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Celebrating Excellence in Ethical Advice: Mark Holtom Highly Commended at the 2025 Mindful Money Awards. The awards honour individuals, organisations, and funds that are leading the way in ethical investing across Aotearoa.
Recent events highlight the importance of ensuring that portfolios are well diversified across the number of investments, asset classes, and countries – even for very large economies like the United States. This is a guiding star of the portfolios that our clients are invested into.
We recently had a client who was quite worried about the state of the world – was this a prelude to turmoil and even war? After spending time talking this through with them, they were much happier. Our comments weren’t just about the usual -markets are volatile but always recover- but also about what history can teach us. They found it so reassuring that we thought we’d share some of it here.
In this session, Professor Tim Naish from Victoria University of Wellington discusses his research on the effects of climate change on Antarctica. Despite being the coldest continent, Antarctica is experiencing some of the fastest warming rates. This webinar will provide valuable insights into the impacts on Aotearoa New Zealand, including rising sea levels.
Fund manager Harbour Asset Management – provider of two funds we use in our ethical portfolios – has produced a summary of the three key themes they observed in working with New Zealand companies during 2024. These are climate change, looking after people and artificial intelligence (AI) governance.
At the beginning of every year, we’re regularly asked ‘what do you think this investment year will bring?’. Of course, we respond with ‘nobody knows, and markets are efficient so everyone’s guesses are already priced in’. But as an evidence-based firm we like to have some data to back this up.
At the end of 2024, Ethical Investing NZ celebrated 10 years in business – and 10 years of success. Based on his decades-long commitment to stewardship, founder Peter Lee brought together his extensive experience of “advising advisers” with his passion for ethical investing. He had a vision to set up a top-flight, professional advice firm based on principles of sustainability.
In a way, “geo-political” has become the word of the year. It means the interplay on a global level of politics, markets and countries. While such events can have profound impacts on the lives of individuals, communities and nations impacted, do they matter for long term asset returns?
Ethical Investing is strongly committed to being a “good corporate citizen” in many practical ways – including volunteering at social or environmental causes. Recently the team helped out at the Kaipatiki Project Ecohub, a North Shore-based environmental initiative.
The NZ ethical investing community’s premier event is the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia (RIAA) annual conference. This year’s in mid-September saw a big presence from the Ethical Investing team – as attendees but also as presenters.
Falling interest rates contain both good and bad news. They’re great if you’re a borrower, such as a business or a mortgage-holder – or the NZ government. However, if you’re someone reliant on term deposits for income, drops are not so good.
Ethical investing is not a static ‘set and forget’ process. Companies that are ‘good’ one day may not remain so, and conversely companies can improve their ratings. That means the fund managers we use regularly review their holdings, replacing companies that are no longer so ethical with ones that have improved.
Last week, we were awarded Highly Commended in the Best Ethical Financial Adviser category – in essence, runner-up. Given the stiff competition we’re absolutely delighted. It’s a real credit to our passionate team.
You may have heard of “benchmarks”. These are basically target returns that an investment is measured against. They are crucial tools to enable you as an investor to ask some key questions.
Income in a trust that’s not distributed to beneficiaries is taxed at what’s called the “trustee rate” – in effect, the trust. Investors with family trusts will know that for some years there’s been a discrepancy between the top rate that beneficiaries pay (39%) and the tax rate for trusts (33%).
The 2023 election has come and (largely) gone. While the final makeup of the incoming government is still being decided, most commentators aren’t expecting a significant change in governmental priorities anytime soon.
The 2023 election has come and (largely) gone. While the final makeup of the incoming government is still being decided, most commentators aren’t expecting a significant change in governmental priorities anytime soon.
Until recently, ethical investing primarily meant avoiding certain types of investments. However, investors are increasingly looking to actively favour industries and companies wanting to make a positive difference.
In this “Meet the Manager” webinar, John Berry from Pathfinder shares their journey from the beginning, why they are so passionate about doing good for your pocket as well as for people and our planet. Pathfinder is a multi-award winning fund manager that have built a strong reputation for both their positive actions and their strong performance.
Our director, Mark Holtom, joined Bryony Greenhalgh from Pathfinder in the recent Sustainable Business Network ‘Hot Take’ discussion to talk about some of the ways employers can be supporting their employees in this current economic climate. Here is the recording of the discussion.
