OUR FEES

There are three stages to working with us:

1.  Initial meeting

This meeting is to see if we’re right for you and we feel we can add value.  There is no charge for this and there is no obligation to go further.

2.  Engaging us to prepare a financial plan

All our advice will be in the form of a written financial or investment plan. We’ll outline what will go in the plan, which can include setting out your objectives, working out lifetime cashflows, making investment recommendations, and commenting on other areas. We charge a fee for our initial advice, which we will present in the form of a financial or investment plan. Our fees for this advice start from $995 + GST and depend on the level of complexity.  This will be confirmed and quoted when we know the nature and scope of our engagement. Once you agree, we’ll then put together our advice and recommendations and present the plan.

3.  Working with us ongoing

Once you engage us to implement the recommendations and work with us ongoing, the following fees and costs may apply:

  • We will provide a range of ongoing advice, support and management services including investment advice, for an agreed monthly fee, generally tax-deductible. This fee will normally be a percentage of investments under our advice, on a sliding scale. The fee, and any minimum which may apply, will be confirmed before you engage us.
  • We recommend holding assets via FNZ Custodians, an independent admin and custodial service, for a convenient one-stop-shop.  There is an ongoing monthly percentage fee payable to FNZ Custodians for assets held on the custodial platform.
  • As is best practice, our portfolios are based on managed funds, which have their own annual and initial costs. We primarily use low-cost index/rules based funds which keep costs low.

All fees will be disclosed when our adviser present your financial/investment plan.

Commission and Brokerage:

  • We do not receive any commission on non-KiwiSaver investments. If we are eligible for any, we rebate them to you.
  • We may receive commission from KiwiSaver providers to fund the ongoing servicing cost of the product but this does not influence or conflict any advice we give to you in relation to your KiwiSaver.

OUR LICENCING INFORMATION

Ethical Investing NZ Limited (FSP634849) holds a licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) to provide a financial advice service.

Our office contact details are:

Ethical Investing NZ Limited
Level 8, 17 Albert Street
Auckland CBD 1010

e: team@ethicalinvesting.nz
t: 09 337 0997

NATURE & SCOPE OF OUR ADVICE

We provide integrated financial planning and ethical investing advice to our clients.  

Our financial advisers provide financial advice in relation to KiwiSaver and managed funds.

We only provide financial advice about investment and KiwiSaver products from certain providers:

  • Investment products: A wide range of NZ and Australian based managed funds, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), NZ government and corporate bonds.
  • KiwiSaver products: ANZ Investments, Booster and Pathfinder (this list may change from time to time).

We are limited to investment products that are available through our Investment Management and Custodial Platform - FNZ Wrap.

The investment products we predominantly recommend are ethically-based (socially responsible) investments with a low cost passive/index investment approach. We may use ‘active’ funds for part of a client’s portfolio where they wish to take a more pro-active approach to ethical investing.

We do not hold any of our clients’ investments in our name.  They are held on the client’s behalf by a registered custodian which is regulated by the FMA under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013.  We use an investment platform for the trading of the client’s investments (FNZ Wrap).

We do not provide advice or recommendations on insurance or mortgage products but, where appropriate, will refer our clients to suitable specialists in these areas.

OUR DUTIES

The Ethical Investing NZ advisers have duties under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 relating to the way that we give advice.

We are required to:

  • give priority to your interests by taking all reasonable steps to make sure our advice isn’t materially influenced by our own interests.
  • exercise care, diligence and skill in providing you with advice.
  • meet standards of competence, knowledge and skill set by the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services which are designed to make sure that we have the expertise needed to provide you with advice.
  • meet standards of ethical behaviour, conduct and client care set by the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services which are designed to make sure we treat you as we should and give you suitable advice.

This is only a summary of the duties that we have.  More information is available by contacting us or by visiting the Financial Markets Authority website at: https://www.fma.govt.nz.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

All of our financial advisers are employed and paid a salary by Ethical Investing NZ Limited. None receives any brokerage or commissions. This ensures our advisers prioritise our client’s interests above their own and there are no conflicts of interest in relation to the advice they give. 

Some of our advisers may receive an annual bonus-related payment which is calculated on agreed KPIs and the overall success of the business.  This bonus payment is not client-specific so no conflicts arise. 

Our advisers follow an advice process that ensures recommendations are made on the basis of our client’s goals and circumstances. 

Although there are few conflicts of interest, our advisers undertake internal and relevant industry training for managing conflicts when this training is available.

We also undertake an internal compliance audit and a review of our compliance programme annually.  We are also audited by our investment platform to ensure compliance of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing Terrorism (AML/CFT) requirements.

COMPLAINTS HANDLING & DISPUTE RESOLUTION

If you are not satisfied with our financial advice service, you can make a complaint by emailing team@ethicalinvesting.nz or by calling 09 337 0997.  You can also write to us at: PO Box 316, Shortland Street, Auckland 1140

When we receive a complaint, we will consider it following our internal complaints process:

  1. We will investigate and consider your complaint and let you know how we intend to resolve it.  We may need to contact you to get further information about your complaint.
  2. We aim to resolve complaints within 10 working days of receiving them.  If we can’t, we will contact you within that time to let you know that we need more time to consider your complaint.
  3. We will contact you by phone or email to let you know whether we can resolve your complaint and how we propose to do so.

If we can’t resolve your complaint, or you aren’t satisfied with the way we propose to do so, you may contact Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Disputes Resolution Scheme.  They provide a free and independent dispute resolution service that may help investigate or resolve your complaint. 

You can contact Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman by either:

phone: 0800 888 202 or email: info@ifso.nz or by completing their online complaint form found at: https://www.ifso.nz/make-a-complaint.  You could also write to them at: PO Box 10-845, Wellington 6143.

PRIVACY

We need to obtain some personal information from you in order to provide our advice service to you.  You do not have to provide information to us, but our advice or service may be compromised if you decide not to provide the information we request. 

Your privacy is very important to us so we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that all of your information is kept confidential and secure. 

We may obtain information about you from parties you authorise to disclose to us. We may also provide your information to external parties to enable us to provide our services to you.  This could be to:

  • meet compliance obligations, where it is legally required (including Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism compliance, audit and reporting requirements);
  • implement any of our recommendations or variations to our advice;
  • maintain our systems e.g. outsourced IT and communication consultants.

Your personal information will be held at our normal business offices.  We use cloud computing, via security-layered software. It is possible that some electronic files may be held overseas.  In that event, we confirm the necessary privacy protections are in place.

The Privacy Act 2020 gives you the right to request access to and correct your personal information.  If you'd like to access or correct information, please contact us by either calling on 09 337 0997 or sending an email to team@ethicalinvesting.nz.  You could also write to us at: PO Box 316, Shortland Street, Auckland 1140.