The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Idaho-based investment adviser Inspire Investing LLC with making misleading statements and for compliance failures related to the execution of its “biblically responsible investing” strategy.
According to the SEC’s order, Inspire Investing represented that it used a data-driven methodology to evaluate companies and that it would not invest in companies that had “any degree of participation” in certain enumerated business practices that Inspire determined did not align with biblical values. However, the SEC’s order finds, from at least 2019 to March 2024, Inspire Investing in fact relied on a manual research process and did not typically perform research on individual companies to evaluate them for eligibility under its investing criteria. According to the SEC’s order, Inspire Investing also lacked written policies and procedures setting forth a process for evaluating companies’ activities as part of its investment process, which at times resulted in inconsistent application of its investment criteria. As a result, Inspire Investing invested in companies engaged in activities that did not align with Inspire Investing’s own stated criteria and in which the advisory firm represented that it would not invest.
“Investors must be able to rely on advisers acting consistently with their represented investment process or strategy,” said Corey Schuster, Co-Chief of the Asset Management Unit in the Division of Enforcement. “Here, Inspire Investing’s investment screening process was not what it represented to investors, resulting in it making investments that were contrary to its stated investment criteria.”
Inspire Investing consented to the entry of the SEC’s order finding that it violated the antifraud provisions of the Investment Company Act of 1940 and Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, Inspire Investing agreed to a censure and cease-and-desist order, to pay a $300,000 penalty, and to retain an independent compliance consultant.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Jonathan I. Katz, with assistance from Joan Price, and was supervised by Jeffrey A. Shank, Mr. Schuster, and Andrew Dean of the Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit.
