Responsible Investing: Explained

Article written by InvestNow

What is ‘Responsible Investing’?

From a Fund Manager perspective, Responsible Investing is essentially a values-based approach to selecting the underlying investments within a managed fund; And from an Investor perspective, Responsible Investing is identifying and selecting managed funds that employ a responsible investing strategy; or selecting companies/shares that meet a responsible investing standard.

Traditional investment – about returns and risk

Traditionally, investment strategies have been primarily focused on return and risk. Fund Managers would […]

Voting Finance – Portfolio Politics, and Why Investors Should Ignore Elections

Article written by InvestNow

It must be election year in NZ: Winston Peters is back at the top of the news.

But regardless of the Peters’ show, the Jacinda Ardern-led Labour Party is odds-on to win in a landslide come September 19 – albeit with enough uncertainty and scandal in the air to keep pundits in business.

Will the Greens survive? Can Judith Collins rescue National? And Winston….

For investors, though, the election itself […]

What Tune Will Property play Post-COVID-19?

Article written by Mint Asset Management

Listed property was on song in 2019 before losing its mojo this year as the coronavirus struck. But are the real estate blues simply a crisis-triggered reversion to the mean or is something more fundamental at play? Mint Asset Management senior real estate portfolio manager, Carlie Eve, puts property in its place…

Investors having a sizeable allocation of property in their portfolio at the end of last year would have had […]

Zero Minus Zero – Why Investors Are Looking For New Income Equations

Article written by InvestNow

June 2008 is a watershed nostalgia month for dewy-eyed NZ term deposit (TD) investors. With the global financial crisis (GFC) just three months away from its crescendo, care-free Kiwis were banking one-year term deposit returns of 8.5 per cent or thereabouts.

In that month the Reserve Bank of NZ (RBNZ) held the official cash rate (OCR) at the 21^st century high of 8.25 per cent where it […]

The Risk Of Finding Income In A Low-Interest Rate World – Mint Asset Management

Article written by David Boyle – Mint Asset Management

As global interest rates sink to near zero or below, the search for regular income has become increasingly desperate. But, according to Mint Asset Management’s David Boyle, yield-oriented investors must remember that ‘certainty’ can come at a high cost…

In May 2006 the last great wave of NZ finance company collapses began to surge in a swell that would […]

The Active/Passive Divide – On The Other Side

Article written by InvestNow

Jack Bogle, the founder of passive investment pioneer Vanguard, never got to see the moment his whacky idea formally achieved market dominance – but he was this close.

Bogle died in January 2019 just three months before research house Morningstar clocked US passive share fund assets hitting par with actively-managed counterparts for the first time. At the end of April last year “both passive and active U.S. equity funds had a […]

Investors Float on, in Sink-or-Swim Times

Article written by InvestNow From deep down in a hole on March 23, the benchmark NZ shares index had clawed its way back about 25% by late April.

Despite the extraordinary resurrection of the NZX – an effort mirrored in most other world equity markets – the index remains 10%, or so, below its February peak.

Share markets appear to have developed immunity to COVID-19 well ahead of any real-world cure for the viral disease.

But the sharp turnaround […]

The Quiet Investor – How to tune out market noise

Article written by InvestNow

According the NZ Film Commission synopsis, the first half of the classic 1985 local movie ‘The Quiet Earth’ “explores Zac’s solitude and the way it drives him slowly mad – he winds up in a pink petticoat running around a football field”.

Just one week into lockdown we aren’t quite there yet but Zac, played by the legendary Kiwi actor Bruno Lawrence, makes an emergency call that could […]

Tax Appeal – Why the PIEs have it

Article written by InvestNow

If you struggle with the concept of income tax, take comfort in knowing that even the greatest mind of modern times turned to mush in the face of a tax return. Income tax, Einstein said, is “the hardest thing in the world to understand”. But in NZ at least, managed fund investors have it relatively easy, specifically those invested in PIE funds.

The introduction of the Portfolio Investment Entity (PIE) regime in […]

Climate Change – Why Carbon Emissions Reporting Is Important For Your Investments – Mint Asset Management

Article written by David Boyle – Mint Asset Management

It was around this time last year that I went to the movies and saw Vice, starring one of my favourite actors Christian Bale portraying Dick Cheney’s rise to Vice President under the GW Bush administration.

There was a short scene in the film that just blew me away. It was when a public focus group was […]