Ethical Pensions: how planning for your retirement can help tackle climate change
Looking to make your money make a difference by transferring to an ethical pension?
If you want to invest your pension in a way that will help the climate crisis it’s important to know the difference between positive impact and ethical pensions.
We are the first financial advisers set up in the UK specifically to tackle the climate crisis. And while ethical pensions are certainly a step in the direction, we go even further. We offer impact pensions – which means we positively include companies that make a positive impact on the environment, contributing to a sustainable future
Ethical pensions explained
An ‘ethical’ pension fund aims to achieve positive returns while screening out companies involved in harmful or exploitative activities… Ethical investing generally excludes investments such as alcohol, tobacco, armaments, gambling, and pornography. However, polluting companies that cause damage to the environment are often seen as acceptable in ethical investment portfolios.
At The Path, we can offer a better solution.
Positive Impact Pensions
Our Positive Impact Pensions take place within an ethical framework, not only excluding companies that have a negative impact, but purposefully investing with companies and funds that make a positive impact on the environment.
Our Positive Impact funds are compiled to strict criteria to ensure that your money is only invested in socially responsible companies that pass our social, environmental and ethical tests.
We can help you to clearly understand your pension options, take control of your money and invest it in line with your ethical values.
Why our pensions make good financial sense
It seems to us that disinvesting from damaging and destructive companies is the only moral and practical choice. But far more impactful beyond that is reinvesting that money into clean and sustainable companies that are making a positive impact.
We think investing your pension where it will make a difference to the climate crisis makes good financial sense now, and that financial returns will only increase as concern about the climate intensifies. You will generally be exposed to investment in companies that are part of the solution and will be avoiding investments in companies that are part of the problem. So you will be aligned to the companies that are positioned for success and avoid those that are doomed to fail. For more on this see our blogs page.
The returns we offer are comparable to conventional funds. And we would expect the risks of investing where funds are causing damage to the environment will only increase in the coming months or years meaning it makes sense to look sooner rather than later at having investments that help the climate; rather than harm it.
Our pension review service
We’ll arrange for you to meet or speak with one of our pension experts. Your adviser’s primary focus is to help you make the right financial decisions for you. Your adviser will consider your current wealth and financial circumstances, along with your life and financial goals, so that they can offer you the best pension advice possible.
This advice is not restricted to our products and services – it takes into account all of your circumstances, irrespective of whether they ultimately interact with The Path’s pension or investment proposition.
It might be that what we offer means The Path is not right for you – we will explain why this is the case and we will always try to point you in the right direction if we can’t help.
How easy is it to transfer my pension?
Transferring your existing pension to The Path is straightforward. Typically, it can take around 8 weeks for a pension transfer to complete. In some cases, this can be as long as 12 weeks. We can help you find where your existing pensions are held if you are not sure how to locate them.
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Clean and renewable energy |
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Healthcare and medical research |
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Housing |
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Recycling and waste management |
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Educational services |
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Sustainable products and packaging |
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Financial service provision in developing nations |
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Solutions that provide clean water and increase efficiencies across the entire use-cycle of water |
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Infrastructure projects in the developing world |
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Dirty energy and fossil fuels |
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Non-sustainable timber and land degradation (habitat and species loss) |
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Non-sustainable agriculture and land management |
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Gambling |
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Tobacco |
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The manufacture and distribution of weapons and weapons systems |
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Nuclear power generation |
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Nuclear military |
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Infant formula where the retail or manufacture contravenes international guidelines |
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Breeding, rearing, trapping animals for the fur trade |
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Animal testing for cosmetic purposes |
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The manufacture and retailing of alcohol |
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Production, distribution and retailing of pornography |
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Consumer credit companies offering high rate loans and doorstep lenders |
Investing your pension where it will make a difference to the climate crisis makes good financial as well as moral sense. We believe that financial returns will only increase as concern about the climate intensifies.
Risk warning:
As always with investments, your capital is at risk. The value of your investment can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest. This information should not be regarded as financial advice.
The Path Financial Ltd. Registered in England. Company No. 11583740. Registered office address: The Path Financial Ltd, Watch Oak, Battle, TN33 0YD
Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
The Path is entered on the Financial Services Register https://register.fca.org.uk under reference 827270.
The guidance and/or advice contained within this website is subject to the UK regulatory regime, and is therefore targeted at consumers based in the UK.
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