Veris Wealth Partners’ Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Task Force
How is Veris developing their EDI strategy and applying an EDI lens in investments?
Their Investment Committee approved the EDI task force's recommendations to significantly increase the number of EDI managers and managers with an explicit EDI lens in their investment process over the next five years. This requires them to be intentional in building their priority pipeline and due diligence and approval processes. They have approved funds with an EDI lens – including funds that focus on employee ownership and combine gender, race and community voices.
Veris’ EDI task force is mandated to assess existing investment practices, make recommendations on EDI goals and integrate EDI in their investment decisions.
In 2020, they enhanced and amplified EDI elements throughout their due diligence questionnaire. This new data was instrumental in creating their EDI Manager framework and an Advancing Racial and Gender Equity (ARGE) assessment tool that classifies their approved managers in five different categories – from EDI watchlist (needs improvement) to EDI manager (best-in-class).
The ARGE tool measures diversity at all levels of the firm and assesses EDI lens of the investment process. Pay equity, employee benefits, implementation of EDI policies, portfolio company engagement, shareholder proposals and disclosure of EDI proxy voting guidelines and records are among the reviewed data points.
What are the next steps?
Next steps include engaging their fund managers, communicating best practices and helping them make improvements. They performed a self-assessment using the ARGE tool and Veris is not yet an EDI manager.
They are asking their non-EDI managers to join them on this transformation journey. Collecting data continues to be their biggest challenge. The EDI approach is dependent on their managers’ willingness to engage.
Snapshot
Name: Veris Wealth Partners’ EDI Task Force
Type: Impact wealth management firm
Focus: Embedding EDI firm-wide across mission, vision, values, culture and policies (including hiring, retention, mentoring, promotion, and vendor/supplier selection).
Location: United States
“For Veris, EDI is not an exercise in box-checking. Black, Brown and Indigenous voices remain severely underrepresented across the financial services industry. To truly scale up impact and drive racial justice across the industry, a majority of firms will need to adopt an EDI approach that is similar or better than ours”