On Monday, IndexIQ, a New York Life Investments company, announced, in alignment with the American Heart Association®, the launch of the IQ Healthy Hearts ETF (NYSE: HART). HART is IndexIQ’s first “Dual Impact” ESG ETF, designed to offer investors an innovative thematic strategy tied to key sustainability priorities.
Investing From the HART
HART adopts a thematic ESG investment approach aligned with the AHA’s overall mission of helping people live longer, healthier lives. It invests in companies that reflect core AHA initiatives, research and programming, with a specific focus on those that provide a diagnosis and/or treatment of cardiovascular diseases and manufacturing and distribution of healthy food or wellness products.
HART also helps with services that allow people to access information about their health and make better, heart-healthy decisions about their lifestyles and solutions for people to track their fitness and engage in a healthy lifestyle.
Amplifying the thematic impact of HART, New York Life Investments and IndexIQ will, in connection with the strategy, make ongoing contributions to the American Heart Association’s Social Impact Fund. Launched in 2019, the Association’s Social Impact Fund was designed to enhance communities by investing in local entrepreneurs and organizations, breaking down the social and economic barriers to health equity. To date, it has activated more than $35 million in new funding for 39 organizations.
“Sustainable investing has long been at the heart of our approach at New York Life Investments, and we are delighted to team with the American Heart Association to introduce a thematic and impact-oriented investment strategy that harnesses our long-standing investment expertise with their enduring and powerful mission to help people live healthier lives," says Yie-Hsin Hung, Chief Executive Officer, New York Life Investment Management. "HART reflects that an investment strategy is not about generating potential returns alone – when it’s done constructively and sustainably, it can also be a path toward advancing social good.”
Creating “Dual Impact”
HART is IndexIQ’s first thematic, “Dual Impact” ESG ETF, and is part of a broader strategy at New York Life Investments designed to balance “me-focused” returns and “we-focused” social good by granting values-driven investors access to investment strategies that advance social causes and important global initiatives. HART exemplifies the Firm’s commitment to building a better future for investors and their communities.
Through a suite of strategies invested in core thematic sectors and areas of focus within ESG, New York Life Investments will offer investors investment strategies that seek to provide competitive returns while contributing to building a more sustainable future.
“While overall death rates from heart disease and stroke declined over the past two decades until a recent plateau, these gains were not equitably shared among all people," states Nancy Brown, Chief Executive Officer, American Heart Association.
“Our Social Impact Fund is one of the many new ways we are working to address this issue and improve health equity. We are grateful to be aligned with a like-minded, purpose-driven enterprise such as New York Life Investments, which is launching a product that affords investors potential returns that can also benefit their local communities and the social entrepreneurs that are contributing toward building an equitable, sustainable, and healthier future.”
For additional information on IndexIQ, visit newyorklifeinvestments.com/etf.
This article originally appeared on ETFTrends.com.
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