New ETF Joins Fight Against Sexual Harassment in WorkplaceNew ETF Joins Fight Against Sexual Harassment in Workplace
The Impact Shares YWCA Women's Empowerment ETF is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2018, and enable people to invest with companies that promote women's interests and take strong stands against workplace harassment.
November 28, 2017
By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, Nov 28 (Reuters) - A new exchange-traded fund isbeing introduced for investors who want their money kept faraway from sexual harassment in the workplace.
The Impact Shares YWCA Women's Empowerment ETF is expectedto launch in the first quarter of 2018, and enable people toinvest with companies that promote women's interests and takestrong stands against workplace harassment.
"When women thrive, whole economies thrive," said DorriMcWhorter, chief executive of YWCA Metropolitan Chicago.
Wall Street is championing companies that perform well onenvironmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria to appeal toyounger investors, as well as universities and otherinstitutions interested in socially responsible investing.
U.S. managers employing such strategies invest more than $8trillion, according to the nonprofit Forum for Sustainable andResponsible Investment.
The nonprofit Impact Shares Corp will oversee the YWCA fund,whose ticker will be "WOMN." It is also creating a fund toinvest in companies that promote interests of minorities, theNAACP Minority Empowerment ETF.
"Aligning capital with these nonprofits is the best way tocapture the 'S,' the socially responsible aspect, of ESG," saidEthan Powell, founder of Impact Shares. "I would like to thinkthat these companies are just generally better run and maybemore in touch with modern-day society."
YWCA has championed issues including women's empowerment,civil rights, affordable housing and healthcare for more than150 years. Sexual harassment has been in the media spotlightafter a string of recent complaints against prominent figures inthe U.S. media, Hollywood and politics.
The YWCA fund is designed before expenses to track theEquileap North American Women's Empowerment Index, comprising asubset of the 1,000 largest U.S. companies by market value,perhaps 150 to 300 overall, that are "empowering to women."
Inclusion in the index will depend on 18 criteria includingpolicies against sexual harassment, bullying and other forms ofviolence, and protection of whistleblowers from retaliation.
Other criteria include the number of women in the workforceand upper management, pay and promotion opportunities, and theability to maintain work-life balances.
An "alarm bell," such as a legal finding of discriminationor multiple lawsuits alleging misconduct, can keep companies outof the index.
The YWCA fund faces a headwind: costs.
According to a draft prospectus, its annual expense ratio isexpected to be 0.75 percent.
That compares with 0.22 percent for the $3.7 billionVanguard FTSE Social Index fund, which uses several screens andrecently owned 428 stocks including Apple Inc ,Microsoft Corp, Google parent Alphabet Inc,Facebook Inc, Johnson & Johnson and JPMorganChase.
But Powell said Impact Shares, based in the Dallas suburb ofFrisco, Texas, will donate advisory fees after expenses to theYWCA. It has a similar arrangement with the NAACP.(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Jonathan Stempel in NewYork; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Matthew Lewis)
