San Jose, California, October 8th, 2019 – Inspire Investing announced a major development in their mission to advance the biblically responsible investing (BRI) movement with the launch of Inspire Advisors, an RIA platform created to give Christian financial advisors a place to call home that is fully supportive of their desire to align their practices with biblical values and “go all-in” for God’s glory in their profession.
Inspire quietly opened the Inspire Advisors platform in January with a soft-launch and has seen impressive growth, attracting $130M in assets under management in just the first 9 months.
“We were very strategic and deliberate with the soft-launch of Inspire Advisors,” commented Robert Netzly, CEO of Inspire. “We didn’t want a big announcement with a lot of fanfare. We wanted to be very careful in reaching out and recruiting very specific financial advisors who share our core beliefs and passion for the biblically responsible investing movement to help lay the foundation of a strong culture dedicated to glorifying God in every aspect of their financial advisory practices. These stellar advisors will serve as examples and role-models for the hundreds of advisors we plan to recruit, God willing, onto the platform in the years to come.”
The Inspire Advisors platform is purpose built from the ground up to support Christian financial advisors who want to run their practices with 100% biblically responsible investing alignment, a growing conviction among financial advisors and their clients.
“When we looked across the RIA marketplace, we saw some large Christian RIAs that did not offer BRI portfolios, and we saw some RIAs that are completely BRI, but they were only local or regional in scope. We could not find any national brand RIA platform that was dedicated to biblically responsible investing,” said Netzly. “That’s a problem that we are solving with the launch of Inspire Advisors. There has to be a nationwide, world-class, top-ten RIA firm that is sold out to the advancement of biblically responsible investing and the Christian advisors who want to run their practices for the glory of God. God willing, Inspire Advisors is that firm.”
Financial advisors that join Inspire Advisors have access to Inspire’s deep bench of biblically responsible portfolios delivered in a turn-key, separately managed account (SMA) format, including customizable unified managed account (UMA) and robust tax-loss harvesting capabilities.
“At my old firm, we all knew biblically responsible investing was important to share with our clients, but there was no commitment to do anything about it,” says Luke Andrews, one of the many Christian financial advisors who now calls Inspire Advisors home. “At Inspire Advisors, from the top to the bottom, our firm is sold out and committed to connect our clients’ values with their investments.”
There are currently several dozen SMA strategies available to Inspire Advisors recruits and their clients, with strategies ranging from passive, index based portfolios to actively managed, tactical, sector rotation and other strategies. Some strategies are built using Inspire’s popular suite of biblical ETFs, while others are built using only individual stocks, giving advisors one of the most robust, widely diversified selection of biblically responsible investing portfolios available anywhere.
Inspire Advisors’ successful launch can be partly attributed to the strong value proposition that the platform offers to both financial advisors and their clients alike. Lower fees, higher payouts, powerhouse investment committee and a faith-saturated culture are among the top benefits.
In today’s environment where many RIAs and BD’s are wary and discouraging of their advisors being forward about their faith, Christian financial advisors benefit from a firm that actually encourages them to express their faith and operate their business with biblical values at the core. At secular firms, many advisors run into challenges getting faith-based marketing materials and investment products approved for use. At Inspire Advisors, that faith-based focus is nurtured and encouraged from every team member at the home office and across the field by every advisor colleague.
Keith and Jacob Chandler, the father-son advisory team at the helm of Inspire Advisors’ Palmdale, CA office say the Christ-centered culture is a big reason they joined Inspire Advisors after spending more than 25 years at Ameriprise:
“What we love about Inspire Advisors is that we can now be part of a company that truly reflects our values and mission. We love that we can be part of a team of Christian professionals whose desire is to display excellence in their work and inspire transformation for God’s glory throughout the world. We are so glad that we joined the Inspire Advisors team and are excited to see what the Lord has in store for this business. We know that going against the grain on Wall Street is not easy and we admire the leadership of Inspire and their courage in standing for their faith, their morals, and their values against the tide of injustice and evil that permeates our world. This company is determined to make a difference for the better and truly live out the command of Jesus to ‘love our neighbors as ourselves.’”
