“At Equitable Life, we’ve seen increasingly more interest from both our clients and our advisors in sustainable investment choices, with a lot of questions from them about what options we have in our lineup that would be sustainable,” Scott Stobo, Director Product Development, Savings and Retirement at Equitable Life told Wealth Professional.
“We’re also seeing significant growth in the sustainable investment based on industry statistics over the past decade, both in Canada and around the world, and we don’t see that slowing anytime soon.”
According to Morningstar’s report on the Sustainable Investing Landscape for Canadian Investors in Q2 2022, Canada-listed sustainable funds and ETFs saw $1.9 billion in collective net inflows, with 71% going to equity and 23% to fixed income strategies. A recent report from National Bank said Canada-listed ESG ETF products have more than doubled in the past two years, including Q1 2022 when a third of new ETF launches fell under the ESG category.
As a mutual insurance company, Equitable Life isn’t owned by shareholders, which means it considers the interests of clients, the community, and other stakeholders rather than focusing on shareholder profits. That multi-stakeholder mindset, Stobo says, makes ESG investing options a natural fit for Equitable Life’s shelf.
“We want to leave the world in a better place than we found it,” he says. “And so in addition to addressing client interests, we felt it made sense for us to have some sustainable investment options given our mutual structure.”
