• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Subscribe
  • Twitter
  • RSS Feed

Investment News NZ

Investment News provides financial advisers news stories from the financial industry in New Zealand. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter.

  • Home
  • News
  • Kiwisaver
  • Subscribe
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Investment News / ASB puts impact investing on KiwiSaver menu

ASB puts impact investing on KiwiSaver menu

September 8, 2019

Adam Boyd: ASB executive general manager wealth and insurance

ASB has entered the impact investing game with a new fund available via its KiwiSaver and retail product suite.

The ASB Positive Impact Fund (PIF), which officially launched in July, invests in international equities and global fixed income through vehicles managed by Mercer and Vanguard, respectively.

According to ASB disclosure documents, the PIF has a target asset allocation of 60 per cent to global equities and 40 per cent in international fixed income.

In a departure from norm for the index-style ASB, the offshore equities component in the PIF is the actively-managed Mercer Socially Responsible Hedged Overseas Shares Portfolio.

However, ASB reverts to type for the PIF international fixed income portfolio – the Australian-domiciled passive Vanguard Ethically Conscious Global Aggregate Bond Index Fund, hedged to the NZ dollar.

“… for the Positive Impact Fund we do not run a quarterly target asset allocation review. For this Fund the target asset allocation aligns with its reference portfolio,” ASB says in disclosure documents.

The ASB website says the PIF eschews investing in “fossil fuels, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, controversial weapons, whale meat and adult entertainment”.

“About 35% of the fund’s growth assets will focus on investments in companies solving global issues,” ASB says. “Whenever possible, these investments will align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”

The fund also integrates environmental, social and governance (ESG) in the investment process, ASB says.

But the extra socially responsible layers have added costs. The PIF annual fund fee is set at 1 per cent (plus yearly member administration fees of $30) compared to 0.7 per cent for the Growth Fund – the next most-expensive investment option in the ASB range.

ASB says it launched the new impact fund following many requests from clients asking for “a different sort of fund”.

“They want to put their investment to work to give the world a better future, but still want solid long term returns,” the website says.

Impact investing has attracted almost US$230 billion globally, according to a 2019 OECD report, although the concept remains woolly.

The OECD study says there is a risk of “impact washing” due to: diverse definitions; lack of standardised international data; and “underdeveloped impact measurement practices”.

Historically, most impact investing has involved direct ownership of assets such as social housing.

In NZ, impact investing has to date been limited to mainly charitable fund projects. Although, last year the Impact Enterprise Fund (IEF) – a collaborative effort between the Ākina Foundation, New Ground Capital and Impact Ventures – raised $8 million in a first-of-a-kind fundraising in NZ.

Last year Mercer also added an impact fund, managed by US firm Wellington, to the Socially Responsible Investment Global Equities multi-manager portfolio, joining Stewart Investors, Acadian and Schroders on the menu.

Mercer is also investment adviser to ASB along with Colonial First State Asset Management. ASB parent, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia completed its US$2.7 billion sale of Colonial First State Global Asset Management to Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation early this August.

ASB has about $15 billion under management, including more than $10 billion in its KiwiSaver scheme. The investment business falls under the purview of ASB head of wealth, Adam Boyd.

Twitter0
LinkedIn0
Google+0
Facebook0

Read More » Investment News

Recent articles

  • New Salt suite to spice up fund mix January 17, 2021
  • Wealth head quits ASB for Tower job; Platinum loses Asia manager; Matterson moves from Milliman January 17, 2021
  • Westpac follows ANZ with Northern Trust mandate… January 17, 2021
  • … as Trust Management wins over another senior BT investment hand January 17, 2021
  • Capital ventures into BlackRock’s ETF territory January 17, 2021
  • Fresh CIO role as South Pacific aims for co-investments January 17, 2021
  • Lessons from 2020: don’t stop thinking about tomorrow January 17, 2021
  • SSGA to push big firms on ESG, stays mum on merger January 17, 2021
  • Low-carbon switch: why electric future turns on listed infrastructure investor January 17, 2021

Primary Sidebar

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
Learn More »

Most Recent Investment News

New Salt suite to spice up fund mix

January 17, 2021

Wealth head quits ASB for Tower job; Platinum loses Asia manager; Matterson moves from Milliman

January 17, 2021

Westpac follows ANZ with Northern Trust mandate…

January 17, 2021

… as Trust Management wins over another senior BT investment hand

January 17, 2021

Capital ventures into BlackRock’s ETF territory

January 17, 2021

Search by Keyword

Investment News

  • New Salt suite to spice up fund mix January 17, 2021
  • Wealth head quits ASB for Tower job; Platinum loses Asia manager; Matterson moves from Milliman January 17, 2021
  • Westpac follows ANZ with Northern Trust mandate… January 17, 2021
  • … as Trust Management wins over another senior BT investment hand January 17, 2021
  • Capital ventures into BlackRock’s ETF territory January 17, 2021
  • Fresh CIO role as South Pacific aims for co-investments January 17, 2021
  • Lessons from 2020: don’t stop thinking about tomorrow January 17, 2021
  • SSGA to push big firms on ESG, stays mum on merger January 17, 2021
  • Low-carbon switch: why electric future turns on listed infrastructure investor January 17, 2021
  • Bitcoin: the nonsensical asset that makes sense for the times January 17, 2021

Investment News Archive

Most Popular Articles

  • Westpac NZ flags retail advice sale to Forsyth Barr posted on October 19, 2020
  • The horror year in technicolour: free KiwiSaver 13 report released posted on September 30, 2020
  • NZ share-trading splurge could trigger tax alarms… posted on October 5, 2020
  • Flint set to spark platform competition posted on August 17, 2020
  • Four to the core: Smartshares to expand, rearrange and reprice ETFs posted on June 22, 2020
  • Kitset KiwiSaver scheme set to unwrap in spring posted on April 27, 2020
  • Funds eye bargains, self-shoppers hoard cash, KiwiSavers turn conservative posted on March 15, 2020
  • AMP Capital NZ chief quits amid equities exodus offshore posted on August 28, 2020

Sponosored Content

David-Boyle

On the industry play-list: four chart-topping regulations for 2021

David-Boyle

Charge of the lite (advice) brigade

Nathan Field

Pandemic Baby Boom a Bust

Star-date 2020: it’s inflation Jim but not as we know it

Quick-links to Popular News

  • FAP Compliance
  • Coronavirus
  • New Appointments
  • Financial Markets Authority (FMA)
  • Kiwisaver
  • Climate Change
  • Crypto Currency
  • Blockchain
  • Insurance

Secondary Sidebar

Recent News

  • New Salt suite to spice up fund mix January 17, 2021
  • Wealth head quits ASB for Tower job; Platinum loses Asia manager; Matterson moves from Milliman January 17, 2021
  • Westpac follows ANZ with Northern Trust mandate… January 17, 2021
  • … as Trust Management wins over another senior BT investment hand January 17, 2021
  • Capital ventures into BlackRock’s ETF territory January 17, 2021
  • Fresh CIO role as South Pacific aims for co-investments January 17, 2021
  • Lessons from 2020: don’t stop thinking about tomorrow January 17, 2021
  • SSGA to push big firms on ESG, stays mum on merger January 17, 2021
  • Low-carbon switch: why electric future turns on listed infrastructure investor January 17, 2021
  • Bitcoin: the nonsensical asset that makes sense for the times January 17, 2021

Footer

Copyright ©2020 InvestmentNews.co.nz — All Rights Reserved ·— Terms & Conditions