by the attitude of some Christians. “I have met some who, frankly, don’t care about the environment, even though they are in a position of leadership in the Church. They almost say: ‘Well, we’re in the end times anyway, so what can we do? We’ll just carry on regardless.’ I was so shocked, I didn’t know what to say.”
At ACFA’s most recent conference, in 2019, he met members who “still had the mindset that financial return is all that’s important, and if you want to achieve a social return, well, you can give some of it away to charity.
“Things have moved on apace since then,” however. “The mood in the whole industry has changed significantly in the last two years due to Covid. Certainly, ESG has exploded in terms of growth — everyone’s talking about it, the online training sessions are all concerned with it.”
Today, he estimates, probably half of his clients are Christians, and more than half of his clients’ money is in ethical, sustainable, or impact investing. “We can all see that the global climate is changing, whether we want to believe it or not, and we can all do our bit. That includes how we invest our money.”
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