Morningstar - Q3 2020 - 69

Investing for Social Justice
From the Bottom Up
Advisor Rachel Robasciotti listens to
groups on the ground to make an impact.

USER PROFILE

Charles Keenan

As she watched the video of George Floyd calling
out for his mother as Minneapolis police killed
him, Rachel Robasciotti wondered if her cousin did
the same before he died in police custody in
1990s. She knows for a fact that another cousin did

before police shot him to death two years ago. If
those traumas weren't enough, her mentally
ill father was hospitalized and died after police
tased him in 2010.
"Deadly police brutality in the Black community
is the story of my family, the backdrop of my
life, and I'm coming out about it now," Robasciotti
tweeted in the aftermath of Floyd's killing.

Amid the protests for the Black Lives Matter
movement, much of corporate America has issued
statements condemning police violence
and supporting the rights of people of color. As
a financial advisor, Robasciotti is pursuing
a different way to change racial and social justice
in this country: the power of money. Through her
practice, Robasciotti is taking a three-prong
approach: Invest in companies that operate for the
well-being of society and the planet; divest
from companies that prop up systemic oppression;
and pressure companies to end unjust practices.
"We are impact investors," says Robasciotti, 41,
founder and chief executive officer of Robasciotti
& Philipson, a wealth-management firm in
San Francisco. "I believe that we are coming to the
end of an era in which finance sees itself as
a neutral actor in the social space."
An Outlier Among the Forgotten

Robasciotti has a deep-seated desire to help
others like her-those who feel like an outsider
in a white, male-dominated world. Robasciotti is
Black and female, and identifies as queer.
She grew up poor in Oroville, California, a rural,
racially segregated town about 70 miles
north of Sacramento. Both of her parents had
mental illnesses, and her father was
institutionalized. For much of her early childhood,
she lived with her godmother, Clyme, who
would leave an indelible influence on her. "Being
truly loved that way gives you a sense of
value, possibility, and hope," Robasciotti says.
Once, she was listening to a radio program
and asked her mother why they put content on the
radio. Her mother said, "They have commercials.
People want you to buy their things, so they need
you to be listening to the radio."
"I was like, 'Oh, money seems to be very
important,'" Robasciotti says. "And I knew there
was something better than where I grew up."

Rachel Robasciotti, founder and CEO, Robasciotti
& Philipson.

Her household was tense. Domestic violence
occurred, and she noticed that when her
stepfather had less money, the situation worsened.
"We were more likely to have a bad episode
when our lights got turned off, when our water

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