Planning, tax, and investing for Catholic households who would rather not explain their convictions to their advisor every year. Fee-only, fiduciary, with a CPA on the same team.
Most Catholic families have never been asked what is actually in their portfolio. Not because their advisor disagreed. The question never came up.
In 2021 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops updated its Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines for the first time in eighteen years. They group the screens into five areas — protecting human life, human dignity, the common good, economic justice, and care for creation — and pair avoidance with active ownership: declining to invest in some companies, and using a shareholder position to press others toward change.
One thing is worth saying plainly, because much of what is written about Catholic investing blurs it. Those Guidelines govern the bishops' own funds. They are not binding on you. Catholic institutions and individual investors adopt them by choice, which is exactly why they are useful: they are the most carefully reasoned public reference available, and they leave the decisions where they belong, with your conscience.
So we build from them rather than hand you a fixed list. Your screens go into a written investment policy before anything is bought, alongside the target allocation, the rebalancing rule, and which accounts hold what for tax purposes. And you see the expected tracking error against a conventional benchmark before you commit, not three years later.
If you want to see how your current funds line up first, the portfolio values screening is free and carries no obligation.
The tuition bill for four children, the parish you want to remember in your will, the tax on a gift you were going to make anyway. Start wherever the need is and grow into the rest as life asks for it.
Portfolios screened to Catholic moral principles — life issues, human dignity, and the other areas the bishops name — set in writing with you, not handed to you as one fixed list. We show you the expected trade-off against a conventional benchmark first.
Proactive planning through the year and the return prepared in-house, not a scramble in April. Keeping more of what you earn means more to live on and more to give.
Catholic school tuition and college for the children you actually have, with the honest trade-offs between tuition, retirement, and staying generous laid out rather than guessed at.
Structuring what you already give — appreciated stock, donor-advised funds, bunching, qualified charitable distributions — so the same generosity costs less in tax. Giving is fixed; the tax on it does not have to be.
Beneficiary designations, bequests to a parish, school, or religious order, and the conversations that pass on more than a balance. We coordinate with your attorney; we are not a law firm.
A withdrawal sequence that holds up in a bad year, Social Security timing, and an honest answer to the question underneath all of it: how much is enough.
Four steps, and you will know after the first whether this is a fit.
A fifteen-minute call. What you earn, what you have built, what you give, and what you want this money to be for. No cost and no obligation.
Retirement, tax, investments, education, estate, and giving in one view — including what your current funds actually hold, which is usually the first surprise.
A written plan in plain language, and a written investment policy that states your screens before a dollar moves. You and your spouse both sign off on it.
One team and one number to call, on a regular cadence, with your return prepared in-house so the tax side and the plan stay in step.
Most households coordinate an accountant, an advisor, and whoever manages the investments, and none of the three ever speak. We hold all of it on one team, which is what makes screening, giving, and tax actually line up instead of working against each other. Our pricing is published on the site, so you never have to book a call to find out what we charge.
Fee-only
Paid by you, never by commissions
Fiduciary
A duty of care on every recommendation
CPA in-house
Your return and your plan, one team
Morally responsible investing (MRI) builds a portfolio around Catholic moral principles. In practice that means screening out companies whose primary business conflicts with Church teaching — life issues, pornography, and similar areas — and for some investors using a shareholder position to press companies toward change. The screens are set with you and written into your investment policy.
No. The Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines govern the investments of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops itself. Catholic institutions and individual investors adopt them by choice, not obligation. They are the most widely used Catholic reference point for screening, which is why we build from them, but the decisions remain a matter of your conscience.
No. Both apply values-based screens, so the mechanics look similar, but they answer to different principles. ESG is organised around environmental, social, and governance criteria. MRI is organised around Catholic moral teaching, and screens areas ESG frameworks generally do not, life issues most of all.
Any screened portfolio holds a different mix than the whole market, so it will track a conventional benchmark with some difference over time — sometimes ahead, sometimes behind. Construction matters far more than the screening itself. Before you commit, ask any advisor to show you the expected tracking error against a conventional benchmark. We do that as a matter of course.
No. Screening is an option, not a condition. Plenty of clients run a conventional portfolio and direct their convictions toward giving and legacy instead. Both are real choices, made on purpose.
Yes. Angelus is a registered investment adviser working with families nationwide, and we prepare returns for clients across the country. Our office is in Sugar Land, Texas, so families in the Houston area can meet in person; everyone else works with us virtually.
Yes. Angelus is a fee-only registered investment adviser held to a fiduciary standard on every recommendation. We are paid by you, never by commissions or product sales, and our pricing is published on the site.
Angelus is a Christian firm serving families across the Christian tradition, Catholic families among them. Our principal is a CPA and CFP®. We are not acting on behalf of any parish, diocese, or Church body, and nothing here should be read as an endorsement by one.
Faithful Steward Scorecard
A few honest minutes across earning, saving, giving, and legacy. You'll get a personal report with the two or three moves that matter most. No login, no sales pitch.
Take the 5-minute scorecard"Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required."
Fifteen minutes is enough to know whether we are a fit.
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