Socially conscious funds on a roll

Socially conscious funds are one of the highest growth areas of the mutual fund industry and have outperformed their peers in recent time periods, according to a study released today by New York-based Lipper Inc.

Since 2001, assets in socially conscious funds have grown 71% to $26.9 billion as of Oct. 31.

Among them, green funds, which seek investments with a positive environmental impact, have experienced a 640% increase in assets to $1.1 billion, from $153 million over the same time period.

Recently, socially conscious funds have also outperformed their peers on average.

In the six-month period ending Oct. 31, they outstripped their classification average by 0.07%.

Over the one-year period, the funds outperformed by 0.40% on average and 0.02% for the three-year period.

The study also found that the funds tend to have higher-than-average expense ratios than their peers.

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