Does Impact Investing Actually Create Impact?

What does it really mean to invest for impact? In this episode of The GoodStock Tapes, Dr Alan Whittle joins Clem for a deliberately provocative hot take: much of what is currently described as impact investing for retail clients may not actually be creating meaningful additional impact. Alan is the founder and director of Unburdened Solutions, a Chartered Financial Planner, Fellow of the Personal Finance Society and researcher specialising in sustainable finance, ethics and impact investing. His PhD explored how framing influences decision-making in advised impact investing. Together, Alan and Clem unpack an important distinction between aligning investments with a client's values and actually directing capital towards activity that creates measurable change. They explore the role of listed equities, stewardship and shareholder advocacy; the limitations of investment labels; and why asset managers may need to involve end investors much more seriously in their theories of change. The conversation then moves into the less familiar world of private and community-based impact investment — where capital can potentially finance tangible projects, businesses and social outcomes, but where due diligence, liquidity and investment risk can be considerably more challenging. For financial planners, that creates a dilemma. Clients may have surplus capital they genuinely want to use for good, yet the regulatory and technological infrastructure of mainstream advice often makes these investments difficult to research, recommend or even hold. Alan introduces a useful idea for navigating this tension: a client's "capacity for impact", considering how much capital someone could commit to genuinely transformative investments while remaining financially secure if that capital were lost or became illiquid. This is ultimately a conversation about curiosity, honesty and the responsibility of advisers to understand a rapidly evolving investment landscape. If we want finance to become a more powerful force for good, perhaps we need to start by being clearer about what our money is, and isn't changing.