The NZ investment industry must do better to engage with Māori, a new report has found.
According to the 2026 ‘Investment Sector Kaupapa Māori Market Scan’ released last week, NZ investors and wealth managers shown “meaningful interest” in bridging the cultural gap but results to date have been patchy.
“Relationships exist, initiatives are underway, and many organisations recognise that Māori values and worldviews will be important to the future of investment practice in Aotearoa,” the report says.
“However, the survey also shows that the sector is not yet operating with the level of shared infrastructure, capability, confidence or repeatable practice required to translate that interest into consistent investment decision-making.”
The survey, funded by Trust Waikato and carried out by RŌA Consulting, probed 32 respondents to gauge how Māori values fit into the investment process.
Almost 20 of those surveyed were from the investment industry along with six community trusts or charities and five Māori asset-owners.
The results “should be interpreted as a self-selected market signal rather than a statistically representative sample”, the report says.
Nonetheless, the study found a clear intention to develop stronger ties between the two sectors with 22 respondents rating “Māori values and worldviews as very important or critical”.
But despite those aspirations only five of those surveyed “have a specific Māori investment framework”, suggesting further practical work ahead is need to better-align cultural values with “strategy, goals, KPIs, investment beliefs, mandate design and long-term return expectations”.
“The goal is not to create a generic framework or ESG overlay, but to help organisations understand where Māori values are genuinely shaping decisions, where gaps and risks remain, and how investment practice can reflect financial, cultural, social, environmental and intergenerational value,” the study says.
According to the TDB Advisory ‘Iwi Investment Report 2025’ published this February, Māori assets derived from Treaty of Waitangi settlements alone total about $12.5 billion.
“Iwi have tended to allocate capital across three broad asset classes: property, primary industries and financial assets,” the TDB report says. “Property remains the foundational asset class, reflecting iwi’s enduring cultural connection to whenua and long-duration rights of first refusal over Crown properties embedded in many Treaty settlements.”
But the sector continues to grow as an important market for local fund managers and institutional investors.
Over the weekend, for instance, the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) fund announced its “largest-ever direct investment in the South Island through Ahumahi Property, a new industrial property development and investment company established in partnership with Ngāi Tahu Property and Carter Group”.
Ahumahi initially plans to develop about 200 hectares of land for industrial purposes in Christchurch with an estimated end value $700 million.
“Over time, Ahumahi Property envisages building an industrial property fund with an estimated completed value of approximately $1.5 billion,” a statement says.
Justin Tipa, Kaiwhakahaere of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, said in the release that the agreement highlights the long-term approach to investment adopted by the iwi.
“Partnerships like this create a level of scale, expertise, and shared vision that strengthens our ability to deliver on that mission, while also contributing to the growth of the New Zealand economy,” Tipa said.
Ngāi Tahu also joined the NZ Superannuation Fund as a shareholder in Fidelity Life in 2022: the iwi owns about a quarter of Fidelity, which sold to Partners Life earlier this month for $630 million.
Fund managers such as Amova Asset Management NZ and Trust Investments have also established from Māori cultural engagement projects.
For example, Stuart Williams, Amova NZ managing director, told an audience at the group’s recent adviser roadshow that its Te Ao Māori program had delivered multiple benefits.
In a release, Matthew Goldsack, Trust Investments general manager investments, the new RŌA survey was an “important contribution” to improving dialogue between Māori and the industry.
Goldsack said the report points to how “investment practice in Aotearoa can better reflect long-term value, relationships and positive intergenerational outcomes”.
Trust Investments contributed to the survey.