Financial Freedom Associates

FFA Financial specializes in Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), also known as socially conscious or ethical investing.  SRI is an investment strategy seeking to maximize both financial return and social good. There is a wide range of issues that socially responsible investors can address.  It is easy to participate at various levels and make a genuine impact. This does not mean sacrificing financial gains.  Investors can do as well with social investments as they can with conventional investments. The three primary strategies utilized by SRI are: Screening – using positive and negative filters to select investments base on: *Corporate Social Responsibility – management practices, impacts on community, environmental impacts, fair trade products *Industries – exclude all from an industry, chosing the best available in an industry or selecting industries to support them (such as alternative energy) *Country – avoid if regime has poor human rights record, terrorist state This can be done through self-screening individual stocks, self-screening non-SRI mutual funds and ETFs, and/or SRI mutual funds and ETFs Shareholder Advocacy – using the rights of a shareholder (through SRI mutual funds or individual stocks) to influence the direction of business.  Shareholder advocacy includes: *Filing Shareholder Resolutions *Voting of Proxies - exercising your vote – there are now websites to make this easier *Communication with companies you own *Divest – sell your shares If you do not vote, Management Votes for You – there are easy ways vote on-line.  For investors in a mutual funds - you give voting rights to the fund manager, so be sure that their values are in line with yours.  *SRI funds generally vote, file resolutions and communicate with companies. *non-SRI mutual funds generally do not vote on policies related to social/political responsibility issues. Some of the top shareholder advocacy policies include: disclosing political contributions, climate change, executive compensation, equal employment, global labor standards, and board diversity. Community Investments –Provide access to credit, equity, capital, and basic banking products that low-income communities would otherwise lack.  Helping people help themselves through the support of  community banks, credit unions, and micro-credit institutions. FFA Financial’s clients have a range of objectives, values and risk tolerances.  We work with each client, in a non-judgemental way, to make sure their portfolio is suited for them – that may or may not include SRI.		Women making rosquilas in Somoto, Nicaragua - funding for their business was provided by micro-loans Social Investment Forum

“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

- Mahatma Gandhi

“Go with the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. But of the best leaders, when the job is done, the task accomplished, the people will all say, we have done this ourselves.”

- Lao Tse, 700BC