Of Faith & Finance II: Why “Chaim” Investment Advisors?

Pronounced Ch-ai-im with a “ch” as in the Scottish “loch,” this word is most commonly known as part of the Hebrew toast at feasts and weddings, “L’Chaim!” I, for one, welcome that association. After all, what we do as a financial planning practice is embrace the gifts and hard earned rewards of life and put them to use in sustaining life: planning for children & grandchildren’s educations; health; travel; retirement; the flow of wealth from generation to generation; and, sometimes, weddings.

At the heart of the marriage is a covenantal relationship. In America, it’s the marriage license. In traditional Judaism, it’s a contract called the Ketubah. There’s a whole article unto itself I’d like to write about covenantal relationships based on the Business Ethics writings of Moses L. Pava 1 . For now, I’ll say that the ethical philosophy of business covenants are front and center in our practice. Anyone who’s received an Investment Policy Statement from us is familiar with the language we like to use around portfolio policies: that they are covenants between professional and individual investor; that their guidelines should be followed by all involved parties; and that the frameworks therein are not merely the technical aspects of investing, but encompassing of the ethical considerations as well.

To me, this is the perfect example of where Faith and Finance meet each other in daily life as an Investment Advisor firm.

This Biblical phrase has always resonated with me: “Choose life.” 2 This commandment is always on my mind as an advisor. As an investor, it’s a choice one has to make surprisingly often, though not always in obvious ways.

Rashi- the highly regarded interpreter of the Bible 3– tells us that this passage has an almost comical nature to it. He tells us that life and it’s wonders are put beside its grim opposite and we’re being encouraged to make a choice that is on its face obvious. As if there were any real question! If you’ve ever seen the Eddie Izzard bit about “cake or death? Well that’s a pretty easy question to answer for anyone,” I see some of that in this passage.

Rashi imagines this famous passage applied to Real Estate: “It is like a man who says to his son, “Choose for yourself a good portion of my real estate”, and sets him in the best portion saying to him, ‘Choose this!'” Whenever decision making appears difficult, I’m reminded by this to take a step back and look at the context. It’s usually fairly obvious what falls in this column when the right question is being asked.

The Tree of Life is a Kabbalistic concept (4). I hesitate to mention it, as I don’t want to launch into esoteric theology on a finance blog that I hope to keep otherwise light-hearted. Nonetheless, it’s at the root of the firm’s name and is the link between our practice and our name.

In essence, the Tree of Life is a tool of understanding how to infuse our actions as people with the intention of healing a world that has spiritual damage. It’s part of a paradigm that’s at least a couple of thousand years old called Tikkun Olam, or “repair of the world.” 5

How this word relates to the concept of Faith & Finance is that everyday decisions are the majority of the opportunities we have to affect change in the world, in my view. While most of us will have those big, once in a lifetime choices to do good or ill on a life-changing level, we face dozens of choices everyday that are opportunities to do the Right and the Good (to quote Elliot Dorff 6). 

The question of how to use capital is the quintessential question that people hire us to answer. It’s our job to help clients answer this question according to their individual consciences. Most of our clients recognize this core dilemma as more than a question of avoiding doing things they dislike; they see it, as do we, as an opportunity.

For me, the Tree of Life informs much of the decision making around these topics. It helps me find opportunities to do good, and it helps me identify right from wrong. The immense power that capital has carried over the past few centuries assures me, on a personal level, that decision making about its good and right use according to its owner’s conscience is one of the most crucial dimensions to doing Tikkun– repairing what is broken.