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Account Servicing FAQs
Social Investment Standards FAQs
Account Servicing Questions
How do I get in touch with my wholesaler?
What is the minimum initial investment?
What type of accounts does Domini offer for minors?
How are taxes handled in a joint tenancy account?
When is tax information made available?
Does Domini offer dollar-cost averaging?
What is your Automatic Investment Plan?
When are dividends and capital gains paid
out?
How do
I get in touch with my wholesaler?
To get in
touch with Kenneth Nostro, Domini’s Director of Broker-Dealer Distribution,
call 1-800-498-1351, or send an email to knostro@domini.com.
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What is the
minimum initial investment?
The minimum
initial investment in the Domini Funds is $2,500 for regular accounts ($1,500
if using our Automatic Investment Plan), $1,500 for Retirement Accounts,
$1,000 for UGMA/UTMA Accounts, and $1,000 for Coverdell Education Savings
Accounts.
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What
type of accounts does Domini offer for minors?
Domini
Social Investments offers a Unified Gift/Transfer to Minor (UGMA/UTMA)
account that allows your clients to set aside money specifically for a
child's future. In addition we also offer Coverdell Education Savings
Accounts (formerly known as Education IRAs).
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How are taxes handled in a
joint tenancy account?
Every
application requires inclusion of a tax identification number. The individual
or business whose number is listed on the application is responsible for any
tax liabilities generated from that account from dividends and redemptions. If
one of the joint tenants dies, all income from the account goes to the
surviving tenants and not to the estate of the deceased tenant.
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When is tax information made available?
Annually,
the Funds provide the previous year’s dividend and capital gains
distributions, proceeds from the sale of shares, and distributions from IRAs
or other retirement accounts as required by the IRS. These are generally
mailed in January.
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Does Domini offer
dollar-cost averaging?
Yes. The
Domini Automatic Investment Plan (AIP) is a convenient plan which allows your
clients to pursue a dollar-cost averaging strategy. Participation in the plan
involves continuous investment in the Fund regardless of fluctuating price
levels of the Fund. Therefore, you should consider your clients’ financial
ability to continue purchases through periods of low price levels. This is a
long-term strategy, and does not guarantee a lower price per share.
Dollar-cost
averaging is an investment strategy designed to avoid the pitfalls of market
timing by investing equal amounts of money at regular intervals (monthly,
quarterly, and so on) over a long period of time. The advantage of
dollar-cost averaging is that an investor buys more shares at lower prices,
and fewer shares at higher prices. As a result, an investor ends up paying an
average price per share over a period of time. The key to dollar-cost
averaging is to stick with it for the long term, through periods of rising
and falling markets. Of course, no strategy can guarantee a profit, or
protect your investment from losses. Strictly adhering to a long-term
dollar-cost averaging strategy, however, is a good way to avoid the mistake
of investing all of your money when the market is high.
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What is your Automatic Investment Plan?
The
Domini Automatic Investment Plan allows your client to have specified amounts
automatically deducted from their bank account or Domini Money Market Account
and invested in a Fund in monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual
intervals. Please follow the instructions in the Account Application to
establish this service when you open their account. This service can be
established for your client’s account at any time. Your Service Organization
may charge you a fee to participate in an automatic investment plan. Call
your Service Organization, or, if you do not have a brokerage account with a
Service Organization, the Fund at 1-800-498-1351, for more information.
This
service may take up to 4 weeks to begin. Also, due to the varying procedures
to prepare, process and forward the bank withdrawal information to the Funds,
there may be periodic delays between the time of the bank withdrawal and the
time your money reaches the appropriate Fund.
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When are dividends and capital gains paid
out?
Each Fund
pays to its shareholders substantially all of its net income in the form of
dividends. Dividends from net income (excluding capital gains), if any, are
typically paid by the Domini equity funds semi-annually (usually in June and
December), and by the Domini Social Bond Fund monthly. Any capital gain
dividends are distributed annually in December.
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Social Investment Standards Questions
What are social and environmental standards?
What are your social investment standards?
Are their companies my client won’t like in the Domini Funds?
What are social investment standards?
All
investment decisions rely on the application of standards, screens, or
criteria. These guidelines define
which securities will be included in a portfolio, and which will be excluded.
The securities held in the Domini Funds are selected using social and
environmental standards. These are standards that assess the impact of a
company's behavior and products on communities, employees, and the
environment. Visit our Global
Investment Standards section to learn more.
Send us
your feedback.
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What are your social
investment standards?
Two
fundamental principles underlie our investment standards: the promotion of a
society that values human dignity and the enrichment of our natural
environment. We view these twin goals as crucial to a healthier, wealthier,
and more sustainable world. Visit our Global
Investment Standards section to learn more.
Send us
your feedback.
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Are there companies my
client won’t like in the Domini Funds?
By
including a company in a fund’s portfolio, we are not endorsing it as having
a completely positive social impact. Indeed, there are few perfect companies
in the world.
We will
invest in companies with a combination of controversies and praiseworthy
initiatives when we feel that, on balance, progress is being made toward
long-term benefits for society or the environment. We seek to exclude from
our funds companies with mixed records where negatives substantially outweigh
the positives. Nevertheless, there are a wide variety of companies in our
funds’ portfolios that have mixed records, and some may be involved in
substantial controversies from time to time.
By using
social and environmental standards to make investment decisions, socially
responsible investors are stimulating demand for powerful global corporations
to pay close attention to these issues and to disclose their policies and
performance in these areas. An increased level of transparency is critical to
establishing a higher level of corporate accountability.
You may
wish to review a list of the companies in the portfolio to decide if they
meet your client’s standards. We post each fund’s complete portfolio holdings
on our website on a quarterly basis. Visit each fund’s “Portfolio” page to
view the list. The complete list is also available in the Funds’ Annual and
Semi-Annual Reports. Visit our Global
Investment Standards section to learn more about how our holdings are
selected.
At
Domini, in addition to applying social and environmental standards to all of
our investments, we seek to work with companies in which our Funds have
invested to improve their social and environmental performance through
dialogue with corporate management on these issues when appropriate. In
addition, we seek to vote all company proxies in accordance with published
guidelines covering a wide range of social, environmental, and corporate governance
matters. Visit our Shareholder Activism section to learn more.
Send us
your feedback.
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