Hippy-crites!
SO, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced last week their latest money-making venture – banking. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are partnering a firm whose owners describe themselves as “hippies”.
Arranged from the comfort of their £11 million Californian mansion, the couple have become “impact partners” and investors at sustainable investing firm Ethic, based in New York.
The bank claims to only put its money into businesses that meet its “social responsibility criteria”, including racial justice, climate issues and workplace standards, such as equal and fair pay.
Announcing their move, Meghan, 40, touched upon the life she once knew growing up in a working-class family.
The former HRH gushed: “From the world I come from, you don’t talk about investing, right? You don’t have the luxury to invest. That sounds so fancy.”
She added: “My husband has been saying for years: ‘Gosh, don’t you wish there was a place where if your values were aligned like this, you could put your money to that same sort of thing?’”
The former actress said they were introduced to Ethic by friends. However, it is not yet known how much they have invested or if they are being paid.
On the couple’s Archewell website, they served up a large helping of one of their famous word salads, saying: “When we invest in each other, we change the world.”
It rambled on: “We want to rethink the nature of investing to help solve the global issues we all face.”
All very commendable. Previously Jay Lipman, the British co-founder of tech-driven asset manager Ethic said, in a video on its website, they “like hippies” as a company and considered themselves the same despite managing a £1billion fund.
The firm said it was thrilled to be welcoming Harry and Meghan and tweeted: “Together, we are committed to creating a more inclusive, resilient and sustainable future.”
The bank’s website says it aims to empower wealth advisors and investors to create portfolios that align personal values with finan
cial goals. All extremely interesting given the Duke and Duchess’s own ethics have at times been questionable. Whether it’s using private jets like taxis, while telling us all to travel less, or asking the world to reduce its energy use as their family of four lives in an 18,000 -square-foot mansion with a fleet of gas-guzzling SUVs at their disposal.
It is difficult not to think this is yet another corporate relationship designed to line their personal accounts whilst pretending to be philanthropic.
We’d all do well not to forget their trip to New York last month – the one they seemed hell-bent on treating like a royal tour.
Meghan turned up at an underprivileged school in Harlem to read her book to the kids, dressed in a couture coat that cost more than $5,000.
It just shows how out of touch with the average person they are.
Many people in finance joke ‘go woke, go broke’, but in the Sussexes’ case, it is them laughing all the way to the bank.
HARRY AND MEGHAN TOUT A SUSTAINABLE, ETHICAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM BETWEEN PRIVATE JET JAUNTS