All the best for an ethicalfuture in 2008

On December 22^nd 2002 Joe Strummer, the inspirational lead singe of punk group the Clash and arguably spokesman for a generation, died of a congenital heart defect.

For some time, I have been meaning to visit the tree plantation, Rebel Wood in Orbost, Isle of Skye, that was dedicated to Joe on his death by Future Forests the Carbon Offsetting company that Joe helped to seed fund following one of his infamous ‘campfires’ at Glastonbury Festival. Visitors to our office will know that I have a number of trees in that wood and readers of my biog (on the website) will know of my political inspiration brought about by The Clash and punk rock. It seemed fitting therefore, to take a few days out form the late festive rush to visit Skye, see Rebel Wood and the area that Joe’s maternal ancestors hailed from.

As with many things Joe was a bit contradictory on matters ecological, developing a keen interest in the issues of global warming but still delighting in cruising in his ’55 Cadillac when in LA or jetting the world on tours. I’ve read a lot about him and seen him many times and realise that, whilst he might have fallen down on detail, he genuinely believed that his actions had some positive purpose; in essence he tried to walk it like he talked it.

Carbon offsetting is of course a bit of an ecological hot potato. Understandably, there is a concern of the rich West failing to address it energy habits and simply buying off the ‘unused credits’ of poor developing countries. Not unreasonably, certain industries the media and music business in particular have had ‘green wash’ criticisms leveled at them indeed, even Future Forests, the owners of Rebel Wood have been adcused of sharp practice;(http://www.robedwards.com/2007/02/from_sunday_her.html ).

For me personally, I still see it as a relevant part of the overall mix in measures to tackle climate change. There is obviously a need to tackle behavior and I think that managing behaviour and consumption are far more important but there is certainly a growing market in carbon offset and climate change issues in particular and this is of relevance to the ethical investor. The issues are becoming such a market buzz that there has been a bit of a rash of new fund launches recently; all of this come under the broad banner of ‘Climate Change Funds’ which are basically offering investment in a range of climate change related technologies as well as carbon offset. We are still looking at these and think that many are a bit of bandwagon jumping – but if and when we find something of interest, we’ll let you know.

For now, I can report that Rebel's Wood is doing its job, growing Scottish native deciduous trees slowly and steadily in a beautiful location and marking the life of a truly inspirational man…………………..and yes, I did offset the trip!

Congratulations to our adviser Martin Wight on passing his exam on Equity Release Mortgages. At ethicalfutures we are keen to improve the standard and range of our advice and so we are committed to ‘continuing professional development’ to make sure we keep up to pace with current market developments.

With the increase of property values and the squeeze on retirement pensions, one of the growth areas in financial advice of recent years has been ‘Equity Release’. This covers a range of products but essentially relates to a mortgage or similar arrangement which allows you to release some of the capital value of your home, to spend as you like, whilst deferring repayment of the loan capital (and possibly the interest as well) until sale of your home. It’s a complicated area of advice and not one to take lightly but it does have an important role to play in advising elderly clients who are property rich but cash poor or possibly those who are keen to look at an alternative estate planning option.

Quite rightly, there is now increasing pressure from regulators to ensure that advisers have adequate knowledge of this subject. One of the key qualifications in this area is the Equity Release qualification offered by the Chartered Insurance Institute. Having now completed and passed this exam, Martin is now licensed to advise on the important subject.

In 2002 I was asked by the People & Planet group at Edinburgh University to help with their campaign to ...   more »