The Jewish Community Foundation, Inc. partners with SEI Investments, based out of Oaks, PA, for investment management of our donor advised funds and endowment funds.
SEI serves as the JCF's outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO), and has helped the JCF grow our assets under management during our long partnership with them.
Here are two updates that involve SEI that we'd like to share:
1. Anti-BDS Screen Added to JCF Investment Fund
The JCF utilizes SEI's services to hold a diverse array of investments with the goal of maintaining and growing our holdings. Recently, SEI updated its World Equity ex-US Fund (which invests in foreign equities, to complement our sizable portion of U.S. equities), to avoid the BDS movement against Israel. We thank SEI for implementing this screen in order to ensure that our funds are not invested in ways that promote harm to Israel. From the fund's prospectus:
"The Fund will invest in securities of foreign issuers located in developed and emerging market countries, but will seek to avoid investing in companies whose activities directly or indirectly benefit the governments of countries that support terrorism, genocide or human rights abuses. The Fund will also maintain an Anti-BDS approach. BDS refers to the Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments and economic sanctions against Israel. The Fund will seek to avoid investing in companies identified as having adopted or implemented a BDS stance. This policy has been adopted to enable investment in the Fund by institutional investors that seek to support Israel or oppose the BDS movement in their investment implementation. This Fund policy is for the benefit of such noted investors and not meant as a formal representation of SEI’s official corporate policy or position on the issue of BDS."
From their "Knowledge Center," read about SEI's take on the impact of the current battle taking place in Ukraine, and how that may or may not impact the economy. SEI's view:
"While there are no simple answers, investors should keep in mind that geopolitical conflicts occur with a fair amount of regularity.
"Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine will not be the last geopolitical conflict with the potential to impact markets and portfolios. These situations are just one of the many risks that call for sound portfolio diversification and disciplined rebalancing.
"As bleak as the news about Russia and Ukraine may appear, the most important actions investors can take to help ensure peace of mind is to confirm that their long-term strategic portfolio allocations are aligned with their investment objectives and tolerance for risk."
Thank you to SEI for keeping in mind our preference for supporting Israel by updating its World Equity ex-US Fund with an anti-BDS screen, as well as for their take on the Russian attack in Ukraine.
For questions related to these matters, please contact the JCF at 856-673-2528 or infojcf@jfedsnj.org.
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