text: Money Quotient University is pleased to offer “Towards Aware and Values-Centered Investing” to a new group of students. This ten-week, five-session course is scheduled to begin on Monday, February 10, 2020.
  Purpose
  To help financial planners gain an understanding of investment options and tools that are available to help clients truly align their financial and life plans with their values.
  Instructor
  Marco Vangelisti is a 100% impact investor with a longstanding commitment to direct local investing. He is a founding member of Slow Money and has been on the leadership team of the Slow Money Northern California Network since 2009. Prior to his shift in focus towards local and sustainable investing, he spent 20 years in the finance industry, where he managed investment equity portfolios on behalf of large foundations and endowments and developed statistical risk models for equity and fixed income markets around the world.
  Marco was a Fulbright scholar in Mathematics and Economics at the University of California in Berkeley, earned an MBA at the Milan-based “Enrico Mattei” school in his native Italy, and a Master of Fine Arts at the intersection of public art and ecology in the U.S. He held the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation for 15 years and taught portfolio management, asset allocation, and performance and risk analysis at the San Francisco CFA Institute for 12 years. He is dedicated to democratizing financial literacy and sustainable investing. For additional information, please visit his website, ek4t.com.
  Registration is open!
  Description
  Click here to watch the first five minutes of Marco’s first lecture. In this video, he discusses his background and motivation, and shares information about the course structure and descriptions of each course session.
  Since the financial crisis of 2008, there has been a growing sentiment of skepticism and mistrust aimed at Wall Street and our globalized and opaque financial system. As a result, a growing number of clients and prospective clients are looking for ways to truly align their portfolios with their values, and are dissatisfied with investing all of their assets in the stocks and bonds of large multinational corporations.
  This disconnect between personal values and traditional investment choices is becoming even more glaring due to an increased awareness of the role our investments play in shaping the world we live in. Media attention and a number of movements (i.e., Slow Money, Occupy, 350.org, and re-localization movement) are all adding fuel to the fire of discontent with business as usual on Wall Street.
  However, an honest evaluation of a majority of the stocks and bonds that comprise a typical socially- or environmentally-responsible portfolio would also fail to make a direct link to the issues and causes that your clients care about most. In addition, even the sincerest and most well-intentioned values-based financial planning process often falls short in the implementation phase.
  This course is designed for financial professionals who are ready to engage in out-of-the-box thinking regarding options for clients who want to a) know their investments are doing no harm; and/or b) actively engage in making the world a better place via their investments.
  Learning Objectives
  Participants who complete the course requirements will:
  Understand the role finance played in shaping the geopolitics of the last five centuries worldwide
  Understand ­­the problems with our current financial system and the role our investments play in creating some of the largest societal challenges we collectively face
  Understand the application of ecological economics techniques to the quantification of the natural capital subsidy to our economic growth and financial returns
  Realize the importance of being aware of the non-financial impact of all our/our clients’ investments
  Understand the money system, the money creation process, the banking sector’s incentives and activities, the role and actions of the central bank, their collective effect on asset class valuations and implications for investing
  Develop a healthy skepticism of traditional capital market expectations and understand the importance of tactical asset allocation especially around time characterized by secular shifts
  Integrate non-financial considerations and clients’ specific personal values into the portfolio management process
  Understanding the importance of an expanded understanding of fiduciary responsibility to include the non-financial impact of clients’ investments
  Introduce the concepts of meta-allocation and regenerative investing component of a client’s portfolio
  Course Requirements
  Each session of this five-session, ten-week course will include:
  A recorded lecture
  Required reading
  Online interaction with the instructor and students
  Completion of an online learning assessment.
  This course is self-paced; however, online interaction via a discussion forum will include weekly deadlines. All requirements for each session must completed within the 2-week time-frame. Additional instruction will be included in the on-line Google Classroom platform (login information will be provided upon registration).
  Session Overview
  (*Note: you are responsible for obtaining your own copy of Sapiens; the other materials will be provided to you via downloadable links.)
  Session #1 February 10, 2020 – February 23, 2020
  Awakening to the Problems of Conventional Finance
  Required Reading:
  *Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Human Kind. Harper Collins Publishers 201; Chapter 16: The Capitalist Creed (pp. 305-333)
  Key points:
  Understanding the difference between capital and wealth
  Understanding the role finance played in shaping the geopolitics of the last five centuries worldwide
  Understanding the role the invention in the 16th century of the joint-stock corporation played in the imperial and colonial expansion of European nation states
  Understanding the role join-stock corporations played in fueling the transatlantic slave trade
  Understanding the application of ecological economics techniques to the quantification of the natural capital subsidy to our economic growth and financial returns
  Understanding the role our investments play in the erosion of the natural capital and therefore its inability to be sustained even within the typical time-horizon of an average client
  Realizing the importance of being aware of the non-financial impact of all our/our clients’ investments
  Session #2 February 24, 2020 – March 8, 2020
  Understanding Ecological Limits, Money Creation and the Federal Reserve
  Required reading:
  *McLeay, Radia, Thomas. “Money Creation in the Modern Economy.”
