November 6, 2009
How Is Domini
Addressing Healthcare Reform?
Over the years, we’ve
received thousands of emails from fund shareholders asking a wide range of
questions. We thought it would be interesting to share some of our responses to
questions that touch on matters of broad interest.
Recently, a shareholder wrote: “What kind of pressure are you putting on
pharmaceuticals to stop their attack on health care reform. As an investor I am
VERY concerned about this and am considering divesting from all of them!”
In our response we wrote the following:
“We share your concerns about corporate lobbying activity on healthcare
and many other critical issues, and we have worked to address these concerns
through shareholder activism and through the standards we use to select
holdings for our funds.
“We have been an active member of the Center for Political
Accountability, an investor organization seeking to bring greater
transparency to corporate political activity, and have successfully convinced a
number of firms to publicly disclose their political contributions. For
example, we were part of the investor group that convinced Merck to do so.
Information disclosed by Merck is available
online. We also vote our proxies in favor of proposals addressing health
care reform filed by labor unions and religious organizations.
“When reviewing pharmaceutical companies for the Domini Funds, our analysts
focus on three broad areas: access to medicine, the degree to which a company
focuses on patent-protected medicines, and pricing controversies. We favor
firms with a commitment to providing vaccines and preventative care, as opposed
to those focused on ‘lifestyle’ drugs, such as Viagra. We have also excluded
from our funds virtually all managed care organizations, such as Aetna and
Cigna. We have also excluded virtually all for-profit hospitals, as well as
many of the largest pharmaceutical companies, such as Pfizer.
“As I'm sure you're aware, the insurance industry has been active in this
debate as well. Reliable information on corporate lobbying activities can be
difficult to obtain, but we do keep an eye on the issue and have excluded
companies from our portfolios due to concerns in this area. Our exclusion of
United Health, for example, related to its lobbying activities on health care
reform.
“We have not decided to divest from the pharmaceutical or insurance industries,
although we do exclude individual companies that we believe fail to meet our
social and environmental standards. These companies are regularly reviewed
seeking to capture new information and emerging issues. Our Global Investment Standards
are available at our website. To review the full portfolio for each of our
funds, please visit the Domini
Funds section of our website, select a fund, and select
"Portfolio." Full fund portfolios are also disclosed in our Semi-Annual
and Annual Reports to shareholders.”
If you have
questions or comments about the Domini Funds or our investment policies, please
write us using our online
email form.
Past performance
is no guarantee of future results. The Domini Funds are not insured and are subject to market risks. You
may lose money. Certain fees and expenses apply to a continued investment and
are described in the prospectus. The
composition of each fund's portfolio is subject to change.
The social and
environmental standards applied to the Domini Funds are subject to change without
notice, as is Domini’s analysis of any of the companies named above. The
information provided above should not be deemed an offer to sell or a solicitation
of an offer to buy the stock of any of the companies noted, or a recommendation
concerning the merits of any of these companies as an investment.
You should consider the Domini Funds' investment
objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. View or order a
copy of the Funds' current prospectus for more complete information on these
and other topics. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing or
sending money.
DSIL Investment
Services LLC, Distributor. 11/09