We were delighted to be named joint winners of the Best Ethical Financial Adviser award at the recent Mindful Money awards. This is the second year we’ve been a winner, as we won the 2022 award. While the ethical investment area continues to grow, there is still a lot of variation in what sound ethical investment means in practice. There remains, too, public concern over greenwashing and exaggerated claims around ethical investment.
In this “Meet the Manager” series we’re hosting live discussions with fund managers to cover what they do, where they’re focused and examples of companies they’re invested in. In doing so, our clients learn more about the underlying funds where their money is invested. This month we’re talking with Betashares.
Bonds play an important role in all but the highest risk portfolios. They provide a predictable income stream, and typically do well in times of stress. That means they help offset declines in sharemarkets, so a portfolio that has shares and bonds will have fewer ups and downs than one which is all shares or…
You may have read or heard over the last couple of weeks, the unfolding situation regarding two US bank failures and the subsequent impact it is having on global share markets. These events have been unsettling, but we believe that measures taken by the banking regulators should provide comfort, and the overall impact on your…
“So long and good riddance to 2022”, may have been the sentiment as 2022 turned into 2023. It certainly wasn’t a great year. War, inflation, rising interest rates, and economic bottlenecks led to poor returns in most types of assets. In fact, 2022 was unusual in the sense that shares and bonds both fell simultaneously,…
As advisers, we are in a position of real privilege. Virtually alone amongst all professionals, we get to learn about our clients’ innermost thoughts and feelings. We are truly kaitiaki – guardians – of so much about them. Firstly, and perhaps most obviously, we are kaitiaki of our clients’ money. They come to us because…
We’re delighted to be named the Mindful Money 2022 Best Ethical Financial Adviser.
If you have been reading or listening to any market commentary over the last 6 months, you will no doubt have heard the term “investing for the long-term”. The last few months have been a real roller coaster which has seen valuations drop, along with investment assets. Here are our thoughts.
Many investors are wondering what the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine might mean for investments. Here are our thoughts, from a financial and then an ethical perspective.
Market performances were mixed in the December 2021 quarter.
View the webcast we held on the 22nd of October as the C2C team discuss investment markets and underlying themes.
View the webcast we held on the 20th of May as the C2C team chat about the budget, what it means to NZ and investors.
Listen to the client webcast we held on the 8th of April as the C2C team chat about what’s happening due to Covid-19.
Success as an investor starts with the key questions of why, what, where, when and how.
Recently, one of America’s largest life insurers (New York Life) did a survey of over 2,000 people to find out what they considered to be their largest financial mistakes, and how long it took to recover from them.
The investment industry is responding, first with a much-improved range of products and more latterly with simple ways for people to find out more.
The purchasing of material possessions makes us happy, but the feeling wears off, sometimes with astonishing speed.
We know you’ve heard this before – in fact, you possibly heard it the last time you were in our offices – but we thought it useful to take a moment to again state very clearly why we never sell portfolios during down markets.
Did you realise the way you invest could have a significant impact on our planet’s future?
You may recall our principal Peter Lee’s epic adventure in 2018, walking the length of Britain with his wife Val? The walk sparked a new seminar series, called “The Long Walk of Life – Seven Steps to Achieving your Goals and Making Work Optional”.
Over Labour Weekend, Peter Lee our CEO was part of a team of conservation volunteers who worked on the island sanctuary of Tiritiri Matangi off the coast of Auckland.
If there is one lesson to be learned, it is that forecasters rarely get it right!
Most people seek happiness. Some economists even think happiness is the best indicator of the health of a society. However, while money can make us happier, studies show that after our basic needs are met, it doesn’t make us that much happier.
Canadian firm Farnam Street’s concise summary.
When investment markets bounce around, ask yourself a few key questions.
Why having all your eggs in one basket isn’t a great strategy.
A recent poll shows the majority of New Zealanders want their KiwiSaver scheme to take into account environmental and social as well as financial considerations.
We are emotional beings, and make financial decisions based on emotion. Here’s what it means.
Financial planning helps you determine your short and long-term financial goals and create a balanced plan to meet those goals.
Going through the process of constructing a financial plan is a valuable exercise for any business owner.
However, once children become adults, is it right to keep supporting them financially?
If you’re looking to donate in a structured way, there are definite advantages to using a donor advised fund like The Gift Trust.
