Active investment still a popular option for Kiwis

29th August 2019

Quality active managers remain highly sought after in New Zealand despite the meteoric rise of passive investment, according to Mike Heath, InvestNow general manager.

Heath said InvestNow has just added another well-regarded local active manager to its stable following demand from investors.

The Auckland-based Pie Funds listed its Australasian Dividend Fund on the direct-to-consumer InvestNow platform this week, giving investors access to a market sector that tends to favour active management.

“Pie Funds is particularly well known as an investor in small-to-medium Australian and New Zealand listed companies,” Heath said. “This is a specialist area that often rewards skillful active managers.”

Over the five years to March 31, 2019, the Pie Australasian Dividend Fund returned almost 12.7 per cent after fees against the benchmark S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Accumulation Index return of 9.26 per cent.

The Pie fund invests mainly in Australasian listed small-to-medium companies with an emphasis on dividend-paying stocks.

Pie Funds manage over $1 billion across a range of other funds and the innovative JUNO KiwiSaver scheme.

Heath said the Pie Australasian Dividend Fund was likely to find support among the rapidly-growing InvestNow member base.

“While it’s true that index funds offered by the likes of Vanguard and Smartshares are extremely popular on InvestNow, most members are not dogmatic passive investors,” he said. “We see many InvestNow members mix-and-match passive and active funds according to their investment goals.”

For example, Heath said two recent actively-managed additions to InvestNow – the Milford Asset Management Diversified Income Fund and the Platinum International Fund – have attracted significant interest.

“The Milford fund – run by one of New Zealand’s best-known ‘boutique’ managers – is already in the InvestNow top 30 most popular products just two months after launch,” he said.

As well as offering more than 110 funds from 21 investment managers, InvestNow is also expanding the range of term deposits available via the platform. Last month the China Construction Bank listed term deposits on InvestNow, joining ANZ, BNZ, and SBS Bank.

“Investors really appreciate the ability to access the best term deposit rates available from many institutions from the same point,” Heath said. “Term deposits remain a valuable tool for investors building diversified portfolios even in this ultra-low interest rate environment. In fact, as interest rates continue to sink lower, it’s more important than ever for investors to squeeze the best return they can out of their term deposit allocation.”

InvestNow is New Zealand’s largest direct-to-investor managed fund and term deposit platform with more than $320 million under management and over 15,000 members.

“Over the last four months we’ve seen record membership growth on InvestNow, and the momentum has not slowed,” Heath said.

InvestNow

InvestNow is 100% owned by Implemented Investment Solutions (www.iisolutions.co.nz), a Wellington-based investment industry specialist business. InvestNow is a Financial Service Provider (FSP534448).

InvestNow provides investors, who know what they want to do, the ability to directly invest in a compelling range of funds from both NZ and Global fund managers - namely AMP Capital, Antipodes Global Investment Partners, ANZ Investments, Devon Funds Management, Elevation Capital, Fisher Funds, Harbour Asset Management, Hunter Investment Management, India Avenue Investment Management, Legg Mason Global Asset Management, Milford Asset Management, Mint Asset Management, Morphic Asset Management, Nikko Asset Management, Pathfinder, Pie Funds, Platinum Asset Management, Russell Investments, Salt Funds Management, Smartshares and Vanguard.

In October 2018 InvestNow added bank term deposits to it’s service and now offer term deposits from ANZ, BNZ, China Construction Bank and SBS Bank. They are working with all the other major banks in NZ to bring them to their service.

Without the need for a middleman, and our no-advice direct investment service, InvestNow does not charge any administration or transaction fees. Investors can manage their portfolios, investing in PIE funds, Listed PIE Funds (Exchange Traded Funds – ETFS) and Australian Unit Trusts, 24/7. The minimum investment, in a single fund is $50, if part of a regular investment plan, or $250 for one-off purchases.

In April 2018 the business took over the direct fund investment business of Rabobank NZ.

InvestNow provides investment accounts for NZ Individuals, Joint Accounts, Family Trusts and NZ Companies.

As an additional layer of online security, we utilise two-factor-authentication for customers when logging in to their accounts. We will send the customer a unique Passcode as part of the login process, for which they can select e-mail or text messaging

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