San Jose, Calif., March 20, 2019 — The Inspire Global Hope ETF (NYSE: BLES), Inspire Small/Mid Cap ETF (NYSE: ISMD), and Inspire Corporate Bond ETF (NYSE: IBD) all had record trading volume on March 12th, 2019.
BLES recorded 1.13 million shares traded, ISMD recorded 952,400 shares traded, and IBD recorded 978,200 shares traded. This buying volume represented roughly $80M in net new assets and propelled Inspire’s total assets under management (AUM) to $361M as of March 14th.
This influx of volume came from Ambassador Advisors, an independent Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) firm that decided to transition their entire $520M firm into biblically responsible investments.
“The biblically responsible investing (BRI) movement is continuing to gather momentum,” says Robert Netzly, CEO of Inspire, “It is exciting to see a sophisticated, half-billion dollar AUM firm making the decision to go all in with BRI. I believe we will see many more firms make decisions like this in the coming years. This is only the beginning.”
Ambassador Advisors is a financial planning and money management firm based out of Lancaster, PA that exists to support and promote biblical stewardship through financial planning, estate strategies, and money management services for non-profits, charities, individual donors and investors.
Here is what Ambassador Advisors’ Chief Investment Officer, Christopher Coolidge, CFA®, had to say about the transition,
“We believe you shouldn’t have to compromise performance to live your values. There’s more to making money than just making money. Biblically-responsible investing allows Christians to apply their stewardship and the belief that all money is God’s money, not only for budgeting and giving purposes, but all the way through investing and legacy planning.”
All Inspire ETFs seek to invest in the most inspiring, biblically aligned companies in the world, as measured by Inspire’s revolutionary Inspire Impact Score methodology, which measures a company’s alignment with biblical values and positive impact on the world.
Inspire Global Hope ETF is a biblically responsible, global equity ETF that seeks to deliver quality performance characteristics while also creating meaningful impact in the lives of people across the globe. This fund seeks to replicate investment results that generally correspond to the performance of the Inspire Global Hope Large Cap Equal Weight Index.
BLES invests on a global scale, searching out inspiring, biblically aligned large companies (with a $5B+ market cap) from both the U.S. and around the world, as determined by Inspire’s Impact Score methodology. BLES targets a geographic composition of 50% United States, 40% developed international and 10% emerging markets. The fund is equally-weighted, rebalanced quarterly and is designed as a core equity holding.
BLES was also nominated as a finalist for “Best New ESG ETF – 2017” in the ETF.com & Inside ETFs Industry Awards and currently has registered net assets over $136.8M as of March 14th, 2019.
The Inspire Small/Mid Cap ETF is comprised of the 500 most inspiring, biblically aligned US small and mid-cap stocks from a diverse array of sectors, as measured by their Inspire Impact Scores. The fund is comprised of 50% U.S. mid cap companies with market cap between $2B-3.5B, and 50% U.S. small cap companies with market cap between $1B-2B. ISMD seeks to replicate investment results that generally correspond to the performance of the Inspire Small/Mid Cap Impact Equal Weight Index.
ISMD currently has total net assets over $79.2M as of March 14th, 2019.
The Inspire Corporate Bond ETF is the largest thematic fixed income ETF currently on the US market, beating out such industry giants as iShares, Nuveen, and VanEck.
IBD invests in 250 investment grade, intermediate term corporate bonds issued by some of the most inspiring large cap “blue chip” companies in the United States, as determined by Inspire’s revolutionary Inspire Impact Score methodology. Inspire defines “large cap” as a market capitalization of $5B or greater and “investment grade” as BBB-/Baa3 or higher.
This fund seeks to replicate investment results that generally correspond to the performance of the Inspire Corporate Bond Impact Equal Weight Index.
IBD currently has assets of $94.1M as of March 14th, 2019.
