Morgan Stanley Celebrates 10th Anniversary of Investing with Impact Platform

First-of-its-kind sustainable and impact-oriented wealth management investing platform has acrused $70 billion in AUM over 10 years.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) Wealth Management is pleased to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Investing with Impact Platform which enables clients to align portfolios of any size and complexity with their unique impact goals. The platform was the first of its kind when it launched in 2012, and now has approximately $70 billion in assets today.

The Investing with Impact Platform today is comprised of hundreds of investment products designed to advance environmental and social goals while seeking to achieve financial market-rate returns, plus data-driven tools that allow investors to measure their progress against specific impact goals. Approximately 95% of the Firm’s Wealth Management representatives regularly leverage the platform on behalf of clients.

“Investing with Impact is an important initiative for Morgan Stanley, and we are proud to be a leader,” said Shelley O’Connor, Vice Chairman and Head of External Affairs at Morgan Stanley. “Ten years ago, Morgan Stanley was the first major financial institution to launch a wealth management platform solely dedicated to sustainable and impact investing. Today with nearly all of our Wealth Management Financial Advisors utilizing the platform, we’re leading by example and raising the standards for the entire industry while remaining committed to helping our clients achieve their goals.”

“This approach to investing is most effective when it is guided by a long-term vision and supported by a strong base of fundamental research, analysis and advice. The breadth, depth and strength of the Investing with Impact Platform creates a scaffolding around clients’ goals, operationalizing them to ensure a long-term focus,” said Lisa Shalett, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s Chief Investment Officer and Head of the Global Investment Office. “We are focused on the opportunity to maximize the impact of every dollar invested by focusing not just on the most effective investments, but also on the best ways to help clients take control and remain committed to their own impact goals.”

Financial Advisors and leadership gathered for the in-person and virtual event to celebrate the ten-year anniversary. Speakers included:

• James Gorman, Chairman and CEO, who reflected on the Firm’s decision to build out its sustainability focus – beginning with the launch of the Global Sustainable Finance team in 2009 and the first-of-its kind Institute for Sustainable Investing in 2013.

• Jim Detterick, Managing Director, Investing with Impact Director; Kristina Van Liew, Managing Director, Investing with Impact Director, Graystone Consulting and Sandeep Belani, a partner and Co-Chief Investment Officer of The Polk Group at Graystone Consulting, participated in a practitioner panel moderated by Jed Finn, Head of Corporate and Institutional Solutions and COO, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. Panelists discussed the evolution of sustainable and impact investing across their businesses as well as where they see opportunities in the future.

• Matthew Slovik, Managing Director, Head of Global Sustainable Finance and Lisa Shalett participated in a panel moderated by Lily Trager, Head of Investing with Impact, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. They discussed the Firm’s commitment to sustainability, investment in thought leadership, analytics and data, and connectivity across business units and asset classes that can provide the context and support all clients that are focused on sustainable and impact investing.

During the last decade, Morgan Stanley has provided tools to Financial Advisors to help clients make the best possible decisions and achieve their impact goals without sacrificing potential returns.

Together, these tools create a powerful, holistic platform which has been a key differentiator for many clients and Financial Advisors:

• Morgan Stanley Impact Quotient® (Morgan Stanley IQ) is an award-winning patented technology that helps clients identify and prioritize their impact preferences and assess their current holdings for opportunities to align their portfolio more closely with their environmental and social goals.
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Signal is a quantitative manager scoring tool that monitors asset managers’ firm-level progress—and potential—in achieving more diverse and balanced representation among their leadership. The tool was developed to promote transparency and accountability in the investment management industry and evaluates over 300 firms, who collectively represent over 70% of global managed assets.
• Impact Signal, also a quantitative manager scoring tool, shows the strength of an investment strategies environmental and social impact and corporate governance metrics, covering over 15,000 mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and separately managed accounts (SMAs) across major global asset classes.
• Value-add thought leadership including Morgan Stanley’s proprietary thematic guides, which cover a range of special interests, gender diversity, racial equity, climate change, faith-based investing and more.

“What we’ve developed over the last 10 years is a holistic, end-to-end system that encompasses impact goal discovery, investment advice and impact measurement,” said Lily Trager. “Our Financial Advisors are deeply committed to helping clients navigate this journey which is a key differentiator.”

For more information on Investing with Impact, visit https://www.morganstanley.com/articles/investing-with-impact.

About Morgan Stanley Wealth Management

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, a global leader, provides access to a wide range of products and services to individuals, businesses and institutions, including brokerage and investment advisory services, financial and wealth planning, cash management and lending products and services, annuities and insurance, retirement and trust services.

About Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. With offices in 41 countries, the Firm’s employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. For further information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.

This material has been prepared for informational purposes only and does not provide individually tailored investment advice. It has been prepared without regard to the individual financial circumstances and objectives of persons who receive it. The strategies and/or investments discussed in this material may not be appropriate for all investors. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC recommends that investors independently evaluate particular investments and strategies, and encourages investors to seek the advice of a Financial Advisor. The appropriateness of a particular investment or strategy will depend on an investor’s individual circumstances and objectives.

This material is not an offer to buy or sell any security, or to participate in any trading strategy. Investing in the market entails the risk of market volatility. The value of all types of investments may increase or decrease over varying time periods. Past performance is not indicative or a guarantee of future results.

The returns on a portfolio consisting primarily of Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) aware or diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) investments may be lower or higher than a portfolio that is more diversified or where decisions are based solely on investment considerations. Because ESG criteria exclude some investments, investors may not be able to take advantage of the same opportunities or market trends as investors that do not use such criteria. Diversification does not guarantee a profit or protect against a loss in declining financial markets.

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