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Aligning your investment with purpose

Pursue Positive Change. Seek Competitive Returns.

What is sustainable investing?

Sustainable investing offers you the opportunity to invest in companies that are working towards better ways of doing business with innovative approaches to support their long-term performance.
Help to solve society's biggest and growing challenges. Live out your beliefs. Invest to reflect issues that matter to you while pursuing your investment goals.

Regardless of what your priorities are...

Sustainable investing lets you choose the type of impact that is important to you and implement it as part of your investment approach. You can create impact in three unique ways or combine approaches from the A-B-C investing framework.

Avoid

  • Reduce negative social or environmental effects
  • Manage risk by limiting certain exposures

Benefit

  • Support positive social or environmental social practices
  • Enhance potential for long term competitive financial returns

Contribute

  • Advance positive, measurable social or environmental outcomes
  • Target opportunities where impact is intrinsic to financial performance
Get the Facts

The case for sustainable investing

  • Sustainable investing in the United States grew 30% between 2019 and 2020
  • At the end of 2020, the group of sustainable open-end funds and ETFs available to U.S. investors numbered 392, up 30% from 2019
  • In 2020, 71 sustainable funds were launched, easily topping the previous high-water mark of 44 set in 2017. At least 30 funds have been launched each year from 2016-2020
  • Sustainable funds attracted a record of $51.1 billion in netflows in 2020, more than twice the amount of 2019
Source: Sustainable Funds U.S Landscape Report; Morningstar Manager Research 2/10/2021

What is Bank of America doing as a company?

As one of the world's largest financial institutions, Bank of America takes a key role in building a more resilient future. Through our strategy of responsible growth, we are deploying capital towards a more sustainable economy — helping to create jobs, develop communities, foster economic mobility and address society's biggest challenges around the world.
Select to Read more about Bank of America

Sustainable Investing at Merrill

Every investor has unique motivations for choosing to invest for sustainability and impact. Merrill gives you the tools to invest in what you think is right.
Select to Learn more about Merrill's sustainable investing tools and resources

Ways to invest with Merrill

Merrill Edge Self-Directed

A personalized investing experience that gives you helpful guidance, insights and tools to confidently put your investing ideas into actions.
Select to Learn more about Guided Investing

Merrill Guided Investing

An investment advisory program that combines the best features of online investing with a professionally managed portfolio—all at a low cost.Footnote 1
Select to Learn more about Merrill Guided Investing

Invest with an Advisor

Personal guidance from a Financial Solutions Advisor when you need it by phone, online or at a convenient location near you.
Select to Learn more about investing with an advisor

Have more complex wealth management needs?

Invest with a Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Advisor to help you grow, preserve and manage your wealth.
Investing involves risk including possible loss of principal. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

This information should not be construed as investment advice and is subject to change. It is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to be either a specific offer by Bank of America, Merrill or any affiliate to sell or provide, or a specific invitation for a consumer to apply for, any particular retail financial product or service that may be available.

The Chief Investment Office (CIO) provides thought leadership on wealth management, investment strategy and global markets; portfolio management solutions; due diligence; and solutions oversight and data analytics. CIO viewpoints are developed for Bank of America Private Bank, a division of Bank of America, N.A., ("Bank of America") and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated ("MLPF&S" or "Merrill"), a registered broker-dealer, registered investment adviser and a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation ("BofA Corp.").
Please review the applicable Merrill Guided Investing Program Brochure (PDF) or Merrill Guided Investing with Advisor Program Brochure (PDF) for information including the program fee, rebalancing, and the details of the investment advisory program. Your recommended investment strategy will be based solely on the information you provide to us for this specific investment goal and is separate from any other advisory program offered with us. If there are multiple owners on this account, the information you provide should reflect the views and circumstances of all owners on the account. If you are the fiduciary of this account for the benefit of the account owner or account holder (e.g., trustee for a trust or custodian for an UTMA), please keep in mind that these assets will be invested for the benefit of the account owner or account holder. Merrill Guided Investing is offered with and without an advisor. Merrill, Merrill Lynch, and/or Merrill Edge investment advisory programs are offered by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated ("MLPF&S") and Managed Account Advisors LLC ("MAA") an affiliate of MLPF&S. MLPF&S and MAA are registered investment advisers. Investment adviser registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training.
The Chief Investment Office (CIO) develops the investment strategies for Merrill Guided Investing and Merrill Guided Investing with Advisor, including providing its recommendations of ETFs, mutual funds and related asset allocations. Managed Account Advisors LLC (MAA), Merrill's affiliate, is the overlay portfolio manager responsible for implementing the Merrill Guided Investing strategies for client accounts, including facilitating the purchase & sale of ETFs and mutual funds in client accounts and updating account asset allocations when the CIO's recommendations change while also implementing any applicable individual client or firm restriction(s).

You may also be able to obtain the same or similar services or types of investments through other programs and services, both investment advisory and brokerage, offered by Merrill; these may be available at lower or higher fees than charged by the Program. The services that you receive by investing through Merrill Guided Investing or Merrill Guided Investing with Advisor will be different from the services you receive through other programs. You may also be able to obtain some or all of these types of services from other firms, and if they are available, the fees associated with them may be lower or higher than the fees we charge.
Sustainable and Impact Investing and/or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) managers may take into consideration factors beyond traditional financial information to select securities, which could result in relative investment performance deviating from other strategies or broad market benchmarks, depending on whether such sectors or investments are in or out of favor in the market. Further, ESG strategies may rely on certain values based criteria to eliminate exposures found in similar strategies or broad market benchmarks, which could also result in relative investment performance. Impact investing and/or ESG investing has certain risks based on the fact that ESG criteria excludes securities of certain issuers for nonfinancial reasons and therefore, investors may forgo some market opportunities and the universe of investments available will be smaller.
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Investing in securities involves risks, and there is always the potential of losing money when you invest in securities.

Asset allocation, diversification, and rebalancing do not ensure a profit or protect against loss in declining markets.
Merrill, its affiliates, and financial advisors do not provide legal, tax, or accounting advice. You should consult your legal and/or tax advisors before making any financial decisions.

This material is not intended as a recommendation, offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security or investment strategy. Merrill offers a broad range of brokerage, investment advisory (including financial planning) and other services. Additional information is available in our Client Relationship Summary (PDF).

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (also referred to as "MLPF&S" or "Merrill") makes available certain investment products sponsored, managed, distributed or provided by companies that are affiliates of Bank of America Corporation ("BofA Corp."). MLPF&S is a registered broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, Member Securities Investor Protection (SIPC) popup and a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation ("BofA Corp").
Merrill Lynch Life Agency Inc. (MLLA) is a licensed insurance agency and wholly owned subsidiary of BofA Corp.

Banking products are provided by Bank of America, N.A. and affiliated banks, Members FDIC and wholly owned subsidiaries of Bank of America Corporation.

Investment products offered through MLPF&S and insurance and annuity products offered through MLLA:
Are Not FDIC Insured Are Not Bank Guaranteed May Lose Value
Are Not Deposits Are Not Insured by Any Federal Government Agency Are Not a Condition to Any Banking Service or Activity


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