If you’re looking for financial providers that make a positive impact in the wider world as well as on your own pocket, our Good Egg firms are as good as it gets.
Our Good Eggs go through a strict independent screening process every year to prove that they are doing what they say they are.
But – when you’re on a mission to change the financial industry (and the world) for the better, there’s no time to rest on your laurels.
To mark Good Money Week 2024, we look at what some of our Good Egg firms have been up to in the last year, and their plans for the next.
Switchfoot Wealth
Steven Day, Independent Financial Adviser at Switchfoot Wealth, said “At Switchfoot Wealth, we’ve developed a new model of financial planning – one that sets sustainability at its core. Our model of “Sustainable Financial Planning” helps individuals and families looking for a long-term financial plan in a changing climate.
“This year it’s been exciting to use Sustainable Financial Planning with clients. We’re proud to have helped clients build and protect their wealth while making a positive impact on the environment and communities. Often we work with clients at key financial milestones in their life and help create plans that balance wealth creation with social and planetary impact.
“In terms of the future, we want to change our industry. Our mission is to make Sustainable Financial Planning the default, rather than the alternative. This involves working with professional organisations, fellow advisors and related businesses. We continue to share our full methodology freely and invite others to join us on the journey.”
PensionBee
Romi Savova, Founder and CEO at PensionBee, said: “2024 has been an incredibly busy and successful year for PensionBee. One of our biggest milestones to date was launching our business in the US, which is the largest Defined Contribution pension market in the world.
“With around 80 per cent of the global total and a $22.5 trillion (£16.8 trillion) in assets, we’re stepping into a market full of opportunities. We’ve now also set-up our US office in New York City and partnered with State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), one of the biggest global financial institutions as we start bringing PensionBee’s simple, customer-first approach to millions of savers in the US in order to help them have a happy retirement.
“In the UK, we’ve also been growing strongly. Earlier this year we achieved Assets under Administration of over £5.2 billion with more than 252,000 Invested Customers. These milestones show the value consumers place on planning for retirement in a simple, easy-to-understand and transparent way.
“Looking ahead to 2025, we’re gearing up for even more exciting developments. In the UK, we’re preparing to launch our new Climate Plan, which will dynamically reduce investment in heavy carbon-emitters over time. This plan is part of our ongoing commitment to sustainable investing and ensuring that our customers’ have investment options that align with their needs. In the US, we’re focused on growing our market share and establishing ourselves as a major player in the pension space.”
Path Financial
David Macdonald, Founder of Path Financial, said: “I’m delighted to say that we have continued to see strong inflows into our unique ‘positive impact’ portfolios over the past year and we have also seen a lot of interest in our bespoke, discretionary portfolios which we have devised for clients with larger portfolios who require a more nuanced and granular approach to their specific values and moral standpoint.
“We saw an extraordinary capitulation to the government’s net zero commitments at the tail-end of the last administration. A world of fear, conflict and dare I say it corruption sees the old ‘dinosaur’ industries prevail at the expense of more caring and progressive solutions and that’s what we have lived through for the past couple of years. However, it’s been pleasing to see the resurgence of confidence in solutions and greener investments over the past few months. Not just in the UK but globally. And, potentially, as a new zeitgeist.
“We’ve seen strong returns from more mindful investments in recent weeks as well as a retreat in oil prices. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that this has occurred just as we’ve passed some tipping points where the provision of renewable energy seems to be emerging as the inexorable winner. After all – why would we pay a fortune for oil if there were abundant ‘free’ energy?”
EQ Investors
Ben Faulkner, Communications Director at EQ Investors, said: “October 2024 marks ’10 years in business’ for EQ Investors (EQ) and we are excited to be celebrating such a great milestone.
“The vision for EQ was to build a company that was more than just offering financial planning and investment management services. John Spiers, our Chair wanted to create a company with a strong focus on developing great relationships with clients – and to make sure everyone received a fantastic service, with shared values, shared goals, and shared purpose.
“As a staff-owned B Corp and Good Egg, we are part of a community of businesses worldwide building a more inclusive and sustainable economy. Encapsulated in our unique business model is the commitment to donate 20 per cent of our profits to charitable initiatives through the EQ Foundation. We partner with charities in the UK and overseas on a wide range of causes and projects.
“In the last few weeks, EQ has been named among the top 10 in this year’s FT Adviser Top 100 Financial Advisers list. The prestigious list reflects the leading firms in financial advice and was announced at FT Adviser’s Financial Advice Forum event in London yesterday. This is a credit to the outstanding work of our entire team who consistently provide a high-quality service to our clients.”
Thrive Renewables
Matthew Clayton, Managing Director at Thrive Renewables plc, said: “We’ve seen great progress on onshore wind this year with planning consented to extend one of our Scottish wind farms – built on the site of an old open cast coal mine – to potentially triple its generation capacity and development started on a new three turbine project in South Wales.
“Exciting progress too on some of our other investments including construction of a community-owned wind turbine in North. Ayrshire and the installation of the power plant at the UK’s first deep geothermal electricity generation project down in Cornwall, which is due to go into operation next year.
“With ambitious plans to double our clean energy capacity within five years, we’re not resting on our laurels; we have a growing pipeline of other innovative projects to be funded and built in 2025 and beyond. Operating our business as a force for good in the world is a key part of our mission too, so we were delighted to re-certify as a B Corporation earlier this year, cementing our place in the top three per cent of all UK B Corps.
“Local communities continue to be a key focus for us, both those who host our projects and also those seeking to build their own. We’re now funded £21m of community owned renewable electricity generation projects, awarded up to £30,000 in energy efficiency grants to help make shared buildings like village halls and community centres warmer and cheaper to run, and have also donated £5,000 to the Centre for Sustainable Energy’s Green Match Fund, which aims to provide more communities with the tools and resources they need to create sustainable, resilient places to live – from improving energy efficiency to preserving natural spaces and setting up social enterprises for community energy.”
Triodos Bank
Roger Hattam, director of retail banking at Triodos Bank UK, said: “During the past year, we have continued to focus on financing positive impact, while also ensuring that we meet the needs of our retail customers.
“The money that customers entrust with us has been used to finance a wide variety of sectors including social housing, care homes, and charities. The bank has been at the forefront of private finance to support nature restoration – such as lending to tree-planting charity Avon Needs – and has also earned the top spot globally for being the most active lead arranger for clean energy projects, with customers ranging from Ember, an all-electric bus service in Scotland, to battery storage developer Harmony Energy.
“We’ve launched the Triodos Future Generations Fund, a thematic fund aimed at improving the wellbeing and development of children worldwide. Given the huge importance of creating a healthy and just future for young people, the addition of this fund to our existing portfolio provides investors with another opportunity to increase the positive impact their money has.
“Research that we commissioned earlier this year shows that 59 per cent of consumers are concerned about greenwashing in the financial services industry. Looking ahead, we expect the impact of the new FCA rules on greenwashing, combined with savers and investors’ growing awareness of the issue, to be significant in shaping green finance.”
Ecology Building Society
Gareth Griffiths, Chief Executive Officer at Ecology Building Society, said: “We were founded in 1981 by people who wanted to build a greener society, challenge the norm, and agitate for positive change in our industry. These principles still govern our decision making and our mission remains the same, but this year we’ve restated our Purpose: in a world that doesn’t add up, daring to be different is our calling, lending our power so everyone’s story gets a chance to thrive.
“We want to show how we do things differently from the rest of our industry and drive positive social and environmental change while we operate as a secure, sustainable business. In part, that will be down to our significant ongoing investment in a new technology platform, which is going to make us much easier and quicker to deal with.”
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