Texas Investors Urged to Merge Tax Strategy with Values-Based Investing

In the world of finance, investors often keep two separate mental folders: one for returns and allocations, another for values and giving. This separation, according to Steven Libman, founder of Investing With Purpose™, is costing investors more than they realize. Libman, who has spent 15 years building a multifamily real estate firm, believes that stewardship is not a category of finances but the whole picture. Once investors accept this, the silos between tax strategy and personal values collapse into a single question: what is my money actually building?

The financial services industry has deliberately sold the idea that investing and values are separate, encouraging investors to chase returns and express values through charitable giving. This has led to portfolios that fund activities investors have never examined. Similarly, tax strategy is often treated as an annual reckoning rather than a proactive planning tool. Libman argues that tax strategy and values strategy should be part of the same framework, structured in January, not reconciled in April.

“Stewardship isn’t a category of finances,” says Libman. “It’s the whole thing. When we read the parable of the talents, the master doesn’t grade servants on one line item. He thinks about what they did with everything they were entrusted with. Your tax dollars are entrusted capital too.”

The dominant model in values-aligned investing has been the exclusion screen, a list of what not to own. Libman calls this the lowest form of values alignment. Instead, he proposes that purpose-driven investing is the lens through which investors build from the beginning, covering every line item, including taxes. The question Libman puts to investors is not what is it earning, but what is it building. The practical steps involve clarifying core values, auditing current holdings, and measuring each against those values.

“Purposed investing isn’t the screen you’re running at the end,” says Libman. “It’s the lens you’re building through from the beginning. And that lens should cover the tax line items too.”

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 but poor stewardship. Libman draws on a biblical precision argument: give Caesar exactly what is due, no more, no less.

“You can’t manage well what you refuse to understand,” says Libman. “And the moment this all gets pulled under one owner, which is you, there’s no silo anymore. You become the silo.” Investors who navigate this cycle most effectively are those who stop separating the conversations entirely. For Texas investors, this integrated approach could redefine how they view their financial impact.

More information on the firm’s investment philosophy is available at investingwithpurpose.org.