Have you been following along with our BRI objections series? We're in month 4 (and objection 4) this month. If you missed any of the previous objections, you can find them all here. This month the focus is going to be on the assumption that biblically responsible investment portfolios have a lack of offerings or diversification.
The key aspect of our Cornerstone Portfolios is our due diligence and BRI screening. Not all BRI or faith-based funds are created equal. There are currently over 70 faith-based funds available; however, there are some that do very little screening or more importantly, they do not utilize their resources to embrace what is good and to engage with the companies in their universe. While we eliminate some of the 70+ faith-based funds, we still have the ability to build a fully customized BRI Portfolio.
Above is a look at our portfolio line-up (pointing to all the Cornerstone offerings). When we were initially creating the Cornerstone Portfolios, we sought to only have models from the Balanced to Max risk spectrum. After initial feedback, we decided that we needed to have model offerings in all of the risk buckets.
Thankfully, we found some options in the high yield bond space which allows us to overlay our high yield bond trend following model on BRI high yield bond funds. We also created a model similar to Dynamic Income which allocates among the wide range of income investments out there. From short duration bonds, government agency debt, all the way out to preferred stocks, REITs and dividend growth stocks, we have options to dynamically allocate from lower to higher risk income investment as dictated by the market environment. We also have Balanced, Growth, and Max, which have similar mandates to the AmeriGuard models by the same name.
All of that to say, we have different model options which are designed to meet a range of risk and return objectives. Just like our other SEM models, the higher the desired returns, the higher the risks. Below is the same bubble chart showing just the Cornerstone Portfolio options.
The graphic below shows a different way to look at the Cornerstone line-up. Each model has a maximum and minimum equity allocation. What is key is they can be combined used to build a fully customized Biblically Responsible Portfolio which uses our three management styles. Just like the secular SEM portfolios, a portfolio using Cornerstone models can be designed around your financial plan, cash flow strategy, and investment personality.
While the Cornerstone Portfolios have to go through the screening process which eliminates companies profiting on things the Bible is against, that doesn't mean people using our Cornerstone Portfolios don't have options to fit their financial goals. This partially ties into performance as well, which we talked about earlier in this series. Hopefully seeing the different offerings we have through Cornerstone; you can feel confident that you don't have to give up on different investment goals while having a Biblically Responsible investment portfolio.
