IMPACT ADVISOR | Modern ESG Investing: Socially-Selective, Tax-Smart Wealth Management

Leveraged ETFs Are a Loser's Game

With choppy investment markets, you might be tempted to seek higher returns in leveraged ETFs, but they are a loser's game. Even sophisticated investors get burned by them.

In fact, "very few investment professionals understand the risks over time, let alone retail investors and people in the media," says Jason R. Escamilla, CEO of ImpactAdvisor. These risky investments don't work the same way as typical funds and magnify losses exponentially.

"In certain markets they will dramatically underperform [relative to] the expectations of the everyday investor or finance professional," says Escamilla.

U.S. News, April 2018

Should I Invest in Bitcoin and Blockchain Technology?

"We view crypto-investing as driven by the greater fool theory of investing or speculation, and we genuinely mean that in a bullish way for now," says Jason R. Escamilla, CEO of ImpactAdvisor, a wealth management firm in San Francisco

Simply put, there are dozens of investment products on the horizon, many of which will introduce entirely new segments of investors to buy bitcoin: adding liquidity by way of all the marketing into new distribution channels. With those forces in place, it's anyone's guess when and at what level this bubble will peak.

"As an investor, you have to ask yourself, if you are getting into bitcoin today: what's your edge over the person selling to you? Simply looking at a chart showing the price rise is not enough," for bitcoin or any other second-hand good that trades in a marketplace.

U.S. News, Nov. 2017

Beware Of The Bitcoin Bubble: Investment And Financial Advisors Warn

“But it is anybody’s guess what inning. It looks to me like we’re well ahead of the 7th-inning stretch,” said Jason R. Escamilla, CEO of ImpactAdvisor, an investment advisory firm in San Francisco. “The price level and energy usage are unsustainable. There is far better technology emerging to meet the same needs.”

Forbes, Nov. 2017

The Newest Metric for Financial Success: Customers’ Emotions

"For Jason Escamilla, CEO of ImpactAdvisor, a wealth management firm that focuses on values-based investments, emotions and money are inextricably linked, as values-based investments are often driven by emotional responses to causes. (For example, an investor may choose not to invest in companies that he or she sees engages in practices detrimental to the environment.)

But..."Being emotional is not an edge in investing," he said."

Tearsheet, Aug. 2017

ImpactAdvisor Expands Algorithmic Social Impact Investment Offering for Mainstream Investors

"Factor tilt and smart beta investment strategies have been added to their wealth management advisory offering that includes socially selective options and tax efficiency."

PR Newswire, May 2017

Impact Labs Expands Social Impact Portfolio Engine

"Impact Labs, a SAAS provider, has added factor-tilt and smart beta options to its social impact portfolio construction platform."

WealthManagement.com, May 2017

Impact Labs Expands Software Offering for High-Performance Wealth Management: Smart Beta and Factor-Tilt

"A New and Unique Institutional-Grade Social Impact Offering for Financial Advisors and Mainstream Investors."

PR Newswire, May 2017

When Social Responsibility Becomes an Investment Strategy

"Social responsibility is the central theme of US-based software provider Impact Labs. In September, it announced the launch of the first algorithmic portfolio software solely for those who actively adopt ESG investing."

Waters: Trading Technologies for Financial-Market Professionals, Dec. 2016 issue

Top Portfolio Products: Impact Labs Adds SRI Portfolio Generation Software

"Impact Labs launched an algorithmic portfolio generation and customization tool that it says builds a properly diversified investment portfolio while optimizing for social value and maximizing after-tax performance."

ThinkAdvisor, Sept. 2016

Impact Labs Launches First-of-a-Kind Algorithmic Socially Responsible Portfolio-Generation Software

"MIT Team makes it easy: investors can now swipe-right for equality, sustainability and dozens more causes and if, like one prominent New England Quarterback, you consider cola to be 'poison for kids', you have the option to swipe-left on Big Sugar. Impact Labs wants to empower advisory firms with an unprecedented level of portfolio customization."

PR Newswire, Sept. 2016

Recent Press