Additionally, Inspire touts a powerhouse investment team backing up their portfolios that gives financial advisors instant credibility with investors both large and small. Inspire’s investment committee is led by Chief Investment Officer, Darrell Jayroe, CFA, CFP, CKA, who has served in senior portfolio management positions for over 20 years. Inspire’s Chief Economic Advisor, Dr. Erik Davidson, DBA, CFA, previously served as the Chief Investment Officer at Wells Fargo Private Bank overseeing $200 billion in assets and a team of 400 professionals. Inspire Investment Analyst, Shane Enete, CFA, previously oversaw hundreds of billions of institutional assets at firms Meketa and Brandes Investments, and currently shares his time as Professor of Finance at Biola University and heads up Biola University’s Inspire Research Institute for BRI. Such a world-class team provides advisors and their clients with institutional-level portfolio management and expertise to invest with confidence.
The opportunity to be associated with the Inspire brand, which is widely recognized and admired as a leader in the biblically responsible investing movement, helps advisors to establish themselves as the go-to advisor in their local community for clients seeking biblical advice for their financial life. Inspire Advisors also shares corporate-generated leads with advisors based on geographic location and has plans to build out a powerful lead-gen program to provide a steady stream of faith-based investor prospects to advisors in their local area – a benefit many prize as the “holy grail” of investment advisory business growth.
To top it all off, Inspire Advisors also provides a 100% payout on advisory fees to every advisor regardless of their production level, a strategic benefit derived from Inspire’s unique ability as an asset manager to earn revenues from portfolio management fees instead of relying on a traditional advisory fee override program.
Clients benefit from their advisor joining Inspire Advisors through lower cost access to Inspire’s celebrated investment offerings, providing them an all-in fee that is often times lower than their current fees from secular firms. And Inspire Advisors’ client service model is saturated in a Christ-centered, put-others-first approach that seeks to be a blessing in every interaction, something that every investor, Christian or otherwise, can appreciate.
“What I love about Inspire Advisors is the take care of business attitude and the ability to fully bring my practice and faith in God full-circle,” says financial advisor Joe Webb, CRFA, CLTC.
Registering over $600M in assets under management as of September 30th, Inspire Investing has grown to be a global leader in the faith-based, biblically responsible investing (BRI) movement. They were ranked as the 8th fastest growing firm in Financial Advisor Magazine’s (FA) 2019 “RIA Ranking” report, marking the third consecutive year that Inspire has been recognized in the RIA Ranking of fastest growing firms. A notable achievement for a firm completely dedicated to biblically responsible investing, proving the case that there is a large market for Inspire’s faith-based approach to investing and the financial advisors who deliver it to clients.
FA’s 2019 RIA Survey and Ranking report is an annual survey that ranks firms’ based on percentage growth in assets from the previous calendar year and is the premier industry ranking of independent RIA growth. Financial Advisor Magazine is a major publication targeted to financial professionals that aims to deliver essential market information and strategies to help advisors better serve their clients and grow their firms.
Not only does Inspire Investing seek to invest in the most inspiring companies in the world, but they also aim to be one of the most inspiring companies in the world. As such, Inspire donates 50% or more of their corporate profits to Christian ministry every year. Most recently Inspire adopted a village in the coffee farming mountains of Guatemala and is working to provide a church building, clean water, improved education, a fully functional medical clinic, and child sponsorship to completely transform the lives of the those living in that impoverished village. Learn more at www.inspireinvesting.com/impact.
For more information on Inspire Advisors, please visit: www.inspireadvisors.com or email inspire@inspireinvesting.com.
For media inquiries or interview requests, contact: inspire@inspireinvesting.com
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About Inspire Investing
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in the Silicon Valley of California, Inspire Investing seeks to create meaningful impact in the lives of people across the globe by providing index based, biblically aligned investments that support Christian ministry and is a leading authority in the Biblically Responsible Investing (BRI) movement. For more information, visit www.inspireinvesting.com.
* Disclaimer: Investment advisory services offered through CWM Advisors, LLC dba Inspire and Inspire Advisors, LLC, both being Registered Investment Advisors with the SEC. CWM Advisors, LLC and Inspire Advisors, LLC are affiliates.
Media contact:
Eric Smyth
(831)382-6572
inspire@inspireinvesting.com
Robert Netzly is the CEO of Inspire Investing and frequent contributor on FOX, Bloomberg, New York Times and other major media. Read more from Robert in his #1 bestselling book Biblically Responsible Investing, available at Amazon.com and other major retailers.
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