Lincoln Private Investment Office has become B Corp certified, reinforcing its commitment to ethical business practices, sustainability and a positive impact.

As a B Corp certified firm, Lincoln has undergone a substantial evaluation of the entire firm covering five key impact areas: governance, workers, community, environment and customers.

For governance, a company must clearly demonstrate its overall mission, ethics, accountability, transparency and how it builds its vision and values into its bylaws.

The workers component examines a firm’s efforts to create a positive impact for its workforce.

How a company serves its customers, offering products or services that support the greater good, is looked into when verifying the customers metric.

B Corp certified firms must also work towards a more sustainable and regenerative planet by reducing their carbon footprint and putting their impact on the air, climate, water, land and biodiversity first in its business practices.

Finally, the customers assessment looks into how a business contributes to the economic and social well-being of the communities in which they operate.

Since its inception in 2014, the values of alignment and doing business in ‘the right way’ have been a key focus for Lincoln.

The firm believes the certification underscores its commitment to these values and reflects its aim of having a positive impact on the industry and the world more generally.

Chris Turner, executive director of B Lab UK, said: “We are pleased to have B Corps of all shapes and sizes as part of our community – from startups to multinationals and across many different industries. Business is a powerful force and B Corps demonstrate that you can do good in any sector.

“Welcoming Lincoln is an exciting moment because they have an opportunity to lead the way within the wealth management industry. We and the rest of the B Corp community are really pleased to support Lincoln paving the way for a new way of doing things”.

Ross Elder, managing partner at Lincoln, added: “It has felt like a natural fit for the way we see the world and I believe this confirmation of how we reach high standards of social and environmental performance, and our transparency and accountability, will be incredibly important in the years ahead.”

There are a number of firms operating in the UK wealth management market that have achieved B Corp status. These include Coutts, GSB, Progeny and EQ Investors.

At the same time, the firm announced it had added Jason Mackay to its investment advisory board.

Mr Mackay has spent eight years working in equities for UBS before he became a managing director at Morgan Stanley. He has also managed a $3 billion hedge fund at GLG for seven years.

The investment advisory board uses its investment experience to provide macro-economic investment insights, together with suggestions of new ideas, funds and investment themes.

Lincoln describes itself as a “modern, unconflicted private investment office”.

The business is jointly owned by the team and 17 of its clients, meaning all shareholders are also clients of Lincoln.