Team Introductions

Eric A. Smith, CFP®, AIF®

Eric SmithSeattle and Duluth Office, Director of Strategy & Advisory Services

Phone: 206-782-1205
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Meet Eric

“Thirteen years old and just received some stocks and cash gifts from generous relatives for my Bar Mitzvah–that’s when I began to think about what my investments were doing in the larger world. My sermon was about how important reputation is. Later, 17 years after I completed first grade at Calvert Street Elementary School in Woodland Hills, California, Wayne Silby and John Guffey, Jr. launched the coincidentally named Calvert Funds’ socially responsible mutual funds. And five years after that I launched a financial services practice to help people get their money invested prudently in some of those very funds.”

Professional & academic

Eric founded Goodfunds Wealth Management™ (formerly Eric Smith & Associates) in 1986. Goodfunds joined forces with Natural Investments in 2016. The practice was established to professionally and competently serve citizens wishing to participate in the new sustainable and responsible investing movement. Since then, hundreds of investors have benefited directly from his service and he also trained a number of SRI professional colleagues over the years. He sees his work as service to people and planet and a profession. Having met initial 1993 and ongoing standards of professional competency through the College for Financial Planning, Eric is a Certified Financial Planner® certificant. In addition, he holds the Accredited Investment Fiduciary® designation and is a Registered Investment Advisory Representative Series 65. He completed the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (California State University Dominguez Hills). Prior to 1986 he worked as an independent accounting auditor.Since the beginning of the Social Investment Forum’s 1% For Community campaign, Eric’s practice has exceeded that level and is recognized as a “Community Investing Achiever” fighting poverty and restoring economic dignity to people all over the world. In 2004, Calvert Foundation recognized him with the “Advisor of the Year” award for community investing and First Affirmative Financial Network consistently awards him for “outstanding service to socially conscious investors.”

Business affiliations

Investment Advisory Representative of Natural Investments, LLC. Member of US SIF: The Forum on Sustainable and Responsible Investing since 1986. First Affirmative Financial Network Member since 1999. Registered with KMS Financial Services, Inc. 1988-2016. Participated on First Affirmative Financial Network’s Advisory Board. He is also a member of Green America Business Network and Financial Planning Association.

Community

Eric supports and volunteers with projects related to urban bicycling, urban sustainability initiatives, progressive politics, and community-based non-commercial media. He served on the board of Sustainable Ballard 2013-2019. He was elected Precinct Committee Officer (D) in Washington’s 36th Legislative District in 2004 and ran the Area Caucus attended by hundreds of citizens in the historic 2008 Primary.

He teaches classes and speaks on sustainable, responsible, impact investing. He participates on committees of US SIF, sponsors programs of the Social Investment Forum Foundation, and served on the board of directors executive committee (treasurer) of a community foundation that supports activist, community-based organizations working for social, economic, and environmental justice across the Northwest.

Ryan Jones-Casey, MBA, AIF®
Accredited Asset Management Specialist℠

Ryan Jones-Casey

Seattle and Duluth Office, Director of Client Services

Phone: 206-782-1205
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Meet Ryan

I started my career in socially-responsible finance in Seattle, Washington under the mentorship of Natural Investments colleague Eric Smith, a true socially responsible investing pioneer serving investors since 1986. We met while I was earning my MBA in Sustainable Business at Bainbridge Graduate (now Presidio Graduate School). Eric was looking for someone to mentor and I was actively looking to transition into a profession aligned with my environmental and social values. Call it fate or synchronicity, since 2008 we’ve been working together helping individuals and organizations earn competitive returns while aligning their investments with their values. I now live in Duluth, MN and we continue to serve socially-conscious investors around the nation.

Professional & Academic Experience

In 2010, I earned a Master of Business Administration in Sustainable Business from Bainbridge Graduate Institute (now Presidio Graduate School). While attending business school I developed an innovative business plan for a sustainable creamery, served as co-chair of the school’s Diversity and Social Justice Committee, completed a one-year project with the city of Corvallis, Oregon implementing a carbon footprint reduction program, and designed a change management plan focused on gender equity within the Entrepreneurship course series.

I am an Accredited Asset Management Specialist℠, a designation granted by the College for Financial Planning. This designation equips me to identify, analyze, and recommend socially responsible investment strategies that are appropriate for my clients’ needs including investment, taxation, retirement and estate planning situations.

I hold the Accredited Investment Fiduciary® credential awarded by the Center for Fiduciary Studies. This credential demonstrates my steadfast commitment to serving the best interests of investors.

Local Community Involvement

I’m passionate about helping grow the socially responsible and impact investing movement, particularly through community investing and cooperative business models.

I serve as Treasurer of Whole Foods Co-Op, in Duluth MN, and a member of the finance committee of One Roof Community Housing, a non-profit based in Duluth, MN committed to providing housing services and building and sustaining affordable homes and healthy neighborhoods.

I enjoy getting outdoors in all four seasons whether cross-county skiing, bicycling, gardening with my spouse Kelsey, playing ultimate Frisbee, or hiking with my Australian shepherd Rodeo.

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