WASHINGTON - s4story -- Creative Investment Research, an economic research, impact investing, financial innovation, and advisory firm, has been named a 2026 winner of the Investment Excellence Awards by Wealth & Finance. The award recognizes Creative Investment Research as part of Wealth & Finance's 2026 Investment Excellence Awards program.

The recognition highlights Creative Investment Research's longstanding work at the intersection of investment management, economic research, impact investing, small and minority business development, financial innovation, and public policy.

"We are honored to receive the 2026 Investment Excellence Award from Wealth & Finance," said William Michael Cunningham, economist and founder of Creative Investment Research. "For decades, our work has focused on a simple principle: financial analysis should measure not only conventional risk and return, but also the broader economic and social consequences of investment decisions. This award is an important recognition of that approach."

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Founded in 1989, Creative Investment Research has developed research, investment strategies, analytical tools, and financial products designed to identify economic opportunities that conventional financial analysis can overlook. The firm's work has included impact investing, research on minority-owned financial institutions and businesses, Community Reinvestment Act analysis, economic forecasting, environmental and social risk analysis, and the development of new approaches to measuring investment performance.

Recent Creative Investment Research initiatives have expanded this work into several emerging areas, including the economic impact of artificial intelligence, minority-business economic conditions, maternal health, Federal Reserve and monetary policy analysis, community investment, and new financial risk-management products.

Among the firm's recent projects is research examining the economic impact of artificial intelligence on Black employment, wealth, business ownership, and health, presented during the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference.

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The firm is also developing new approaches to financial and institutional risk, including an insurance product designed to address legal, compliance, economic-analysis, and related risks.

Cunningham said the Wealth & Finance recognition is particularly meaningful because it comes as Creative Investment Research expands its work in financial technology, artificial intelligence, economic data, and new investment and insurance products.

"The investment industry is entering a period in which traditional financial metrics alone are increasingly insufficient," Cunningham said. "Artificial intelligence, demographic change, shifts in public policy, inequality, climate and community risk, and changes in access to capital are affecting economic value in ways that investors need to understand. Our goal is to develop practical analytical tools that capture those changes."

Wealth & Finance International is part of AI Global Media, which publishes business and finance media across multiple sectors. See: https://wealthandfinance.digital/winners/creative-investment-research-2/