For decades, investors have compartmentalized their financial lives: one folder for returns and allocations, another for faith, values, and giving. But Steven Libman, founder of Investing With Purpose, argues this separation is not only artificial but costly—financially and spiritually. In a recent statement, Libman made the case that stewardship is not a category of finance but the whole framework, and that tax strategy and values alignment are two sides of the same coin.
Libman, who has spent 15 years building a multifamily real estate firm around this principle, believes the silos between investing and values were deliberately created by a financial services industry focused on product distribution. Investors were taught to chase returns while ignoring what their capital actually funds, and to express values only through charitable giving. The result is a generation of investors who give generously from after-tax profits while their portfolios may be financing activities they have never examined.
The tax conversation has been similarly siloed. Most people view taxes as an annual reckoning in April, not a year-round planning tool. The idea that tax strategy and values strategy could be part of the same proactive framework is rarely presented. According to Libman, “Stewardship isn’t a category of finances. 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.”
Libman challenges the dominant model of values-aligned investing—the exclusion screen, which simply lists what not to own. He calls this the lowest form of alignment. Instead, he proposes a reframe: purpose-driven investing is not a screen run at the end but a lens through which all financial decisions are made from the beginning. That lens should include tax line items. The key question, he says, is not “What is my money earning?” but “What is my money building?”
For investors new to this approach, Libman advises starting with an audit, not a liquidation. The goal is to create an honest picture of where alignment exists and where it doesn’t, then make intentional moves. He emphasizes, “Purposed investing isn’t the screen you’re running at the end. 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 is more direct than many realize. 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. Conversely, capital unnecessarily handed to the government is capital that cannot serve those purposes. Libman invokes a biblical precision argument: give Caesar exactly what is due, no more, no less. Overpaying taxes out of ignorance is not humility; it is poor stewardship.
“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.” In his view, the investors who will navigate economic cycles most effectively are those who stop separating these conversations entirely and instead integrate tax strategy with their deepest values.
More information on the firm’s philosophy is available at investingwithpurpose.org.
