Meeting Videos
- Diocesan Unit Trust Stakeholders Meeting July 22, 2020
- Diocesan Unit Trust Stakeholders Meeting July 11, 2019
- Diocesan Unit Trust Fund Annual Performance Review – February 8, 2018 @ 7 PM
- Investing in the Vermont Branch of the Jesus Movement – Sept 14, 2017: Just What Is the Diocesan Unit Trust Fund and How Does It Work?
About the Diocesan Unit Trust Fund
The Diocesan Unit Fund (“the Fund”) holds investments of the Episcopal Church in Vermont, its parishes, its missions and its other institutions.
The Fund is a “pooled” fund. Each investing institution owns shares in the Fund. The shares are pooled together in order to benefit from the advantages of being part of a larger investment group. Those advantages include:
- professional investment managers to enhance returns and ensure proper risk management;
- lower transaction and management costs;
- increased asset diversification to reduce risk.
The Fund is currently managed by Hickok & Boardman of Burlington, Vermont, who are independent, registered advisors. They in turn work with Raymond James Financial Services, one of the country’s largest and most respected financial service companies.
The Trustees of the Episcopal Church in Vermont are charged with oversight of the Fund and make decisions about investment policies and managers of the Fund.
Investment Goals and Policies
Investment goals and policies are detailed in the Fund’s Investment Policy Statement. This Statement is available to both current and prospective shareholders.
The Trustees adopted significant changes to the Statement in 2016. Guiding these changes was the affirmation that we have a “Gospel imperative” in the Fund’s use and management—
- We should be good stewards of the resources entrusted to us. The Statement sets a specific return target for the Fund managers and holds them accountable for their performance in meeting that target for the shareholders.
- We should follow socially responsible investment policies. We have aligned the social aspects of our policy with those of the Episcopal Church’s national investment arm, the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (DFMS). The standards by which the DFMS screens investments as socially responsible will now also be ours.
We Welcome You
New shareholders in the Fund are welcome.
The Trustees encourage all congregations to consider investing endowment, memorial, planned or other long-term monetary assets in the Fund. It is particularly appropriate for smaller congregations and for those that do not have finance or investment committees with investment management experience. Earnings of the Fund are distributed quarterly.
If your parish or organization would like more information about participating, or about the Fund in general, please contact Rich Sagui, Financial Administrator, The Episcopal Church in Vermont, 5 Rock Point Road, Burlington, VT 05408, rsagui@diovermont.org.
If you have questions…
If you have questions regarding the Investment Policy Statement [IPS] or Diocesan Unit Trust Fund [DUT] holdings or positions in the marketplace and would like to contact the Investment Committee, Trustees of the Diocese of Vermont, please reach out to Wallace Good, Chair, by email rcptw2ln2t@gmail.com for assistance.