Grow Your Business with Values-Based Investing: A Paradigm-Shifting Mindset for Financial Advisors

As a focused, growth-oriented advisor and founder of Silvergreen Sustainable Investments, I’m constantly looking for ways to deepen my client relationships, expand my practice, and stand out in a competitive marketplace. I believe the best growth strategy to build deep connections with my clients is to honor their values. One transformative opportunity to achieve this is through values-based investing—it enables me to forge authentic, trust-filled connections with my clients while driving faster growth.

The Opportunity

Every client has core values, and increasingly, they want their investments to reflect those beliefs. Engaging in values-based investing allows you to have deeper conversations, uncover what matters most to your clients, and strengthen your role as a truly trusted advisor.

This approach does more than just foster stronger client relationships—it brings stability to your book of business and creates a pipeline for a strong flow of referrals. When clients feel heard and see their values reflected in their portfolios, they are far more likely to recommend you to others. In my opinion, the reason for this is that the clients feel fundamentally understood and appreciated. It is the opposite of simply receiving a thoughtless holiday or birthday card! The more enthusiastic clients become your brand ambassadors.

Incorporating values-based investing into your practice can help you achieve efficient organic growth through referrals and position your business as a leader in this emerging space.

‍The Challenges

Despite its promise, some advisors hesitate to adopt values-based investing due to perceived hurdles.

• Complexity of understanding each client’s unique values—it can take a significant amount of time to map the client’s values landscape.

• Staying updated on issues that affect investment holdings—the operating environment of issuers of securities is in constant flux, each portfolio several holdings and each holding deals with many values-related issues.

• Operational and trading inefficiencies, which can bog down even the most organized practices—opening, transferring, and trading accounts can become a full-time job.

• A common objection is: “It’s great in theory, but it’s inefficient for my business.”

These challenges can deter even the most ambitious advisors—but they don’t have to.

The Solution

Efficiency is key to succeeding as a financial advisor, and the solution lies in leveraging cutting-edge technology. That’s where YourStake’s Values Hub comes in—a powerful tool designed to make values-based investing not only feasible but efficient.

With YourStake’s Values Hub, you can:

• Quickly assess each client’s most cherished values and connect them to a curated portfolio of mutual funds, ETFs, and individual stocks.

• Access actionable data about portfolio holdings—a significant improvement over traditional, generic ESG scores.

The efficiency watershed-moment, however, is VADIS (Values-Aligned Direct Index Solution).

With VADIS, you gain the flexibility to:

• Meet each client’s specific investment needs--long term return objectives and risk tolerance with holdings in line with the clients’ values– while maintaining efficiency.

• Offer client-level customization at scale, allowing you to grow your practice without sacrificing personalization. The processes of index-tracking, values-aligned security selection, trading, and rebalance are all automated with this tool.

This technology allows you to take your practice to the next level—offering customized, values-aligned portfolios without the operational burden.

My Experience In Values-Based Investing

In my practice, I’ve embraced values-based investing wholeheartedly. Every client engagement begins with the values questionnaire—a simple yet transformative tool. (You can explore this approach at silvergreen.us.)

I’ve worked with clients whose unique values didn’t fit traditional sustainable investment models. By embracing a values-based approach, I’ve built deeper, more durable client relationships.

The results speak for themselves: this mindset has not only strengthened my practice but also positioned me as a leader in delivering personalized financial solutions.

The Future of Financial Advising

Values-based investing is more than just a trend—it’s the future of financial advising. By honoring your clients’ values and leveraging tools like YourStake’s Values Hub and VADIS, you can grow your practice, deepen client trust, and position yourself at the forefront of this paradigm shift.

I’ve experienced the benefits firsthand, and I’m confident this approach can work for you and your clients, too.

Want to use these tools for yourself? Start a free 14-day trial today.

Disclosures

Marcio Silveira is the founder of Silvergreen Sustainable Investments and an Investment Advisor Representative of Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc. Fixed insurance services offered through Marcio Silveira. Advisory services offered through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor (Form CRS). Silvergreen Sustainable Investments and Cambridge are not affiliated. Silvergreen Sustainable Investments does not provide tax or legal advice. YourStake and Cambridge are not affiliated.

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