Independence v Restricted - Implementing the right model for us and our clients

Values at Work is a book recently published by the Yale Initiative on Sustainable Finance. The book and this webinar panel focus specifically on the challenges and opportunities of the current ESG reporting frameworks and suggest some paths forward.

Paul Ellis, Host of The Sustainable Finance Podcast (SFP) and Daniel C. Esty, Co-Editor of Values at Work and Director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, have invited several of the 21 Values at Work contributing authors to join this panel. They will discuss how to harness the power of markets and finance to protect the natural world, promote human well-being, and create a more equitable economy and society.

Moderator:
Paul Ellis, Principal at Paul Ellis Consulting & Founder/Host of The Sustainable Finance Podcast (SFP)

Panelists:
Daniel C. Esty, Co-Editor of Values at Work: Sustainable Investing and ESG Reporting & Director, The Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy
Valerie S. Grant, CFA, Senior Vice President & Senior Portfolio Manager, AllianceBernstein, where
Todd Arthur Bridges, Partner and Global Head of Sustainable Investing and ESG Research, Arabesque.
Emilie Mazzacurati, Founder & CEO, Four Twenty Seven (427mt. com)

When assessing the needs for a New Impact Industry, a lot of data shows that there is no time left to act. It is an urgent matter. So, the Impact investments is quickly growing accordingly, and the challenge will soon be the avoidance of ‘green washing’ experienced in other asset classes. Some beautiful tools developed to tackle that should help, but any Portfolio Manager’ success has a lot to do with the ability to gather as many options as possible, and then assess them to pick which ones should be part of a portfolio seeking profitable investments in companies that impact positively. Doing so through alliances and a strong methodology for analysis allows a broader universe of opportunities.

Join us as we discuss:
-The Need to Measure Impact
-Current Tools and Comparison with Credit Rating Agencies
-Proprietary Methodology should Make the Difference among Portfolio Managers
-The End Results: A Case Study

The integration of material sustainability factors into investment portfolios needs to be intentional and not accidental to achieve targeted impacts. This webinar will explore how the growing demand for integrating ESG considerations into investments must be reconciled with the deluge of data, and the call for tangible metrics which makes a compelling case for quantitative finance because capacity and speed and tools to target a specific set of ESG signals.

Learn how artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) are among the disciplines and techniques that have become available to ESG quant researchers and practitioners to sustain the exponential growth of data with the goal of aligning investors’ values with investment processes, and potentially creating a dual positive impact. Discover different approaches used by investors to achieve long-term goals with impact investing.

The pandemic of 2020 was a catalyst that forced investors to reconsider the impact they wanted to have on the world. Some profited, others suffered losses - all were changed. This change manifested itself the asset classes & industries they invested in. But what didn’t change was the long-term goals they had been identified before the pandemic hit. How can re-calibrate their portfolios to stay with their long-term goals, while accepting the new world we are in?

As laid out by the United Nations, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals remains an appropriate guideline for all investors to measure success. Despite the turbulence of 2020, re-calibrating their investment policies is needed to align with this framework. The challenge is to not lose sight of the long-term goals that the pandemic did not affect.

Join this webinar to learn:
- Why the SDGs remain relevant for impact investors
- How identify which metrics are right for your long-term investment goals
- How to use the SDGs to help standardise your investment metrics

Speakers:
Richard Zimmerman, WE Family Offices (Moderator)
Oscar Ardila, Head of Investor Relations and Responsible Investing , AshmoreAVENIDA
Igor Tsukerman, President & Chief Investment Officer, Passed Pawn Advisors
More Panelists TBD

In 2020, investors made it increasingly clear what they want from ESG reporting. They want meaningful, decision-relevant disclosures from companies, particularly on environmental and social themes. They also want to see disclosures made under frameworks that emphasise materiality, and greater convergence and standardisation in those frameworks.

With the year-end reporting season in full swing, we examine whether investors are getting what they asked for and what developments in ESG reporting are expected over the course of 2021.

Join this session as we discuss:
*Are companies providing more meaningful disclosures to investors on climate change?
*Investors are focusing more strongly on the S in ESG – how have companies responded?
*Are companies responding to the call to disclose under materiality focused frameworks, particularly TCFD and SASB?
*What progress has been made on convergence in the various ESG frameworks
*What investors can do to encourage companies and framework owners to promote transparency and consistency

Towards the SDGs: Robust ES Data from Better Supply Chains Monitoring

In this provocative webinar, we examine the options banks have to return to profitable growth and share how incumbents and challengers alike need to deliver a personalised experience, engaging propositions and customer led communications in order to rebalance the trust equation.

