AdvisorShares launches sustainability fund

A leading US sponsor of actively managed exchange traded funds (EFTs) has launched an investment vehicle that, it believes, could help bring impact investment into the mainstream.

AdvisorShares has launched the Global Echo EFT on the New York Stock Exchange, promoting the model as a transparent, liquid and tax efficient form of investment that is open to all.

A portion of the fund’s assets will support the GlobalEcho Foundation, a charity led by environmental advocate and social entrepreneur Philippe Cousteau Jr, grandson of the famous explorer and conservationist Jacques Cousteau.

Launched under the ticker label Give, AdvisorShares says the fund “is a broadly diversified, multi-manager ETF with a focus on sustainable investment themes, that seeks to achieve long-term capital appreciation with ... low sensitivity to a blend of traditional financial market indices, such as the S&P 500 Index, over a full market cycle”.

The fund will be managed by four sub-advisors: Baldwin Brothers and Reynders, McVeigh Capital Managers, which will both focus on core equity strategies, as well as Community Capital Management (fixed income) and First Affirmative Financial Network (‘alternative strategies’).

ETFs are securities that track an index, commodity or basket of assets like an index fund, but trades like a stock on an exchange in that its price varies during trading hours.  

AdvisorShares chief executive Noah Hamman said the Global Echo EFT provides “a truly one-of-a-kind sustainability-focused investment strategy with an innovative approach to combat some of our planet’s biggest challenges”.