Timeline's Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) portfolios offer forward-thinking investing that aligns sustainability with long-term performance. Whereas traditional financial analysis considers only quantitative financial and economic data, ESG investing attempts to incorporate non-financial factors into the investment decision making process.
The goal of Timeline’s ESG portfolio ranges is to place greater emphasis on companies that are adhering to higher sustainability standards while maintaining our low-cost, buy-and-hold and globally diversified approach that has been demonstrated to serve investors well over the long term.
How do our ESG portfolios solve this?
Invests in sustainability leaders:
Our portfolios favour companies setting high standards in environmental responsibility, social practices and governance.
Backs up ethics with evidence, not emotion:
ESG investing shouldn’t mean compromise. Our approach remains low-cost, globally diversified, and grounded in decades of academic research.
Moves beyond rigid, binary screening:
Rather than removing companies for minor infractions or excluding entire industries, our approach assesses businesses on their individual policies and practices.
Our ESG strategy can be described as a multi-dimensional approach. To uphold our core ethical values, we not only steer clear of investing in companies involved in serious ESG violations but we also actively seek out industry leaders known for their strong ESG track record.
ESG Ratings, carbon intensity scores, and UNGC compliance inform our portfolio construction to ensure they align with our values and philosophy. In essence, ESG investments seek positive returns while also considering the long-term impact business practices have on the environment and society.
Timeline’s commitment to ethical investing goes beyond where we allocate capital. We champion active stewardship, with our fund managers directly engaging companies to raise standards in sustainability and governance. Our goal is to help build a future where businesses achieve long-term financial success while creating meaningful positive impact for society and the environment.
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Timeline builds all portfolios — including our ESG range — to capture long-term capital market returns, grounded in decades of empirical evidence and Nobel Prize-winning research. We avoid destructive behaviours such as chasing fads or market timing.
Our ESG portfolios apply this same disciplined philosophy — mirroring Timeline Tracker and Timeline Classic — with an additional ethical screening layer to exclude companies that conflict with our clients’ values.
We believe ESG investing is not simply about avoiding harm. It is about actively tilting towards companies that are better positioned to deliver long-term value, both financially and ethically.
Where many portfolios stop at simple exclusions, our approach goes further. We combine strong ESG credentials with evidence-based portfolio construction, aiming to balance sustainability with scale, cost and diversification.
The graphic alongside illustrates our position on the ESG spectrum; moving beyond basic ESG integration or exclusions, towards positive selection and active stewardship. This allows us to favour companies that are not only meeting ESG standards, but setting them.
There is good risk and bad risk. Higher exposure to the right risk factors or premia leads to higher expected returns but is no guarantee of them. Risk is the premium investors pay for the expectation of a greater return.
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The most important factor determining the level of risk and variability of return in a portfolio is asset allocation.
Economic uncertainties, random market movements, and the rise and fall of individual companies mean it is extremely difficult for anyone - including professional fund managers - to beat the market in the long term. There is a significant body of research to suggest that outperformance by most fund managers is down to luck rather than skill.
Costs reduce an investor's net return and represent a hurdle for a portfolio. Before a fund within a portfolio can outperform, it must first add enough value to cover its own costs. Sadly, the vast majority of professional fund managers fail to add value and high cost is a strong predictor of poor fund performance.
All too often, investors let their emotions get the better of them with dire consequences for investment returns. We expect that planners working with Timeline add significant value by helping clients maintain a disciplined approach, especially in extreme market conditions.
Diversification is the principle of spreading your investment risk around. Our investment portfolios hold the shares and bonds of many companies and governments in many countries around the world.
Unnecessary portfolio rebalancing, often arbitrarily timed around client review meetings, damages investment returns. Rebalancing should be driven by market movements to ensure portfolios remain in line with risk parameters and return objectives.
Timeline designs portfolios that capture capital market return based on decades of empirical data and research by Nobel Prize-winning economists. We don’t chase fads or engage in market-timing and other behaviours that damage return.
This does not change in our ESG approach, except that we add a secondary layer that screens out unethical corporations, in order to fulfil our clients’ ethical considerations. The capital market itself is a natural ESG filter to a point, as institutions that are unethical don’t tend to survive in the long run. Therefore, we expect our ESG range to perform in line with our core investment philosophy and capital market expectations.
Since 2022, we've expanded our commitment to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing with two distinct portfolio ranges: the ESG Tracker and the ESG Classic. Both ranges were developed after a rigorous analysis of the underlying fund managers' ESG construction processes, ensuring strong credentials.
Crucially, they adhere to our core philosophy: being low-cost, evidence-based, and highly diversified. These portfolios demonstrate a strong conviction toward ESG themes and feature a significant improvement in overall ESG ratings while maintaining our robust investment standards.
Portfolio NAME |
Ethos |
| ESG Tracker Portfolio |
The ESG Tracker is a cost-efficient, well-diversified portfolio designed to capture global market performance with minimum active risk. It's built on solid ESG credentials, and its equity funds are aligned with the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Principles. This portfolio has low Ongoing Charges Figure (OCF) of 11 to 12 basis points.
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| ESG Classic Portfolio |
The ESG Classic portfolio aims to capture various risk premiums in line with our traditional investment model while focusing on improved ESG ratings. This range has an explicit low-carbon philosophy, with all four equity funds designated as sustainable funds. The Timeline ESG Classic portfolio has an OCF of 14 to 25 basis points.
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By choosing our ESG portfolios you provide your clients with:
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