The firm will provide wealth advisors, financial planners, family offices, private and family foundations, and endowments across the US with unique public equities strategies.

Impact investor Kristin Hull has founded and launched the women-led registered investment advisor Nia Impact Capital, a California-based firm.

Nia Impact Capital provides wealth advisors, financial planners, family offices, private and family foundations, and endowments across the US with unique public equities strategies, the firm said in a statement.

Hull has more than ten years of experience in impact investing and more than three of investment industry experience. In 2010, she founded Nia Community Investments, a 100 per cent impact fund focused on social justice and environmental sustainability. Prior to that, Hull served as president and board chair of a family foundation, moving the endowment to be 100 per cent mission aligned from 2007 to 2011.

The firm has also launched Nia Global Solutions Equity Portfolio, which seeks to deliver a competitive rate of return, while creating positive impact for investors. 

It consists of 45 to 50 publicly traded stocks and allocates capital to companies with diversity in its leadership. Typically, 65 per cent or more of the portfolio is invested in small- and mid-cap stocks. The portfolio meets the firm’s rigorous impact investing criteria, which includes a strong gender lens focus.

“Nia Impact Capital is the next step in our evolution and is inspired by our mission to create world-class impact investing solutions with an emphasis on women,” said Hull. “Our team is focused on supporting wealth professionals to meet the growing interest from their clients to align their wealth and their values.”

This comes at a time where the wealth management industry is trying to assess how it can improve the growth of women in the sector, both as clients and as advisors. This publication has spoken to different firms about how it is looking to increase the numbers of women in wealth management, including UBS Wealth Management. Also in September, this publication reported that RBC Wealth Management was ramping up its efforts to bring in more female advisors. Many reports have been published on the needs of women in wealth management, including a HSBC UK report on barriers holding back female investors and a Moxie Future report on the investment strategies of ultra-high net worth women.