The second semi-annual Latter-day Saint Investment Advisory Council (hereafter “AC”) was held on November 7, 2024 and was entitled “Controversy and Restitution: A Model for Corporate Responsibility”. The meeting was attended by roughly 20 individuals who have been selected to be members of the AC based on their unique professional, faith, and personal qualifications. Below is a brief summary of the topics discussed, key takeaways and action items to be addressed by Bountiful.
Topic: The role of repentance and restitution in a corporate context.
Takeaways: There was a general agreement among AC members that principles of repentance and restitution do play a role in the corporate world.
Action: Bountiful will consider ways to incorporate principles of repentance and restitution into its methodologies governing its datasets and other financial solutions such as indices.
Topic: Launch of the Bountiful Latter-day Saint Values Index (BLDSVI)
Takeaways: While the consensus view is that the number of exclusions from the index aligns with expectations, there were specific concerns expressed about the lack of exclusions corresponding to the “Caring for God’s Creations” Standard. The lack of exclusions is notable given recent statements by Church leaders and the Church’s actions on environmental topics.
Action: Bountiful will continue to fine-tune its exclusion methodology with a specific focus on the Standard “Caring for God’s Creations.”
Topic: Identifying controversy categories/types relevant to the Latter-day Saint community.
Takeaways: The AC provided several recommendations of controversy types to be considered in a controversy dataset. Some of these recommendations were provided in the AC meeting with some additional ideas being shared via email after the conclusion of the meeting.
Action: Bountiful will take all the recommendations into consideration. AC members will be asked to participate in a survey that will gauge the relevance of each specific controversy type within the context of financial solutions that can be offered to adherents to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The survey will be issued in February 2025 and will initially be limited to members of the AC.
Topic: Relevance and usability of a standard evaluation mechanism for controversies.
Takeaways: The parameters for a proposed controversy evaluation mechanism generally were understood but perhaps not clear or refined enough. The goal of an evaluation mechanism is to minimize and, if possible, eliminate subjectivity. However, the guidelines left too much room for subjectivity as evidenced by the disparate results and recommendations from the AC.
Action: Bountiful will build out its evaluation methodology and approach with clearer guidelines to help minimize subjectivity in how controversies are assessed. A more refined approach will be presented in the next Bountiful Latter-day Saint AC, which is tentatively scheduled for early May 2025.