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Sloane Ortel, Founder & CIO of Ethical Capital

Sloane Ortel

Founder & Chief Investment Officer, Ethical Capital

πŸ³οΈβ€βš§οΈ she/her 19 years of industry experience Founded Ethical Capital in 2021 Financial Planning 2023 Rising Stars

What I Do

My job is to develop analytical tools, accumulate knowledge, and build community to help my clients around corners.

People come to me with a specific problem: they want to invest without participating in things they find unconscionable. I hope that when someone decides to become my client, it's because they believe I'm well equipped today β€” and will be better equipped tomorrow β€” to handle whatever neither of us can foresee, whether that's financial or ethical.

My clients generally don't call me because the market goes down. They call me because they're getting married, worried about their trans kid accessing healthcare, concerned that participating in an activist group might create legal exposure, or figuring out how to structure a move abroad.

The portfolios I manage are built to be understood, and well-understood things don't cause panic. I put a lot of intention into early client onboarding so that my clients fully understand how I do things and the scope of controls they have access to as the world changes around us.

These partnerships unfold over the space of a lifetime, and it's important to me that folks know I'm always delighted to hear from them.

Not least because some of our best research comes from clients who come across something over the weekend and bring it to me. A client once flagged that Morningstar was exempting Israeli companies from human rights screens, which put us on a path to constructing a thoughtful BDS compliance approach before it became the hottest topic of the year.

This is our special sauce. The industry outsources ethical governance to data vendors. We treat our clients as a governance engine.

Is This the Right Fit?

Probably not.

If you can look at this and not be particularly bothered, you're not immoral. It just means your standard is the law.

My standard is the stricter of:

If you've looked at what's inside your portfolio and felt something between discomfort and dread, then tried to raise the issue with an adviser and left the meeting wondering "am I crazy or are they crazy?" β€” you might belong here.

Fundamentally, portfolio management is about picking somebody you can delegate decision-making to. Somebody who will make decisions across a wide range of futures you can't foresee β€” that neither of us can foresee β€” in a way that aligns with your ethics and values.

You're not looking for somebody to applaud your values. You're looking for somebody who will say "yes, and."

Career

Founder & Chief Investment Officer

Ethical Capital

Founded July 2, 2021. Began accepting deposits September 1, 2021. Portfolio manager and architect of the firm's exclusions framework.

Content Manager, Enterprising Investor

CFA Institute

2010–2018. Global editorial role at the world's largest association of investment professionals.

Registered Representative

Oppenheimer & Co.

2007–2008. Managed a portfolio of auction rate preferred securities and conducted quantitative tactical asset allocation research as a registered representative at 19.

Formal Bio

Sloane Ortel is the founder and chief investment officer of Ethical Capital LLC, a state-registered investment advisory firm based in Provo, Utah. Ethical Capital's organizing principle is to avoid preventable harm to living things β€” a framework that shapes both its investment screening and its portfolio construction. She serves as portfolio manager of the firm's flagship Growth strategy as well as its Income and Diversification strategies.

Ortel's investment career began at Oppenheimer & Co. in 2007, a few months before the financial crisis. Before founding Ethical Capital in July 2021, she spent nearly a decade at CFA Institute as a frequent voice on responsible and long-term investing, writing and editing for Enterprising Investor. She wrote the "Inclusion in Wealth" column for Citywire RIA from 2020 to 2022, and co-authored the CFA Institute Investment Idea Generation Guide with Jason Voss, CFA. She was named a 2023 Rising Star by Financial Planning magazine and has presented to audiences of 100+ investment professionals, including at the US Mission to the United Nations.

She is co-founder of Woodcache PBC, a carbon removal developer in the intermountain west. She is based in Provo, Utah.

Beyond Ethical Capital

  • β€” Woodcache PBC β€” Co-founder. Efficient, durable carbon removal projects in the intermountain west.
  • β€” Skiing β€” Living in Utah with access to extraordinary snow, and not wasting it.
  • β€” Gardening β€” Killing the lawn and replacing it with wildlife-friendly perennials.

Published Works

Media Mentions

External Publications

Books

Sloane Ortel was named a 2023 Rising Star by Financial Planning magazine (Arizent), an annual award recognizing up to 10 early-career RIA professionals for advancing the profession through their work and service to clients. Recipients are selected by Financial Planning's editorial team based on accomplishments and community contributions; no more than 10 years of industry experience is required for eligibility. No compensation was paid to or received by Ethical Capital in connection with this recognition. Past awards are not indicative of future advisory outcomes.