The GuideStone Approach to Investing: Values-Based and Performance-Driven

At GuideStone^®, we believe in biblical stewardship — from everyday budgeting to personal investments. Investments should encompass, not compromise, your Christian values in the pursuit of competitive performance. That’s why we have a dual investment mandate to honor the Lord with the financial resources entrusted to us while pursuing attractive, risk-adjusted returns. All our investment strategies are centered around three tenets:

1. Faith-based Investing
2. Intentional Risk
3. Active Portfolio Management

Let’s dive in a little deeper on each!

Principle 1: The prudent stewardship of investor assets includes the incorporation of a multifaceted faith-based investing program.

It matters how we use the resources God has given to us (Luke 16:10-12). At GuideStone, we uphold the faith-based values of life, family, safety, health, stewardship and advocacy.

To ensure that these values are reflected in our strategies, we begin by screening out potential investments in companies or organizations that are publicly known for offering products or services that are incompatible with our Christian values, including, but not limited to, those involving abortion, sexual immorality, alcohol, tobacco or gambling.¹

We also engage with companies that we have invested in to encourage them to develop more Christ-honoring business practices.

Finally, we’ve developed specific impact strategies that invest in organizations seeking to make a positive impact in the world with their products and services.

Principle 2: An emphasis on intentional risk can help investors reach their long-term goals.

Normally, we think of risk in life as something to be avoided. But when it comes to investments, you can’t have financial rewards without taking a measure of risk. But it’s important to be intentional about both the amount and type of risk you take.

• Factor risk refers to the exposure an investment has to broad market factors, such as economic conditions or geopolitical events, which can affect the entire market or specific sectors regardless of the individual investment selected.
• Selection risk refers to the risk a specific investment might have due to company specific factors.

Researching and understanding both kinds of risks related to our investment strategies serves as the basis for our intentional risk allocation decisions — where we emphasize certain risks within a Fund and de-emphasize others — in pursuit of maximum potential return for the amount of risk taken.

Principle 3: An active portfolio management approach that brings together a wide variety of different managers with different styles can produce robust performance over the long-term.

Active management means more than just buying, holding and selling individual investments. It means pursuing outperformance against an established benchmark, such as the S&P 500^®2.

At GuideStone, we utilize a distinctive manager-of-managers approach to bring together what we believe are some of the best-in-class sub-advisers and combine their strategies to potentially maximize risk-adjusted return.

We regularly monitor and evaluate each sub-adviser’s adherence to their investment mandate, return performance and other factors to determine when proactive changes need to be made, which can include shifting capital among sub-advisers or the hiring and terminating of sub-advisers.

Our distinct, integrated approach to investing is designed with the goal of safeguarding your assets and providing the opportunity for them to grow over the long term, all while adhering to biblical stewardship principles.

Whether through a GuideStone employer-sponsored retirement plan, an IRA or an investment account, you will have access to all our faith-based GuideStone Funds — all driven by GuideStone’s approach to investing.

Your faith guides how you live. Shouldn’t your faith also guide how you invest?

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To receive answers to your most important retirement planning questions through a complimentary account review, book an appointment with one of our financial educators.

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There can be no guarantee that any strategy (risk management or otherwise) will be successful. All investing involves risk, including potential loss of principal.

¹In accordance with the Adviser’s Christian values, the Funds do not invest in any company that is publicly recognized (as determined by GuideStone Financial Resources) for offering products or services that are incompatible with the Christian values of GuideStone Financial Resources, including but not limited to those involving abortion, sexual immorality, alcohol, tobacco, or gambling.

²The S&P 500® Index is a market capitalization-weighted equity index composed of approximately 500 U.S. companies representing all major industries. The Index is designed to measure performance of the broad domestic economy through changes in the aggregate market value of its constituents. “Standard & Poor's®,” “S&P 500®”, “Standard & Poor's 500” and “500” are trademarks of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. and have been licensed for use by GuideStone.

Investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible. Funds invested in accordance with the faith-based investment restrictions of GuideStone Financial Resources may not be able to take advantage of certain investment opportunities due to these restrictions, which may adversely affect investment performance.