Auckland-based boutique manager Pathfinder picked up a top prize at the Sustainable Business Awards (SBA) last week for its recently launched KiwiSaver scheme.
Pathfinder won the SBA ‘social impactor’ category – sponsored by the Medical Assurance Society – for the group’s charitable donation strategy established as part of the CareSaver scheme.
Launched in July last year, CareSaver donates 20 per cent of its management fee to a panel of charities, currently numbering 17.
“This provides a passive, long term and sustainable annual income that supports those charities to increase the impact of their work. In March 2020 Pathfinder donated $20,000 to the group of charities. It’s aiming to increase that to $100,000 in 2021,” the SBA said in a release. “Ultimately it plans to secure 2% of the KiwiSaver market which would mean an annual donation of more than $2 million.”
As at the end of September this year, CareSaver reported funds under management of about $40 million and almost 1,500 members.
Pathfinder, founded by John Berry and Paul Brownsey, is part of the Alvarium group, a consortium between UK-based private investment firm Alvarium (previously known as LJ Partnership) and Tailorspace (the investment firm of high-powered Christchurch businessman, Ben Gough). Tailorspace chief, Brett Gamble, also has a small stake in the Alvarium business.
Alvarium took a 51 per cent stake in Pathfinder in February 2019 just months after buying a similar share in Auckland alternative assets manager, NZAM.
Also last week, Mercer earned high grades in its first year of accreditation under the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment (PRI) for its global investment processes.
According to a Mercer release, the firm garnered an “A+ and six As” in the PRI rankings for its responsible investment (RI) efforts across the group’s approximately US$306 billion “in investment solutions across public and private markets”.
Hooman Kaveh, Mercer global chief investment officer, said the multi-manager firm, which also advises on US$15 trillion of assets, has incorporated RI with “varying approaches and priorities” in different regions.
“The A+ rating for strategy and governance and A ratings for all six asset classes, should give all of our clients confidence in the consistently high standards we have set for all regions,” Kaveh said.
Mercer NZ chief, Martin Lewington, said in the statement that responsible investment was a core component of the firm’s approach.
“The [PRI] recognition complements our recent SuperRatings Platinum rating, where we were the only KiwiSaver provider to be awarded the top rating for a seventh consecutive year,” Lewington said. “All our decisions are focused on delivering best member outcomes, both now, and into the future, and it’s rewarding to see our focus get recognised by some of the world’s leading ratings houses.”
In September this year, Mercer increased RI exclusions and tilts to “positive impact” investments in its KiwiSaver default fund. Mercer, one of the nine incumbent default providers, is bidding for reappointment in 2021 under a selection process set to conclude next April.
Over 30 NZ-based investment organisations have received PRI accreditation, which has evolved into a must-have best practice stamp of approval for the global funds industry since the UN-sponsored designation first launched in 2006.
While the Mercer investment consultancy arm was a founding signatory to the PRI, and in fact helped develop the underlying principles, the group’s fund business only signed on last September.
Mercer is a subsidiary of the wider Marsh McLennan Companies group.