Conscience stocks can pay in sinners' world

Planners and investment advisers are supposed to care about their clients' goals. So how come so many of them mouth off when someone asks about socially responsible investments?

They rant that SRI portfolios can't earn as much as Wall Street's standard, diversified fare. If you want to do good, they say, invest in winning stocks and write the charity a check. These advisers have a couple of wrong-headed ideas.

They are mistaken (or bull-headed) about SRI-managed money, which can earn competitive, long-term returns. More on that later, as well as on the advisers that make it happen.

The more important question is why the scoffers are making personal judgments about which of their clients' goals are worth attending to.

When you visit an adviser, you are asked about your needs, temperament and aims. Are you aggressive or conservative? Do you want current income? What are you saving and investing for?

To that third question "" what for? "" ordinary advisers have been trained to hear only a limited number of answers: a second home, college, a retirement kitty, a large bequest for heirs.

They haven't opened their minds to the social or religious goals that occupy a growing number of investors on Thursday.

We all bring more than pure monetary values to our money choices, says Meir Statman, a professor of finance at Santa Clara University in California. Products carry expressive characteristics as well as useful ones. They tell our neighbours about our values, tastes, wealth and social class.

A Chevy Impala will get you across town. So will a Toyota Prius, a Porsche and a Hummer. Whichever one you drive, you are hanging a flashing neon sign on your soul. It's that way with SRI investing, too.

Brokers and planners are supposed to choose investments that are suitable for their clients, and in their best interest. "Suitable" includes values, too. If your adviser won't listen or knows little about SRI, take your business to someone who shares your ideas.

The standard objection to SRI is that, inevitably, it will yield reduced returns.