Tiedemann Gives Another Impact Investment Push With Partnership

Tom Burroughes

17 January 2020

Tiedemann Advisors, the US wealth management house, has joined up with StoneCastle Cash Management, a fintech firm working with banks, to offer a cash solution with an impact investing twist.

Called FICA® Impact, the offering allocates cash to community banks that redeploy this funding into loans and community reinvestment programs to create jobs, build infrastructure and schools, and expand social programs, the firms said in a statement yesterday.

The move fits with Tiedemann's push into the impact investment area, a term that relates to how businesses put money to work to achieve goals such as cut illiteracy or pollution and gain a financial return at the same time. A few days ago Tiedemann appointed foundation and philanthropy sector luminary Richard Woo to join its Impact Advisory Council. Out of its assets under management total of $21 billion, some $2.4 billion is allocated to impact investing.

“Our clients have increasingly expressed interest in total portfolio activation, and after struggling to identify quality, competitive-yielding cash options in the impact space, we decided to work with StoneCastle to offer a solution of our own,” Michael Tiedemann, co-founder and CEO of the eponymous firm, said. “Now, we can democratize access to capital by using financial technology to unlock impact opportunities in communities nationwide.”

To meet official insurance limits, cash deposited through FICA Impact is allocated in increments of no more than $250,000 per tax ID per bank across the network of over 700 community banks nationwide that comprise the impact bank network, excluding those based in the 20 wealthiest cities in the country. This provides UHNW families and organizations full FDIC insurance on balances up to $50 million per tax ID, Tiedemann and StoneCash said.