The Power Of ‘and’: InvestNow KiwiSaver Fund Choice Tops 40 As Members Demand Manager Diversification

Wellington-based online investment platform, InvestNow, has added two new funds to its KiwiSaver scheme line-up from Milford Asset Management and Salt Funds, respectively, as members increasingly look to diversify manager risk.

After listing the Milford Aggressive Fund and Salt Sustainable Growth Fund on the KiwiSaver platform, the InvestNow scheme counts 40 individual funds from 15 different managers to give members unparalleled flexibility in designing their portfolios.

Mike Heath, InvestNow general manager, said the scheme offers the widest choice of underlying funds and managers in the direct-to-consumer KiwiSaver market.

“Our goal is to provide a comprehensive and sophisticated spread of investments to our investors, so they can truly diversify and build custom KiwiSaver portfolios to meet their specific needs,” Heath said.

“But as well as offering investors easy access to multiple asset classes via diversified and sector-specific funds, InvestNow provides members with the ability to spread their risk among different managers – or as we call it, the ‘power of and’.”

Just about all other KiwiSaver schemes limit the investment choice to in-house managed funds, typically a narrow range of diversified strategies, which creates a major “flaw in the system”.

“Traditional KiwiSaver schemes push people to invest the entire value of their savings into investment options from a single provider or fund manager – for example, if you invest your KiwiSaver with ANZ you can only invest in options from ANZ,” Heath said. “But members are exposed to long-term risks of missing their KiwiSaver investment goals if that single manager persistently underperforms.

“Allocating between more than one diversified fund, operated by different managers, considerably lowers this hidden risk for KiwiSaver members. Investors generally understand the value of asset class diversification, but they are also now waking up to the fact that the ability to spread their KiwiSaver investments among different managers is also important in building robust, long-term portfolios.”

Heath said InvestNow would continue to build out fund and manager choices in both the KiwiSaver scheme and broader investment platform, which collectively manage more $150m NZD.

InvestNow is part of the Apex Global investment administration business.

About the funds:

Milford Aggressive Fund*

• Diversified – Aggressive
• 1.15% p.a. fund management fee (charged by Milford)
• The fund aims to maximise capital growth over the minimum recommended investment timeframe of 10 years by primarily investing in international equities, with a moderate allocation to Australasian equities.

*The managed fund within the InvestNow KiwiSaver Scheme invests directly into the underlying managed fund named, in this case, the Milford Aggressive Fund.

Salt Sustainable Growth Fund*

• Diversified – Growth
• 1.12% p.a. fund management fee (charged by Salt)
• The fund aims to outperform the Consumer Price Index +5% p.a. on a five-year basis by investing in a diversified mix of growth and defensive assets with a focus on securities with high ESG factor scores

*The managed fund within the InvestNow KiwiSaver Scheme invests directly into the underlying managed fund named, in this case, the Salt Sustainable Growth Fund.

About the InvestNow KiwiSaver Scheme:

• The InvestNow KiwiSaver Scheme now has 40 managed funds in the InvestNow KiwiSaver Scheme:
• Aggressive funds (2)
• Growth funds (8)
• Balanced funds (4)
• Conservative funds (3)
• Single-sector funds (23)
• From 15 fund managers:
• Antipodes
• Castle Point
• Clarity
• Fisher Funds
• Foundation Series
• Generate
• Harbour
• Mercer
• Milford
• Mint
• Pathfinder
• Russell Investments

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