A message from nVest Advisors CEO Jeremy Torgerson:

Note: we originally published this post in May of 2023, but feel it is important to reiterate now. Poltical and social issues are important, but relationships matter more.

Senior Financial Advisor & CEO Jeremy Torgerson

More and more often, we are seeing companies needlessly step into the middle of inflammatory and polarizing social and political disagreements and “take a side”. This is done nearly always to the delight of professional pundits with a podcast, TV show, or book to sell, but nearly always to the detriment of the company’s customers, shareholders, and employees.

We are all confronted with a wide range of social and political debates today, and to be sure, things have never felt more polarized than they are right now. But it’s important to remember that these issues are divisive precisely because they provoke a wide variety of strong viewpoints and impassioned disagreements, and there are often no places to compromise.

If my work as a financial planner, fiduciary, and investment manager would somehow be better or worse because of my client’s lifestyle, political opinions, or religious beliefs, then I’d be pretty lousy at my job. 

It’s also important to remember that like all things, these problems will eventually find solutions. The heated fight of the moment will fade away, leaving in its wake a mountain of resentment, bitterness, and distrust. We may win the argument, but ultimately lose what really matters in life: our friends and family, our neighbors, and our colleagues. I think I’d rather end the day with a new friend than a victory in an online argument no one will remember a week from now. I believe we can disagree without ever becoming disagreeable.

It’s weird for me to even have to write this. Ten years ago, most companies understood that our job was to make and sell a good product at a fair price, try to be good community members and strive hard to be a great place for good people to want to work. But sadly, companies feel more pressure than ever to dive deeply into the issues that divide us. Often, that’s at the expense of, or perhaps as a cynical distraction from, their product and service.

I couldn’t disagree more strongly with the idea that a company needs to have, and broadcast, a formal opinion on every polarizing subject.

If my work as a financial planner, fiduciary, and investment manager would somehow be better or worse because of my client’s lifestyle, political opinions, or religious beliefs, then I’d be pretty lousy at my job. If I allowed my own lifestyle, politics, or religious convictions to interfere with the work I do for you, then I’d be just as incompetent. Your financial future doesn’t rely upon my political opinions being the same as yours; it relies upon my objectivity, skill, empathy, and ability to listen.

At nVest Advisors, we believe is not our place as a financial planning and investment management firm to wade into the public fray on matters that don’t directly affect our ability to do our best work for our clients, and we will not do so. Regardless of the issue at hand, we don’t believe any company should be telling you how to think, believe, or vote. You do you, and we’ll be there to help you do it bigger and better than you ever thought possible.

So in this world of strong opinions and counter-opinions from every corner of our lives, our promise as your financial advisor is that we’ll be the boring ones. We’ll keep focused on the work you’ve hired us to do, decline to engage in divisive social debates, remain politically agnostic, and stay laser-focused on improving our talent, tools and insight to give our clients the best financial outcomes we’re capable of. 

Put simply: we’ll stay in our lane, keep our heads down, keep our mouths shut, and work our hearts out for your financial success.

We hope that’s enough.

• Jeremy