wealthschema/archetypes/n-02-esg-values-based-investor
N-02NicheAccumulationhigh tax complexity

ESG / Values-Based Investor

Investor who screens for ESG criteria, faith-based exclusions, or impact investing. May sacrifice returns for values alignment.

N-02 is the affluent values-screened investor — fossil-fuel-free portfolios, donor-advised funds, community-investing allocations, and a willingness to accept tracking error against a broad benchmark. It is the lighter-touch ESG corpus; ES-01 in C20 covers the deeper faith-based and impact-investing variant.

Age Range
35–60
Net Worth
$1M–$5M
Cohort
Niche

About this archetype

N-02 represents the affluent household where portfolio construction is driven by values screens rather than tracking-error minimisation. The screening surface is technical: ETF and SMA-level exclusions, custom direct-indexing baskets that drop fossil-fuel and tobacco names while preserving sector weights, community-development financial-institution (CDFI) note allocations that sit outside conventional benchmarks, and ESG-rated bond ladders. For asset-management and direct-indexing platforms the testing complexity is in the post-screening optimisation: producing a portfolio that maintains target factor exposures after dropping 12–25% of the investable universe is non-trivial. For tax-software the surface is the donor-advised fund — most N-02 households carry a DAF, contribute appreciated long-term assets to it rather than cash, and bunch contributions in alternating tax years to clear the standard-deduction threshold under post-TCJA rules.

The cash-flow profile is dual-income affluent ($301k median household income, $2.31M median net worth) with high mortgage and credit-card penetration consistent with the demographic. The defining structural fact is that values screens reduce the investable universe — exclusionary screens (fossil fuel, tobacco, weapons, private prisons) and inclusionary tilts (renewable energy, community development, board diversity) typically remove or down-weight 15–25% of conventional benchmark holdings. Households at this wealth tier increasingly express that preference through direct indexing rather than through pre-packaged ESG funds, because direct indexing lets them customise the screen and harvest losses on a tax-lot basis.

The distinction from neighbouring archetypes is the depth of values integration and the wealth tier. ES-01 in C20 layers faith-based exclusions (interest-bearing instruments under Sharia, biblically-responsible screens) and explicit impact-investment allocations onto a similar wealth profile. N-02 sits at the secular-ESG end of that spectrum. Affluent investors who hold a values screen but are not driving allocation decisions from it belong in H-01 with an ESG overlay; investors who sacrifice meaningful return for impact specifically (concessionary rate community-development notes, program-related investments) belong in ES-01.

Defining characteristics

  • ESG screening
    Portfolio-level exclusionary and inclusionary screens applied through direct indexing, custom SMAs, or screened ETFs. Universe reduction of 15–25% is typical.
  • Impact investing allocation
    Households typically hold a 5–15% sleeve in community-development notes, green bonds, or impact-themed private funds. Accounting for those sleeves at fair value rather than face is a relevant testing surface.
  • Donor-advised fund
    DAFs appear across the corpus and are the dominant charitable vehicle. Bunching contributions in alternating tax years to clear the post-TCJA $29,200 MFJ standard deduction is the typical pattern.
  • Fossil-fuel-free portfolios
    The most common single screen across the corpus. Useful for testing benchmark-construction logic that needs to reproduce sector weights without the excluded names.
  • Community investing
    CDFI deposits and community-development loan-fund notes appear as a fixed-income sleeve with non-standard liquidity and credit characteristics.
  • Affluent wealth tier ($2.31M median net worth)
    Sits at the upper end of mass-affluent — large enough to access SMAs and direct indexing, below the H-tier complexity threshold for private foundations and family-office structures.

Corpus signature

n = 22 households

Aggregated across the 22 N-02 households in the shipped v3 corpus corpus. Numbers describe the corpus, not population claims.

Median income
$301k
p25–p75 $272k–$328k
Median net worth
$2.3M
mean $2.7M
Liquid net worth
$1.3M
median
Investable assets
$1.7M
median
Income distribution
$225k–280k
7
$280k–335k
11
$335k–390k
1
$390k–450k
3
Net-worth distribution
$1.2m–2.1m
7
$2.1m–3.0m
6
$3.0m–3.8m
6
$3.8m–4.7m
3
Goals across the corpus
Retirement22 / 22
Debt payoff15 / 22
Education funding14 / 22
Home purchase5 / 22
Emergency fund1 / 22
Liability composition
Credit cards22 / 22
Mortgages17 / 22
Student loans15 / 22
Auto loans11 / 22
  • 17 of 22 (77%) are homeowners; the remainder rent.
  • CA, VA, IL account for 7 of 22 households — 32% of the corpus.
  • Median adult-member age is 47 (range 34–60 across primaries and spouses).
  • 14 of 22 (64%) carry one or more dependents.

Representative household

N-02-seed-11
Brandon W.Single Parent·Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA

Brandon sits near the corpus income median but materially above the net-worth median — a household that has compounded for two decades, accumulated a meaningful asset base in screened vehicles, and is now navigating single-parent education-funding pressure alongside legacy planning. Net worth of $4.2M with $448k in total liabilities and a creative-industry primary income (irregular by construction) is the diagnostic case: tracking-error tolerance has to coexist with cash-flow lumpiness, and the DAF strategy has to absorb both. He is the household where the affluent values-screened balance sheet meets life-stage complexity.

