As Trustees you need to Invest funds according to best practice and Grow the funds entrusted to you, for the Benefit of income and capital beneficiaries. At its heart is a detailed, structured and professional Investment Policy. With our experience across many different trusts, both investment and at governance level, we can help to manage and grow your trust'sinvestments.
Our formula to success
All Trusts need an effective Investment Policy that sets out, clearly and simply, what the trust's objectives are and how the trust's investments are to be selected and managed. In turn that needs effective governance and quality external and impartial advice, free from biases. Our Investment Policy Review provides a robust framework for:
We’ll also help you put in place effective ethical investment solutions.
Designing a robust Investment Policy that reflects your trust's aims and objectives, as well as consistent with best practice, your legal obligations, and the trust's particular ethical preferences. We follow a structured, evidence-based approach based on investing ethically. Our solutions are based on long-term, low cost and proven strategies that help trustees meet their obligations and requirements.
Our services include:
In Private (family) trusts: the settlors are typically still actively involved, usually as trustees as well as beneficiaries. There is commonly a single 'external' trustee who is not actively involved. The trust's objectives generally reflect the settlors' specific needs and preferences - including ethical. Often, the beneficiaries/trustees want a significant say or preference for specific investments. The main challenge is to design an investment policy that recognises these preferences without letting them take over the actual investment choices - especially important given the new Trusts Act obligations. Often, provision of income for Lifestyle reasons is the first requirement, with provision for children and legacy also being part of the mix. As each of these has a different time horizon, different investment mixes are needed.
'Commercial' trusts, including charities and incorporated societies, have a clearer separation of the founders' objectives and interpretation, and how the trust is administered ongoing. Typically the founder/settlors are no longer involved. At the same time, some or all of the trustees may be professionals and expected to bring to their role the skills of a professional or business person. The main difference is that trustees of an incorporated society are generally elected by the membership - which can result in trustees with limited or no knowledge of trust rules and investment needs - whereas most trustees of a charity or similar trust are appointed via a specific process.
In both cases the investment strategy needs to clearly set out:
Ethical Investing NZ's team have experience both at governance level (current and former trustees of a range of family and not-for-profit trusts) and in providing impartial, unbiased investment advice.
Client Feedback Survey, Nov 21