  Key points:
  Understanding the hierarchical and hybrid nature of our money system
  Understanding the process of money creation and destruction in a modern economy
  Understanding the mechanism by which lending by commercial banks create new broad money in the economy
  Overcoming the most common misconceptions about money
  Understanding the role the central bank plays in managing the money supply
  Understanding the types of risks limiting the lending activities of commercial banks
  Understanding who determines the amount of base money in a modern economy
  Understanding the effects of Quantitative Easing (QE) by central banks and why it had no effect on inflation
  Understanding the effects of QE on capital market valuations and on the real estate market
  Understanding the impact the exceptionally low interest policy set by central banks on the leverage in the overall financial system and the increase in systemic risk
  Understanding the effects on the stock market of the unprecedented share-bay back by public companies in the US in the last five years
  Understanding the carbon math and the issue of stranded carbon assets and its implication for the proper valuation of clients’ portfolios
  Session #3 March 9, 2020 – March 22, 2020
  Challenging Capital Markets Expectations – A Holistic Approach to Portfolio Management
  Required reading:
  *The Economist. “The Long and Short of It – Getting It Right in Two Years and Ten.”
  *Rich, Nathaniel. “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare.”
  Key points:
  Understanding the relationship between valuations and market returns
  Expanding the understanding and definition of risk and return to include non-financial considerations
  Determining the clients’ liquidity profile and needs
  Understanding the difference between a client’s risk tolerance and her ability to bear risk
  Assessing clients’ abilities to bear risk
  Integrating non-financial considerations and the clients’ specific personal values into the portfolio management process
  Understanding that the compensation for asset classes systematic risk changes over time and can turn negative
  Developing a healthy skepticism of traditional capital market expectations and understanding the importance of tactical asset allocation especially around time characterized by secular shifts
  Understanding the importance of an expanded understanding of fiduciary responsibility to include the non-financial impact of clients’ investments
  Session #4 March 23, 2020 – April 5, 2020
  Implementing Aware Values-Centered Investing
  Required reading:
  *Vangelisti, Marco. “What returns can we expect from local investing?”
  Key points:
  Understanding the common characteristics of the investments belonging to the same asset class
  Understanding the implications of the difference in the rate of growth of the global economy vs. that of financial capital
  Computing risk-adjusted returns of an investment given the probability of its possible return outcomes
  Appreciating the motivations behind local investing
  Understanding the added dimensions necessary to move towards holistic portfolio management
  Defining no-harm investing and impact investing
  Identifying no-harm investments and providing a few examples of them in various asset classes and risk categories
  Identifying impact investments and providing a few examples of them in various asset classes and risk categories
  Guiding clients through the process of building their Personal Investment Compass
  Incorporating holistic portfolio management practices into their own processes
  Session #5 April 6, 2020 – April 19, 2020
  Regenerative Investing and the True Path to Financial Freedom
  Required reading:
  *Tasch, Woody. Inquiries Into the Nature of Slow Money – Investing as if Food, Farms and Fertility Mattered.
  Key points:
  Understanding the importance of soil health for the survival of Homo Sapiens
  Understanding the link between conventional finance and soil erosion
  Identifying regenerative investments and providing a few examples of them in various asset classes and risk categories
  Determine the prudent allocation to regenerative investing based on the client’s ability to bear risk
  Understanding the difference between impact investing and regenerative investing
  Understanding the psychological costs of participating in the positional game
  Understanding the importance of an expanded understanding of fiduciary responsibility to include the non-financial impact of clients’ investments
  Introducing the concepts of meta-allocation and regenerative investing component of a client’s portfolio
  Q&A
  We have also scheduled two live online Q&A sessions with Marco Vangelisti!
  Please join us on Thursday, March 19 and Monday, April 20 at 11:30 a.m. PT/2:30 p.m. ET. During these live one-hour sessions, we invite you to share your thoughts and ask questions.
  Please note that these are optional sessions intended to supplement the course materials. Attendance is not mandatory, but we strongly encourage your participation.
  CFP® CE Credit
  6.5 CFP® CE, as accepted by the CFP® Board. Requirements to receive the CFP® CE include the following:
  Watch all five recorded video lectures
  Complete assigned reading as listed above (*note: you are responsible for obtaining your own copy of Sapiens; the other materials will be provided to you via downloadable links)
  Interact with instructor and fellow students via online discussion forum in response to posted topics and questions
  Complete online learning assessments (acceptable passing score is 70%)
  Tuition
  This MQU course is open to MQ Partners and other financial professionals & financial educators.
  MQ Partners: $400.00
  MQ VIP Partners: $200.00
  AssetMark $400.00
  Others: $500.00
  Endorsements
  Jeremy Levinn, CFP®:
  I can’t remember the last time I participated in something as deeply thought-provoking as Marco’s course. He weaves a cohesive narrative that ties together the workings of our financial system and the state of the natural environment, and the impact we have on these systems (both as individuals and financial planners). As someone who is well-versed in capital markets, I was particularly interested in Marco’s exploration of the assumptions which underly our financial thinking – both those that we currently use and those we don’t. And when we upend the assumptions, where does it leave us? Marco answers these questions with analytical rigor and elegant simplicity.
  Even if you are a dedicated environmentalist and a student of financial markets, I am sure you will learn something new from this course. The real question is what you choose to do with that knowledge. As financial life planners and members of the MQ community, this course offers essential knowledge for helping our clients align their money and values.
  Margaret Kulyk, CRPC®:
  I found this class absolutely mind-blowing! I thought it would be a solid addition to my ongoing quest for greater knowledge of ESG investing. Instead it went significantly deeper and has forced me to reevaluate my business model, and my communication with clients on this exceedingly important topic. I am all about “integrating money and meaning’ and Marco’s class has challenged me to take this to a whole new level. Thank you VERY much for offering this. I hope there is more to come!
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  Filed Under: -Impact Investing, -Sustainable-Responsible Investing, Beyond Investing, Featured
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