Sustainable investing has spent years being debated, rebranded and, at times, misunderstood. But underneath all the terminology is a much simpler question: should the way we invest reflect what actually matters to us? For Tim Nash, founder and CEO of Good Investing, the answer begins with understanding what money is really for1. Investors are not building wealth simply to make the number on an account statement bigger. Money can represent security, freedom, time, family, opportunity or the ability to support causes and communities that matter to them. That is why Nash believes sustainable investing should be approached less as a label and more as a conversation about values.
For Clients, It's About Doing More Good
Part of the challenge is that the language can be confusing. Divestment is the most straightforward approach, where an investor decides there are certain companies, industries or activities they simply do not want to own. ESG analysis is different. Environmental, social and governance information becomes another layer of investment research alongside traditional financial statements. A company's pollution record, treatment of employees, board structure or governance practices may not show up neatly on an income statement, but they can still influence the long-term health of the business. Then there is stewardship, where shareholders use voting rights and engagement to influence the companies they own. Nash describes these approaches as different ways of "doing less evil." The investor is still primarily seeking market returns, but wants the portfolio to better reflect their preferences along the way.
The other side is what he calls "doing more good." That can include thematic investing in areas such as renewable energy, clean technology, water or infrastructure. It can also include impact investing, where the connection between the investor's capital and the outcome becomes much more direct. Community bonds are one example. An investor might lend money to an affordable housing organization, nonprofit or cooperative that needs capital to fund a project, receiving interest and eventually getting the principal back while the organization receives financing to accomplish something tangible. Nash describes this as a form of "recyclable philanthropy." Unlike a traditional donation where the money is given away permanently, an impact investment may eventually return to the investor and be deployed again.
The expected return may be lower than other investments, liquidity may be limited, and there may be additional risks. But financial return is not the only thing being measured. Nash calls the result a blended return: there is risk, there is financial return, and, as he jokingly puts it, there are the "warm fuzzies." For some investors, those warm fuzzies matter. A small allocation to something they genuinely care about can make the entire investment process feel more connected to their life.
That does not mean traditional portfolio construction goes out the window. Nash repeatedly comes back to diversification. He gives the example of a client who strongly believed in hydrogen technology and wanted to invest virtually everything in hydrogen stocks. Nash understood the conviction behind the idea, but from a financial planning perspective, concentrating an entire retirement portfolio in one theme made little sense. The answer was not to dismiss the client's beliefs. It was to separate the values question from the investment question. You can believe strongly in a theme and still recognize the importance of diversification.
What the Advisor's Role Really Requires
That distinction gets to one of the most important parts of Nash's message for advisors. You do not have to personally agree with every value or investment idea a client brings into the room, but you do have to listen. If a client wants to discuss climate change, affordable housing, clean energy or an industry they would rather avoid, immediately dismissing that idea can send a much bigger message than intended. The client may simply hear: you do not understand what matters to me. That can become a relationship problem very quickly.
A better response is curiosity. Why does this matter to you? What are you hoping to accomplish? How much of the portfolio should reasonably be allocated to it? What risks are you willing to accept? Those questions allow the advisor to understand the motivation first and then bring financial discipline into the conversation. For Nash, that is especially important because investment decisions are rarely just financial decisions. Family, identity, personal experience, beliefs and long-term goals all shape how people think about money.
That is why he believes advisors should ask more values-based questions alongside the traditional financial ones. Where do you volunteer? What causes do you support? What would you do differently if money were no longer an issue? Questions like these can reveal what wealth actually represents to someone: security, freedom, time, family, community, impact. They may also become increasingly important as wealth moves from one generation to the next. Children inheriting assets from their parents may have very different priorities from the generation that accumulated the wealth, and an advisor who understands the portfolio but has never taken the time to understand what matters to the next generation may struggle to maintain that relationship.
Ultimately, Nash's argument goes well beyond sustainable investing. It is about understanding why someone is investing in the first place. The portfolio still has to work financially, and risk, diversification and returns all matter. But those things exist in service of a larger goal. Money is a tool, and the better an advisor understands what a client wants that tool to accomplish, the better the investment conversation becomes.
Listen to the full conversation with Tim Nash on Insight is Capital for a deeper discussion on sustainable investing, impact investing, ESG, portfolio construction and why understanding a client's values can be one of the most important parts of financial advice.
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Footnote:
1 "Wealth as a Means, Not a Goal: Investing With Intention in a Polarized World." AdvisorAnalyst, 1 Jan. 2026.
