Sloane Ortel
Founder & Chief Investment Officer, Ethical Capital
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:
- all applicable local laws,
- our internal code of ethics, and
- our published exclusion criteria.
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
Founded July 2, 2021. Began accepting deposits September 1, 2021. Portfolio manager and architect of the firm's exclusions framework.
Content Manager, Enterprising Investor
2010β2018. Global editorial role at the world's largest association of investment professionals.
Registered Representative
2007β2008. 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
Should I Leave America?
A guide for Black, queer, trans, and marginalized Americans
- β The Seven Questions: A Decision Framework for International Retirement
- β Safety by Identity: What Black, Queer, and Trans Expats Need to Know
- β The Other Side of the Ledger: What Your Move Costs the Place You're Moving To
- β What to Do Next
- β β¦and destination guides for 37 cities across 20+ countries
Research & Articles
- 2024 A Subtle Rebuttal to an Energy 'Realist'
- 2024 What We Own Right Now and Why
- 2024 What I'd Tell Your CIO About Divestment
- 2024 Where Returns Came from in 2023
- 2023 What Antique Dolls Taught Me About Valuation
- 2023 3 Questions About Decarbonization
- 2023 Why ESG Investing Has Been Such a Letdown
- 2023 The Climate Conundrum
- 2023 They Grow Up So Fast
- 2023 Seek Perfection Elsewhere
- 2023 Do You Need Diversification?
- 2023 How We Measure Investment Performance
- 2023 What to Expect from Stock Returns
- 2023 Charitable Giving Resources
- 2023 What a Recession Means for Investors
- 2022 Why We Need A New Food System Now
- 2022 How I Became an Active Manager
- 2022 Don't Stop With Divestment
- 2022 Why We Own Farmer Mac
- 2021 5 Investment Lessons from the Compost Pile
Media Mentions
- 2026 Reuters: NZAM Climate Walkback β Reuters
- 2025 The Investment Case for Transphobia β Inc. Magazine
- 2024 Budgeting Advice Is Broken (Salon) β Salon
- 2024 Trans Financial Planning Guide β Autostraddle
- 2024 Under the Hood Podcast β Stallion Capital
- 2024 LGBTQ+ Leaders on Visibility (Inc.) β Inc. Magazine
- 2024 Animal-Friendly Entrepreneurs β PETA
- 2023 CFA Compound Insights Podcast β CFA Society New York
- 2022 From Passive to Active Investor β Morningstar India
- 2021 Vegan Mainstream Interview β Vegan Mainstream
- 2021 Sloane Ortel launches Invest Vegan β Financial Planning
- 2017 Gay on Wall Street β Institutional Investor
External Publications
Books
- β Investment Idea Generation Guide β with Jason Voss, CFA, CFA Institute
- 2020 What I learned when I came out as transgender
- 2021 Don't fall for the 'cognitive diversity' cop-out
- 2021 Decolonizing your diversification
- 2021 How to build an RIA inclusively
- 2022 The vegan investor
- 2014 Can Financial Advisers Make Their Clients Happy?
- 2017 Active vs. Passive vs. Amazon et al.
- 2018 The Seven Kinds of Asset Owner Institutions
- 2018 How to See the Hidden Risks of ETFs
- 2018 You May Beat an Algorithm Today β What About Tomorrow?
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.