Investment advisor and digital wealth management firm Personal Capital announced today that the company’s “Socially Responsible Personal Strategy Investment” portfolios have reached $1 billion in AUM. Personal Capital reports having achieved this milestone only two years since launching the portfolio in 2018.

Personal Capital joins a growing list of investment managers reporting increasing demand for sustainability-themed investments. Flows into ESG funds across the industry have been strong in recent years, and many managers report that they have remained particularly robust relative to other asset classes since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, with ESG strategies often outperforming during this period.

Socially Responsible Personal Strategy is the firm’s turnkey solution for investors built with best-in-class ESG-ranked U.S. stocks, and a proprietary “Smart Weighting” methodology. Personal Capital utilizes Sustainalytics’ ESG ranking/scoring system when constructing and evaluating the companies to be included in portfolios.

Commenting on the new milestone, and on the strong recent demand for ESG investments, Brendan Erne, Director of Portfolio Management at Personal Capital said:

“We’ve seen assets managed in our ESG portfolios more than double year-over-year in every month since inception. There is clearly a growing interest in those looking to invest more sustainably and responsibly. Amidst the market volatility surrounding COVID-19, we’ve actually seen an increase in the percentage of Personal Capital’s assets under management that are invested in our ESG portfolios, as May was our best month yet with more than one in five dollars going into ESG. Due to the importance of striving for positive change and safety, it seems many investors are showing their support for more socially conscious strategies.”

Discussing the firm’s ESG strategies, Erne added, “We use a combination of exclusive and inclusive filters, which allow us to avoid controversial categories and simultaneously seek out companies more proactively managing ESG issues. Given our use of individual stocks, it can offer greater tax efficiency and opportunities for customization than off-the-shelf mutual funds and ETFs.”

Personal Capital also announced a collaboration with One Tree Planted, committing to planting a tree for the next 2,500 future clients who invest assets into the Personal Capital Socially Responsible Personal Strategy.

Jay Shah, Chief Executive Officer at Personal Capital, said:

“Personal Capital is a purpose-driven organization built on a foundation of transparency, accountability, collaboration and trust. We are a brand that stands for doing the right thing, always. Though these are small actions, we hope giving back to help environmental causes with the donations of trees will help increase the involvement of communities as we all strive to create positive change.”