Harry-Meghan work ‘Ethic’
Royals join woke asset manager
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced Tuesday they’ve been made “impact partners” in a woke asset management firm.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex joined Ethic, a company in which they had already invested earlier this year and was managing some of the couple’s own assets. It wasn’t disclosed how much Harry and Meghan invested.
Former “Suits” star Markle, 40, tried to play down their role in the big-money investment world while confirming her new role in an interview with the New York Times’ DealBook.
“From the world I come from, you don’t talk about investing, right?” the duchess said.
“You don’t have the luxury to invest. That sounds so fancy,” she said.
Forbes estimates the couple’s net worth at around $10 million. The queen, meanwhile, clocks in at around $500 million, according to the magazine’s tally. She also holds around $28 billion in assets tied to the Crown Estate, including the $4.9 billion Buckingham Palace, according to Forbes.
The California-based couple joined Ethic because of its vision for sustainable investing, which the company described as a drive to “make capital markets a powerful force for good.”
Ethic says it helps investors screen companies on so-called social-responsibility criteria, including racial justice, climate and labor issues.
“We empower wealth advisors and investors to create portfolios that seek to align personal values with financial goals,” according to the firm’s Web site.
It has more than $1 billion under management, according to the firm’s site.
“My husband has been saying for years, ‘Gosh, don’t you wish there was a place where if your values were aligned like this, you could put your money to that same sort of thing?’ ” Meghan told DealBook.
The couple lives in an 18,000square-foot, $14.65 million house in Montecito, Calif.
It’s been reported they travel often by private jet. Ethic on its Web site discusses the “fight for climate” and the problems with “big oil.”
Harry, meanwhile, insisted their investment was just a natural extension of the message for the couple, who have signed a series of big-money deals since vowing to be financially independent after quitting life as active UK royals.
“You already have the younger generation voting with their dollars and their pounds, you know, all over the world when it comes to brands they select and choose from,” Harry, 37, told DealBook.
Ethic also said the partnership came from the couple sharing “a lot of values with us.”
“They’re deeply committed to helping address the defining issues of our time — such as climate, gender equity, health, racial justice, human rights and strengthening democracy — and understand that these issues are inherently interconnected,” the company said.