“Focus on what you can control” is wisdom we often share with our clients.
When offered as tactical advice, it underscores the foundation of financial planning and the importance of balancing your investment risk level with your desired goals. It also helps frame how each of us navigates our very real emotions around market swings.
But this wisdom extends beyond portfolio management into deeper territory: how your use of money aligns—or doesn’t align—with your values. As stewards for future generations, we can apply this same principle of focusing on what we control by asking ourselves a fundamental question: “What will my money be supporting as it grows on the way to my retirement, financial freedom, or my family’s future?”
At a minimum, what would you not want your money to fund while it works toward your life goals?
Connecting Your Investments to Your Values
At Abacus, our mission is to expand what’s possible with money. Since we are a financial advisory firm, one of the tangible ways we do that is through the thoughtfulness we bring to our investment offerings and how they can help create a positive impact on society and the environment.
When you first come to us, we take the time to listen to what matters most to you. Then, anchored in this deeper understanding of your values, we craft a financial roadmap that helps support your journey. This deeper understanding allows us to guide you toward the investment portfolio that is in alignment with your wider societal values, while also supporting your long term financial goals.
Beyond the values-aligned portfolios and the comprehensive financial planning we offer clients, Abacus is also a certified B Corp and therefore we are held to higher third-party standards. We are required to balance purpose with profit—considering the impact of our decisions on all stakeholders, not just shareholders.
This commitment pushes us to continue to examine our own practices more closely. So we asked ourselves, If we’re helping clients align their investments with their values, shouldn’t we define what those criteria are?
With values alignment long at our core, it was time to define our non-negotiable values with our investment offerings. The result is what we call our “Minimum Societal Values Criteria” – standards that guide both our current portfolios and our future direction.
Defining Our Minimum Societal Values Criteria
All Abacus investments go through a comprehensive due diligence research process. The client investment portfolios we manage adhere to financial criteria informed by academic research.
Abacus-recommended investments also attempt to meet our firm-wide Minimum Societal Values Criteria:
- Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- Do not invest in civilian firearm manufacturers
- Do not invest in tobacco companies
- Do not invest in private prison operators
Values In Action: Divesting from Private Prisons
Abacus has designed our portfolio offerings to screen out, or divest from, private prison operators where possible.
Private prisons are prisons that are owned, managed, or operated by private for-profit companies instead of by government agencies. While they make up 8% of the total state and federal prison population, an estimated 79% of all people in immigration detention are held in privately-run facilities (as of 2021).
The American Friends Service Committee, a social justice organization with extensive research on criminal justice issues, highlights the broader systemic concerns: “The profit motive inherent in the prison industry has impacts for the entire system… The two largest private prison corporations, CoreCivic and GEO Group, spend substantial money on lobbying and campaign contributions to secure contracts and promote legislation that results in higher rates of incarceration and immigrant detention.”
These concerns align with broader industry standards. B Corp considers the private prison industry a “Controversial Industry” because of “issues regarding mass incarceration and institutionalized oppression in the justice system, as well as challenges with service quality, pricing, and possible exploitation within that context.” In fact, companies that manage or operate prisons are ineligible for B Corp Certification.
By working to exclude private prison operators from our portfolios, Abacus takes a clear stand against profit-driven incarceration and demonstrates the Minimum Societal Values Criteria in action.
Private Prisons In The News
Recent political developments have brought renewed attention to this industry. Since the second Trump Administration began, investors have predicted significant growth to private prison operators profits.
The market responded immediately. According to The Economist, in the three days following the 2024 presidential election, shares in the two largest private prison companies—GEO Group and CoreCivic—soared by two-thirds, outperforming the rest of America’s 1,500 most valuable firms.
The current administration’s policies on immigrant detention and deportation are a major factor in these profits. Almost all of the detention beds used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency responsible for migrant removal, are supplied by private owners and operators.
The companies themselves are openly optimistic about these prospects. On a post-inaugural earnings call, CoreCivic’s CEO shared with investors: “We anticipate significant growth opportunities, perhaps the most significant growth in our company’s history over the next several years…The change in presidential administration on Jan. 20 has ushered in significant policy and legislative changes that directly impact our business.”
The numbers are substantial. Another CoreCivic executive revealed they have “a proposal in front of ICE for 28,000 beds,” potentially generating more than a billion dollars in revenue for the company.
At Abacus, we’ve asked: What will our investments not support as they grow to fund our clients’ long term goals?
These developments reinforce why we’ve established our Minimum Societal Values Criteria. When we asked ourselves: What will our investments not support as they grow to fund our clients’ long-term goals? Our answer remains clear—we maintain our standard of not supporting private prison operators where possible.
The Wider Ecosystem of Prisons
Some people may wish to go even further and divest their investments even deeper. They seek to not be invested in companies that supply, or are involved in or that fund private prisons.
Research from the American Friends Service Committee reveals how all prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers – whether private or public – rely on for-profit companies for their operations. Nearly every aspect of the prison industry has been privatized to a certain degree.
These companies fall into different categories based on their level of involvement:
- Operators – Companies that directly run prison facilities
- Suppliers- Companies that provide goods and services to prisons
- Involvement – Companies with business relationships or contracts with prisons
- Funders – Financial institutions that invest in or lend to prison-related companies
While all of Abacus’ portfolios adhere to our Minimum Societal Value and divest from private prison operators, we also offer investment options for those who wish to avoid these supporting actors in the private prison ecosystem. These options include divesting from prison involvement, prison funding, prison labor, money bail involvement, and immigrant detention.
Discover Your Personal Societal Values
Now it’s your turn. Have you considered what your “minimum societal values” are when it comes to growing your money in alignment with your values? What is one thing you can do to bring that alignment closer, to focus on what you can control when it comes to your values and your money?
Exploring your relationship with money and what it supports is a deeply personal journey that goes beyond simple financial returns. For those ready to dive deeper into this reflection, our blog post Discovering Your Money Values: A Guide to Aligning Your Finances with What Matters Most offers additional guidance for understanding your own priorities.
Ready to define your own values criteria and build an investment portfolio that reflects them? Our team at Abacus can help you create an investment strategy that supports both your financial goals and your values.
Schedule a values alignment consultation today and take control of what your money supports as it grows toward your future.
