Four Tips to Prepare for Natural Disaster

In the fall of 2024, Hurricane Helene moved inland from the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm from Georgia to the mountains of North Carolina. In western North Carolina, the thousand-year storm caused immense damage from flooding. Even as Floridians were catching their breath, Hurricane Milton swept through shortly after. People living in areas thousands of feet in elevation and hundreds of miles from the coast were hit hard—so much heartache for so many people.

If you or your loved ones have been impacted, our hearts go out to you. Patterns of extreme weather may or may not be the new norm. It’s hard to say. Either way, life on planet Earth has long been fraught with dangers. If not hurricanes, other disasters such as tornadoes, floods or earthquakes could hit depending on where you live in the world. In the future, there may be new, formidable risks to manage. But, the truth is, risk itself is nothing new.

Some investors are interested in trying to align their portfolios with their values to achieve goals—such as lower carbon emissions—that could potentially reduce the risk of extreme weather in the future. NASA says “as carbon dioxide, methane, and other gases increase, they act as a blanket, trapping heat and warming the planet. In response, Earth’s air and ocean temperatures warm. This warming affects the water cycle, shifts weather patterns, and melts land ice — all impacts that can make extreme weather worse (https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/extreme-weather/).”

However, to mitigate the risks, all investors should prepare their financial affairs for disaster. A few ounces of these preventive measures may forestall pounds of future strife.

1. Organize Your Financial Information

Access to financial information can be critical after a disaster, helping you work with your insurance companies, apply for disaster relief or even just keep up with your everyday bills. 

 Store important documents in a waterproof safe, a safety deposit box, or in the cloud for easy access during a disaster. Incidentally, make sure you aren’t the only person who knows where the information is.

Recap of the 2024 US SIF Conference in Chicago

The 2024 US SIF Conference (US Sustainable Investing Forum), held in Chicago from June 25-26, brought together leaders of the sustainable investing community.

The event provided an opportunity to learn about new sustainable investing approaches, trends, and policy developments.

I was able to attend the two-day conference and visit some friends and family in the city during my free time. Here are some highlights from the conference.

Opening Keynote by Carlos Curbelo

The conference kicked off with a keynote speech by Carlos Curbelo, a former Republican Congressman from Florida known for his bipartisan approach. Here are some key points from his speech:

• Bipartisan Agreement on Climate and Energy Policy: Curbelo emphasized that Democrats and Republicans agree on climate and energy policy more than is often portrayed by the media. There is significant common ground between the two parties on this issue.
• Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Protections: He suggested that the core parts of the IRA could remain in place, no matter who is elected president, highlighting the investments made in both red and blue states.
• Urban vs. Rural Divide: Curbelo pointed out the massive urban-rural divide in the country and noted that the IRA includes substantial investments in rural areas, which should help these communities benefit from the clean energy transition.
• Bipartisan Climate Caucus Growth: He mentioned that the bipartisan Climate Caucus saw the most growth in 2016 and may grow again.

ESG Investing: A Year in Review

After nearly a decade of increased popularity, Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) funds faced challenges in 2023. The third quarter of 2023 was the fourth consecutive quarter of outflows in ESG funds.[1] According to Morningstar Direct, Manager Research, investors pulled $2.7 billion from U.S. sustainable funds in 2023′s third quarter, for a total of $14.2 billion over the past year. The reduction in demand affected sustainable funds more than conventional funds.

Why are sustainability funds shrinking? Here are a few reasons that may explain why this has been the case.

Different Economic Backdrop

In general, the stock market and interest rates have an inverse relationship. Currently, we are in an economic environment with the highest interest rates we’ve seen here in the United States since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. Up until 2022, before the Fed started hiking interest rates, we were in a near 0% interest rate environment for over a decade. Low interest rates are typically good for Growth stocks since they can borrow at lower interest rates to fuel the growth of their profits.[2] Growth stocks handedly outperformed Value stocks in the 2010 decade, with the Russell 1000 Growth Index gaining 260% during that time, compared to just 189% for the Russell 1000 Value Index.[3] Growth Stocks typically have higher ESG scores, which means that many ESG funds benefited from the outperformance of Growth Stocks during that decade.

Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting

I had the pleasure of attending this year’s Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting in Omaha during the first weekend in May. Dave Bromelkamp invited his older brother Mike, Saul Baumann, and me to join him on the trip to eastern Nebraska.

The Annual Meeting (which most people call a "festival") is unlike any other event I've attended. This mid-sized Midwestern city becomes a destination for investors worldwide, and the entire town focuses on the Annual Meeting. Every local I encountered on Thursday, from my Uber driver to the restaurant employees to the hotel front desk staff, asked if I was in town for "Berkshire Weekend." It's easy to see the locals' pride in Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and the Berkshire Hathaway company.

On Friday, the day before the Annual Meeting, Berkshire Hathaway hosts their subsidiary companies in a huge ballroom where attendees can shop and learn more about their products. The best way I could describe the atmosphere in the convention center that day was a combination of the Minnesota State Fair and the Mall of America. There were thousands of people milling about, trying to take advantage of the sweet deals, catching a glimpse of a celebrity, or finding one of the dozens of CNBC cameras to achieve their 15 minutes of fame. The biggest celebrity we saw during the weekend was Bill Murray leaving the meeting Saturday. Many attendees weren't even shareholders but Nebraskans who bought tickets to gain access to the shopping deals being offered. My favorite booths in the convention center were Dairy Queen offering $1 dilly bars (D.Q. is a Berkshire Hathaway company), and the bookstore. The bookstore had 20 books for sale that were some of Warren and Charlie's favorites. They also had various authors there signing books for the attendees.