It's one thing to be social responsible when investing. It's another thing to do that and still make money.

The Ave Maria Rising Dividend Fund is able to do both, according to Forbes.

Kitco News reporter Debbie Carlson, who wrote the article featured by Forbes, argues that the fund's co-managers, George Schwartz and Richard Platte, maintain a long-term outlook that keeps them focused on the fundamentals of the companies in which they invest.

“We spend almost no time trying to outguess the near-term swings in the market.… We take a three- to five-year outlook, if not longer,” Carlson quotes Schwartz as saying. “There’s so much emphasis on the short term and the trading."

The Ave Maria Rising Dividend Fund (AVEDX) is one of six Ave Maria mutual funds, which Carlson notes is the largest family of Catholic U.S. mutual funds. The Rising Dividend Fund is the firm's flagship, with $546 million assets under management. The firm all together has $1.272 billion all together, according to Schwartz.

Carlson writes that Ave Maria funds are considered a “morally responsible investment," falling under the broader “socially responsible investment” umbrella. The funds, she reports, have an advisory board which focuses on the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. For example, the investment advisers focus the church’s core views against abortion and embryonic stem-cell research. "The fund managers “screen out,” or avoid investing, in companies that are involved in those two activities," Carlson reports.

Read more in Forbes. 

Edited by: Tommy Fernandez


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