Catholic Values Screened Investments Rooted In Financial Science
Investing for Catholics (IFC) provides Catholic Values Investing advice and portfolio implementation to institutions and individuals. Our firm was developed to meet the unique needs of Catholic investors — investing responsibly in line with our Faith while seeking to maximize expected returns for the risks we take.
IFC's investment management services are designed for:
- Catholic organizations such as dioceses and religious institutes
- Foundations and endowments
- Catholic organizational retirement plans, including 401(k), 403(b) and 457 plans
- Catholic healthcare organizations
- Catholic-focused for-profit and non-profit organizations
IFC's investment management services are designed to enable stewards to prudently balance faith-consistent investing with fiduciary best practices.
Investing for Catholics (IFC) is a division of Index Fund Advisors, Inc. (IFA), a registered investment advisor with the Securities and Exchange Commission*, and is based in Irvine, California. IFA is a fee-only advisory firm founded in 1999. IFA has 2,400+ clients located throughout the country and manages 5.02 billion as of December 31, 2023.
* SEC registration does not constitute an endorsement of the firm by the Commission, nor does it indicate that the adviser has attained a particular level of skill or ability.
IFC's Investing Credo
Markets Work: Investing for Catholics bases its research on the widely accepted Efficient Market Hypothesis, the founder of which, Eugene Fama, was awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economics.
Investing Science Shows the Way: IFC's Investment strategies are based on principles generally known as Modern Portfolio Theory, and the Fama and French Five-Factor Model for Equities and Two Factor Model for Fixed Income.
Diversification is Essential: Portfolios are structured to provide global diversification to include exposure to multiple asset classes within the U.S., International and Emerging Markets, while also including Global Real Estate and Fixed Income.
Prudent, Faith-Consistent Investing is Possible: Properly constructed, diversified screened portfolios that include exposures to the Fama-French Factors are expected to vary little in performance from similarly constructed non-screened portfolio.
Discipline and Patience Should Reward Investors: Investing for Catholics passive investing strategy seeks to deliver risk appropriate returns in a low-cost, diversified and prudent manner.