J Patrick Costello, CFP®, CLU
Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer
Patrick is a Certified Financial Planner™ and Chartered Life Underwriter at Green River Sustainable Financial Services. He entered the Financial Services industry in 1994.
Green River delivers financial planning services to the community, focusing on low-carbon investing, risk management, asset accumulation and careful planning.
Critical elements of his approach to financial planning:
- Patrick and his firm use sustainability research and ESG principles when designing and managing low-carbon, diversified investment portfolios.
- When managing portfolios, care is taken to limit taxes by avoiding unnecessary trades and using index funds when appropriate.
- Green River works with business owners to lower taxes by helping them maximize deductible contributions to SEP IRAs and 401(k) Plans.
During more than 20 years in the financial services industry, Patrick has assisted a wide variety of clients in the following areas:
- Helping young people develop effective saving habits and plan for children and first home purchases,
- Working with pre-retirees as they prepare to make decisions about inheritances, pensions and retirement plan rollovers,
- Helping retirees manage their income needs and create estate plans for children and grandchildren.
Patrick is passionate about helping investors better align their investment strategies with their personal ethics and values. His first book, Green Investing: More Than Being Socially Responsible delivers an important message — busy investors can accomplish this realignment without making a financial sacrifice, or needing to develop specialized investing expertise.
In September of 2018, he published His new book: Low-Carbon Investing, Defending the Climate/Emphasizing Performance Much of the book is devoted to “unpacking” the new sustainable investing acronym “ESG,” pointing out exactly what it means to investors, and why in some cases it obscures rather than clarifies whether mutual fund and ETF managers are focused on reducing their funds’ carbon footprints.
In the book, Patrick argues that investors must make carbon reduction and fossil fuel divestment the absolute top priority if we are to defend the human species from the ravages of global warming.
He is deeply involved with his local community in the fight against the harmful impacts of climate change and global warming. The worldwide divestment movement, which encourages institutions and individuals to divest from fossil fuel stocks and reinvest in clean, renewable sources of energy, is an important part of that fight.
Patrick volunteers with the climate advocacy group 350Marin.org and other local non-profits to help the community lower its collective carbon footprint. He has contributed to the Fossil Fuel Divestment efforts of local groups such as Sustainable San Rafael, the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce’s Green Committee, 350PaloAlto and FossilFreeCA.org.
In the local community, he has presented fossil fuel-free investing options and helped with climate change awareness events at College of Marin, the Environmental Forum of Marin, Fairfax EcoFest, the Bioneers Conference, the Green Festival and Marin’s first Sustainable Enterprise Conference.
Stephanie S. Olson
Senior Financial Advisor
Formerly with Morgan Stanley, Stephanie works with business owners, non-profit organizations and community leaders to enhance their entity retirement plans with more sustainable, high-performance investing options.
Prioritizing social, economic, environmental and racial justice and equity, she guides individuals and organizations through ESG and “Gender Lens” investing: Data show that public companies with better gender balance and diversity represented in the boardroom and at the executive level make better long-term corporate decisions, reflected in strong stock performance.
More Info about Fossil Fuel Free Investing:
Fossil Fuel-Free Investing |
More Info about Gender Equity/Gender Lens Investing:
Gender Equity Investing |