Gross income
$309,129
Net worth
$4,232,411
Liquid NW
$1,770,556
Age
55
Top goals on this household
Retirement
$5,204,700
Education funding
$738,728
Debt payoff
$5,434

Schema fields covered

Every N-02 household ships with — at minimum — these JSON fields populated. The full schema is documented in the data set you purchase.

members[].age
income.combined_gross
net_worth.total
filing_status
accounts.taxable.lots[].acquisition_date
accounts.taxable.lots[].cost_basis
accounts.taxable.lots[].unrealized_pnl
taxes.wash_sale_flags

Who builds against this archetype

Three buyer profiles draw on N-02 most heavily. Direct-indexing and SMA platforms use it for screen-application validation and post-screen factor-exposure regression — testing that a fossil-fuel-free customisation does not silently destroy small-cap or value-factor exposure. Charitable-giving and DAF platforms use it for bunching-strategy modeling, appreciated-asset contribution tax-lot selection, and grant-out scheduling against the post-TCJA standard-deduction landscape. Wealth-platform engineering teams use it for proposal-generation tooling that has to present an after-screen tracking error to a prospect without trivialising the constraint — N-02 households actively choose tracking error and the UI has to respect that.

Testing scenarios this corpus is calibrated for

  • 01Direct-indexing screen application and post-screen factor-exposure validation across fossil-fuel, tobacco, weapons, and community-development tilts.
  • 02DAF contribution UX with appreciated-asset (LTCG stock and fund) selection and bunching across alternating tax years.
  • 03Custom SMA portfolio construction with tracking-error budgeting and benchmark-reconstruction logic.
  • 04Charitable-deduction stacking under the post-TCJA standard-deduction threshold ($29,200 MFJ for 2024 tax year, indexed).
  • 05Impact-investment sleeve accounting for CDFI notes, green bonds, and program-related private funds with non-standard liquidity.
  • 06ESG-tilted bond ladder construction with green-bond and labeled-bond preference and credit-quality maintenance.
  • 07Conversation-starter UX that surfaces values-aligned alternatives without overriding the client's screen.

Edge cases and what's not in this corpus

N-02 is the secular-ESG affluent end of the values-investing spectrum. Deeper faith-based exclusions — Sharia-compliant non-interest portfolios, biblically-responsible screens, halal sukuk allocations — belong in ES-01 (C20). Households that hold ESG-screened ETFs but do not drive allocation decisions from values belong in H-01 with an overlay rather than N-02. Concessionary-rate community-development investments where the household accepts below-market yield explicitly to support impact (program-related investments, mission-aligned loans) sit in ES-01. UHNW households at $10M+ where the values question is mediated by a private foundation rather than a DAF are H-03. Younger mass-affluent investors with a values screen but no DAF and no SMA access are closer to A-03 with an ESG overlay.

Calibration notes

Income and net-worth bands during v3 synthesis were anchored to the affluent segment of the Survey of Consumer Finances. ESG-screening prevalence and DAF-holding rates among affluent households were informed by industry research and published DAF-sponsor reports; the corpus does not attempt to match specific quantile statistics. State distribution skews CA, VA, and IL deliberately — values-investing demand concentration mirrors that geographic footprint in industry data. Specific screen choices (fossil-fuel-free, board-diversity tilt, community-investing sleeve) are synthesised illustratively and should not be read as a probabilistic prior on screen prevalence. Per CLAUDE.md §9 the v3 corpus is frozen and not regenerable from current code, so calibration claims are descriptive rather than reproducible.

How this differs from related archetypes

Frequently asked questions

What does the N-02 archetype represent?+

N-02 — ESG / Values-Based Investor represents an affluent household (median net worth $2.31M, median income $300k) where portfolio construction is driven by ESG screens — fossil-fuel-free, community investing, board-diversity tilts — typically implemented through direct indexing or custom SMAs and paired with a donor-advised fund for charitable giving.

How is N-02 different from ES-01?+

N-02 sits at the secular-ESG end of the spectrum. ES-01 in C20 covers faith-based and impact-first investors: Sharia non-interest portfolios, biblically-responsible screens, concessionary-rate community-development notes, and explicit program-related investments. Use ES-01 when the values driver is religion or impact-first rather than secular ESG.

What product features does N-02 typically exercise?+

Direct-indexing screen application, post-screen factor-exposure regression, DAF contribution flows with appreciated-asset selection, bunching-strategy modeling against the post-TCJA standard-deduction threshold, custom SMA portfolio construction, and impact-sleeve accounting for CDFI and green-bond positions.

Why does the corpus skew toward CA, VA, and IL?+

ESG-investing demand concentrates in those states in published industry data — the v3 synthesis honors that concentration intentionally. The geographic skew is descriptive, not a prediction.

How were N-02 households generated?+

Deterministically from a seeded sampler (Mulberry32 PRNG) in src/lib/generation/, with ESG-screening flags and DAF-holding indicators applied as overlay attributes. Per-domain version constants are surfaced in each household's _meta block.

Is the N-02 corpus regenerable?+

No. The shipped 1,451-household v3 corpus is frozen and not regenerable from current code (drift confirmed 2026-05-09). Sampler improvements land in a future v4 release with per-archetype golden fixtures in CI to prevent silent drift.

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