Attendees will learn:

5 steps to success in consumer centric banking
- the trust equation and its impact on operating models
- how to really deliver customer led planning and communications
- how to leverage the latest technology to create a personalised end to end experience across channels
- how to move from products to propositions
- measuring success

The Blue Economy has become a hot topic over the past few years thanks to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the work of NGOs and philanthropies, and an increasing awareness that climate and ocean issues are intricately intertwined and must be addressed together in finding solutions.
The idea of ocean investing is not new - examples include shipping, aquaculture and tourism. What is new, however, is the proliferation of instruments and opportunities that can help finance a sustainable Blue Economy over the coming decades. In the public equity markets, this not only includes the first Oceans ETF and a specialized oceans fund, but also a wide variety of instruments to attack the greenhouse gases problem, which is at the core of so many of the ocean’s challenges, including warming and sea level rise, deoxygenation and acidification. In the fixed income markets, Blue Bonds of several types have emerged alongside Green Bonds and have the potential to unlock additional sources of capital going forward.
In the private markets, there has been explosive growth in global innovation, fueled by incubators, accelerators, clusters, universities and governments. There are now more than a hundred innovation-related organizations around the globe focused on creating and/or serving the needs of a bold new breed of ocean-oriented startups. In addition, there are private market funds dedicated to virtually all sectors of the Blue Economy with many of them focused on aquaculture, technology and plastics.
The goal of this session is to give participants an overview of Blue Economy investment opportunities and also point to specific resources to enable them to further explore their interests. No matter what part of the capital markets you’re involved in, the oceans are becoming investable in an entirely new way.

Contrarian ideas for investing, building businesses and becoming an owner.
• Unconventional ideas for building wealth
• How to create your own flywheel and online ecosystem to profit
• The opportunity in small business acquisition

Ask the Expert: Ric Edelman, RIA Digital Assets Council

This webinar will discuss the importance of an income-producing investment strategy and where to find income in today’s low yield environment. Topics covered will include:

Alternative investments
Convertible securities
High Yield bonds
Dividend paying stocks
Bond funds
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS)
Income producing real estate

The yield curve is very instructive as to what asset class you should be invested in.
Flatter yield curve argues for long - duration treasury.
Steep yield curve leans more toward investment grade/high yield.
Examples from the past 10 years, with a review of the history of the 2/10 Treasury curve

Preferred securities are considered a unique asset class which reside in the middle of a company’s capital structure. It is an often-overlooked and inefficient sector that historically has provided investors with both a yield advantage to traditional securities and low correlation to traditional asset classes.

Join Red Cedar Investment Management’s David Withrow, CFA and John Cassady, CFA for a discussion on how investors can unlock more income for their portfolios and capitalize on the unique opportunities that exist within the preferred market.

Finding income-generating investments in 2020 has been tough. Dividends have been cut to maintain cash flow, and central banks cut interest rates even more. To adapt, some investors sought different ways to create income, including municipal bonds, which has gained 3.18% this year (according to Morningstar data), and select Real Estate Investment Trusts. These creative investors know that new opportunities are available - but where are they?

Join this panel to hear about:
- New ways to find income-generating investments
- Unique niche markets that are generating income.
- The value of municipal bonds & REITS in 2021

How can an active investor add value in high grade fixed income with interest rates at all-time lows? We discuss our outlook for the new year, current portfolio positioning and evaluate the role of Core fixed income in risk portfolios. Topics addressed include:

-Base/Bull/Bear case scenario for the economy.
-How will interest rates, yield curve, spreads, rolldown and volatility impact returns?
-Will the rally in Credit continue and which sectors of the market will perform best?
-Will Agency Mortgages outperform Treasuries and other sectors in certain maturity ranges?
-Does Securitized have any more room to run? ABS spreads (Autos and Cards) are at multi-year lows. Is there value in the more esoteric collateral, without undue credit or liquidity risk?
-Value in Agency debentures? Our approach to this often overlooked sector.
-Where is inflation headed and is there value in TIPS? Will the vaccine, reopening, and supply constraints (labor, capex, materials) lead to demand pull and supply constrained boosts to inflation?
-How will the Fed impact returns? Are they really on hold (i.e. not going to raise the FFR) for the next 3-5yrs? When will asset purchases stop? Will there be another taper tantrum as in 2013?
-What can go wrong? Sources of risk for the New Year including lack of fiscal stimulus, disruption in vaccine distribution, trade conflicts, tensions with Iran/North Korea, global trade, tax increases, healthcare reform, etc. Overly bullish investor sentiment and what it means for expected returns.

Generating genuine value for an investor remains today’s number one challenge, especially in a
COVID world. The 60/40 balanced portfolio between equities and bonds doesn’t work and as
valuable as it is, diversification – even diversification into the right sectors – isn’t enough to create a
defensive portfolio that can withstand the economic storms like the one we’re in now. What
investors need is transparency and detail.

In this session, we will discuss how commercial real estate as an asset class, continues to perform
strongly, offering investors consistent returns. We will discuss the different sectors that are
performing well and how investors can access this sector without the fear of gating, high fees or
inaccurate asset valuations.

Key take away’s
-Which sectors are performing strongly?
-What data should investors be focused on when thinking about investing in real estate?
-What choices do investors have when thinking about accessing the sector?

Moderator: Paul Norman, Editor at CoStar Europe

Panelists:
Roger Clarke, Managing Director, IPSX
Charlie Foster, Head of Real Estate, Europe, Global Investment Banking, RBC
Noel Manns, Co-Founder and Former Principal, Europa Capital

Whilst 2020 has been an unprecedented year for uncertainty, it is set to continue in 2021. The combination of the headwinds of the beginning not the end of changes due to Brexit, the new Biden/Harris regime in the US and continuing restrictions due to the pandemic well into 2021 and the economic hangover all affect investing. This presentation will cover dealing with uncertainty, how to dampen down risk and identifying opportunities.