Christian fund leads faith-based investors

The Timothy Plan, a mutual fund group that invests according to “pro-family, biblically based” Christian values, was the top performing faith-based fund in the US last year.

Timothy’s returns were higher than those of most hedge funds and beat 35 other faith-based funds, including the Amana Trust funds, strong performers that invest according to Islamic principles.

It also did better than the Ave Maria group, which invests according to Catholic values; the Presbyterians’ New Covenant funds; and the Guidestone Funds, the Southern Baptist heavyweight that has more than $10bn under management.

Faith-based funds are a rapidly growing part of America’s $10,000bn mutual fund industry. They hold $17bn in assets, compared with less than $400m 10 years ago, according to Morningstar, the fund tracker.

Timothy’s biggest fund, the Large/Midcap Value fund, returned more than 17 per cent for the year and has averaged 18.6 per cent a year for five years, according to the tracker.

The fund’s website states that its goal is “to recapture traditional American values. We are America’s first pro-life, pro-family, biblically based mutual fund group.”

It adds: “If you are concerned with the moral issues (abortion, pornography, anti-family entertainment, non-married lifestyles, alcohol, tobacco and gambling) that are destroying children and families, you have come to the right place.”

Launched in 1994, Timothy has about $500m under management in funds designed “to avoid investing shareholders’ money in companies that exhibit a pattern of contributing to the cultural pollution of society”.

That eliminates at least half of the companies in the S&P 500 index as more of them adopt policies that give benefits to same-sex couples, for example.