The Brio Pride Portfolio
Key Takeaways:
- What's the Brio Pride Portfolio? A values-based investment approach that filters out companies misaligned with your beliefs and invests in those doing good work.
- Do I have to compromise returns? Nope. With a Pride Portfolio, you get a comparable diversified, passive investment strategy, just with companies you actually want to support (and it’s totally customizable, too!). Same strategy, different security selection.
- Is this actually impactful? Yes. Collectively, values-based investing sends a clear message about what behavior gets rewarded in the market.
You know that feeling when the world's on fire and everyone's asking what you're going to do about it, and you're just standing there like… I don't know, recycle harder? Post something angry on Instagram? Wait for the voting booth to open up again?
Maybe you care deeply about climate change or LGBTQ+ rights, but have no idea how to translate that into meaningful action.
I get it. I grew up in a family that didn’t give a—well, marketing won’t let me say the f-word, so let’s say they didn’t give a Pedro Pascal about much of anything. Apathy was the default, and I was the kid who cared deeply, loudly, sometimes inconveniently.
One day, I found out that Cracker Barrel had once fired a bunch of women simply because they were lesbian. My family loved Cracker Barrel, but once I learned that, I refused to go back. Giving them money felt like silently signing off on something I didn’t believe in.
That moment taught me something I’ve never forgotten: your money is never neutral. It’s why I created the Brio Pride Portfolio, for people who want their investments to stand for something without apology. People like you.
What is the Brio Pride Portfolio?
The Brio Pride Portfolio is a values-based investment strategy designed to reflect who you are and what you care about, designed alongside Ethic, Inc.
(For the nerds: Ethic is a technology-driven asset manager that specializes in translating personal values into actual investment decisions.)
Here’s how it works:
Most people invest through mutual funds or ETFs that own hundreds of companies—some doing incredible work, some doing questionable work, and you have no say in which is which. Your money goes into a big pool, and you hope for the best.
We do it differently. The Brio Pride Portfolio uses what's called a separately managed account (SMA), which means instead of buying a fund that owns 500 pre-selected companies, stocks can be included or excluded based on whether they meet our values threshold. With this approach, Ethic can remove companies and investments that don't align with what you believe in, however you've defined that. Maybe you end up owning 300 companies instead of 500, but those 300 are ones you actually want to support.
And here's what matters: we're still using a passive investment philosophy. We're not trying to beat the market or pick winners; we're buying a diversified basket of companies and holding them long-term. The only difference is that you're being intentional about which companies get your dollars.
Choose Your Impact
When it comes to the Brio Pride Portfolio, you've got two paths forward depending on how specific you want to get.
Option 1: The Brio Pride Portfolio (Ready to Go)
This is the portfolio we've built as a firm, aligned with what we value and prioritize. It's heavy on LGBTQ+ rights and social justice issues, because that's who we are and what we care about, but there's other values represented in there, too: environmental responsibility, corporate ethics, diversity and inclusion.
Think of it as our collective values, packaged and ready to deploy.
Option 2: Your Fully Custom Portfolio
If you want a portfolio designed around your own unique values, we can do that, too. We'll send you a simple Values Mapping Exercise, which takes about 5-10 minutes, and you just click through telling us what matters to you and what doesn't.
This is where it gets really personal. Most advisors talk about "values-aligned investing" but still put everyone in the same few funds. Your portfolio is built based on what matters to you, whether that's climate action, LGBTQ+ rights, labor practices, or whatever combination of priorities is uniquely yours.
You get a portfolio that reflects your actual worldview, not someone else's idea of what "socially responsible" should mean.
The Tax Efficiency Bonus
One more benefit worth mentioning: separately managed accounts give you way better tax efficiency through tax-loss harvesting.
(For the nerds who are also tax enthusiasts: Tax loss harvesting is selling investments that have lost value to cancel out taxes on your winners, then buying something similar so you stay in the game and maintain your portfolio allocation.)
If you own a mutual fund, you have to wait for the average of all those companies to drop before you can harvest any losses. But when you own individual stocks? If 299 of them are doing great but one takes a hit, we can sell just that one and capture the loss for tax purposes.
It's an extra layer of control and optimization that comes from owning the underlying equities directly.
What Do You Give a Pedro Pascal About?
This is the question at the heart of everything we do with the Brio Pride Portfolio: What do you actually care about?
When I sit down with a client, I ask them plainly: Do you care about anything on this planet? Because if you do, we can talk about that in terms of your investments. Or we can just not. Your call.
(Spoiler: Most people choose to care.)
The beauty of the custom approach is that it's your values, not mine, not Brio's, not anyone else's. Maybe you're passionate about gun reform. Maybe reproductive rights are non-negotiable for you. Maybe you care about animal welfare or corporate transparency or clean energy. Whatever it is, we don't judge. We just listen and build accordingly.
Here's how it works in practice:
- Take the quiz. It's straightforward, takes less time than your average scroll through Instagram, and covers a range of social, environmental, and governance issues.
- We review your responses. Sometimes patterns emerge immediately. Other times, we talk through what matters most when priorities compete.
Ethic, Inc. builds your portfolio. By applying specific filters, Ethic, Inc. can build a diversified, tax-efficient portfolio aligned with your values.
And if you're doing this as a couple? Even better. One of my favorite parts of this process is watching partners realize they're more aligned than they thought or discovering something new about each other's passions. Money conversations don't have to be boring or stressful. This one tends to feel meaningful.
Related: Click here to read “Financial Intimacy 101: Why Money Accidentally Becomes Power in Relationships”
You've Got More Power Than You Think
You're not alone in this. So many of our clients have felt exactly what you're feeling—that mix of caring deeply and not knowing what to do about it. We're here to take that care and translate it into something tangible.
At Brio, we manage over a billion dollars (slay). When all of that money says, "we're not funding companies that discriminate," that sends a message. It rewards companies doing good work and starves the ones that aren't.
You've worked incredibly hard to build your wealth. Now let's make sure it's working for the world you want to live in. If you have any questions about the values reflected in your portfolio, we’re always here.
And if you're not yet working with Brio, this is exactly the kind of thing we do differently. We care about the whole picture: your wealth, your values, your life. Schedule a complimentary Make It Happen Meeting to learn more about the Brio Pride Portfolio.
This material presented by Brio Financial Group (“Brio”) is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for personalized investment advice or as a recommendation or solicitation of any particular security, strategy, or investment product. Facts presented have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, however Brio cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of such information, and certain information presented here may have been condensed or summarized from its original source.
For select clients, Brio has partnered with unaffiliated independent advisory firm Ethic to offer Brio’s Pride strategy to achieve clients’ ESG goals. Brio relies on Ethic for our primary research and fund screenings and primarily uses their metrics when constructing the portfolio. More information about our process and the criteria used by Ethic to construct the strategy is available upon request. The total fees to be charged, as well as the billing cycle information, will be detailed in Ethic’s ADV Part 2A and separate advisory agreement, to be signed by the client.
Brio does not provide legal or tax advice, and nothing contained in these materials should be taken as legal or tax advice. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Brio and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. No advice may be rendered by Brio Financial Group unless a client service agreement is in place.
For more information about our advisory services and fees, please refer to our ADV brochure found at https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/ .