Investing With Purpose Founder Urges Investors to Merge Tax Strategy with Values

Most investors operate with two separate mental folders: one for investing, returns, and allocations, and another for values, faith, and giving. This separation, according to Steven Libman, founder of Investing With Purpose, is costing them more than they realize—financially and otherwise. Libman has spent 15 years building a multifamily real estate firm around the counter-premise that stewardship is not a category of finances but the whole thing. Once investors adopt this framing, the silos between tax strategy, portfolio allocation, and personal values collapse into a single question: what is my money actually building?

The separation between investing and values was deliberately sold by a financial services industry focused on product distribution, not stewardship. Investors were told to chase returns and express values through charitable giving from after-tax proceeds, leaving their portfolios to fund activities they never examined. Similarly, tax strategy has been relegated to an annual reckoning in April, rather than a year-round planning tool. Libman argues that tax strategy and values strategy should be part of the same proactive framework, structured in January, not reconciled in April.

“Stewardship isn’t a category of finances; it’s the whole thing. When we read the parable of the talents, the master grades servants on what they did with everything they were entrusted with,” Libman explains. “Your tax dollars are entrusted capital too.” This perspective challenges the dominant model of exclusion screens—lists of what not to own—which Libman considers the lowest form of values alignment. Instead, he advocates for purpose-driven investing as a lens through which all decisions are made, including tax line items.

The practical steps Libman recommends are sequenced deliberately: clarify core values, write them down, audit current holdings, measure each against those values, and then assess whether tax strategies serve the same mission. For investors new to this approach, an audit is the entry point, not a liquidation. The goal is to create an honest picture of alignment and make intentional moves from there. “Purposed investing isn’t the screen you’re running at the end; it’s the lens you’re building through from the beginning,” says Libman.

The connection between tax strategy and values alignment is direct: capital retained through intelligent tax structuring—such as bonus depreciation, cost segregation, and K-1 carry-forwards—can be redeployed toward causes and investments that reflect an investor’s priorities. Overpaying taxes out of ignorance is not humility; it is poor stewardship. Libman draws on a biblical precision argument: give Caesar exactly what is due, no more, no less. Every unnecessary dollar lost is a dollar that cannot be reinvested or donated.

“You can’t manage well what you refuse to understand,” Libman notes. “The moment this all gets pulled under one owner—you—there’s no silo anymore. You become the silo.” Investors who navigate this cycle most effectively are those who stop separating these conversations entirely. By integrating tax strategy with values, they can ensure their capital builds what they truly intend. More information on the firm’s investment philosophy is available at investingwithpurpose.org.