Ryan A. Fox, MBA

Sustainable investing has become a much bigger realm over the last ten years or so. Many companies that once largely ignored this realm now embrace the practice as part of their ongoing culture within the business community. What Scott has posted is very good, accurate information that should provide you with some clear research points.

A large lump sum with a 16 month time horizon for a wedding/honeymoon? Congratulations in advance. If this is a very large sum, be careful not to exceed FDIC limits if you go with a savings account. There is a different between a money market mutual fund and an FDIC insured account that should be considered, especially since the interest rate on either choice is virtually zero. An option worth considering would be to use a 1 year CD if you can find a bonus rate but again, those rates will be very very low. With a limited time horizon and defined need for these funds, stick to the bank type accounts. If you decided to go with a non-FDIC money market, look for onese that hold primarily insured underlying investments.

Hi Hugh, Congrats on investigating some ideas through a portal like Brightscope. You will get a number of thoughts and opinions and I am pleased to share mine. An equity linked CD is a rather complex product sold by brokerage firms. My first question is that you should understand exactly what is being offered to you in terms of costs, surrender charges, and worst case scenarios. Right now, a 5 year plain vanilla CD is paying under 1 % nationally so there are many products that seek to provide safety with a fair degree of return. Many are so confusing that it is hard to unbunble the product and understand how it is designed. An equity linked CD is a product created to offer upside capped at a certain percentage with probably very little principal risk if things don't go well. The problem is likely liquidity in that your money is locked up and that if returns are bad in the equity market, even though you get our funds back, you've given up a ton of possible purchasing power due to rising prices (inflation). In my 15 years in this business I have yet to find an equity linked product (a CD or annuity) that really fits ideally into what I believe is in the best interest of a client. However, your circumstances might be different or I could be missing some new and improved product but in any event I think you probably could seek out better options. Check with a local independent RIA in your region and see if they agree with me.