Disclaimer: The information in this article is provided as general information. It is not intended as financial advice for the purposes of the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Acts 2019 (FSLAA). No investment objectives, financial situation and particular needs of any particular person has been taken into account in the publication of this article. Professional advice should always be sought before taking out any financial product.
Ethical Investing - Where should my Kiwi Saver Be?
Kia Ora Maori Millionaire Whanau! Welcome back to yet another post.
Ethical Investing is investing in something ethical, which aligns with your values. As Maori it's hard to find somewhere which allows this.
The effects of not knowing where your funds are being invested is the potential risk that you are supporting businesses, causes, people who are doing things which do not align with your values. The biggest example commonly used is drugs and alcohol. Some platforms invest in companies which sell or promote drugs and alcohol. If you were an 'ethical investor' you would not invest in this because it means that you are supporting this cause.
Why? Because in so many instances our values are stolen from us without any consideration to what we want anyways - so why would we do this to ourselves? We have the opportunity to decide where our putea goes.
I promote ethical investing. I promote it because it allows us to decide where we are putting our putea and to which causes we are supporting.
The whakaaro which springs to mind is whether or not you are willing to put your values above and beyond the idea of financial returns. For many Maori I believe that we are NOT willing to place our values below the idea of making money.
So, Where can we invest which allows us to align our own views of tikanga?
I was actually recently listening to an interview of Ms. Merepeka Raukawa-Tait on Radio Waatea where they spoke about the fact that there are no 'Maori Banks'.
You can listen here: https://waateanews.com/2022/02/15/merepeka-raukawa-tait-5/
It's unfortunate that we do not have any Maori Banks to enable us to fully decide where we are investing and somewhere which is able to oversee the implications each cause or business has for Maori. (This would be such a great business idea if anyone is able to create a bank for the rest of us Maori). Heoi ano, I have found one kiwi saver platform which allows independence with investing.
Koura Wealth uses ESG considerations to help make investing decisions.
Does kōura apply ethical investing criteria? Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations are taken into account in all of our investment decisions. We apply the New Zealand Super Fund exclusions list to our portfolios where possible, and will also be vocal on ESG issues when they come up in the companies we invest in. We invest the overseas share of our KiwiSaver scheme in international funds managed by BlackRock, one of the largest fund managers in the world. While we have chosen funds which are managed with ESG considerations and are the best in the class of indexed funds, there may be differences between the exclusion criteria of these funds and our exclusions policy. You can find more details on our responsible investing policy here.
You can read more here: https://www.kourawealth.co.nz/knowledge/kouras-approach-to-investing-and-your-kiwisaver/does-koura-invest-according-to-esg-principles
Koura is owned by New Zealanders.
Sim and Sonya from Girlsthatinvest posed the question in a podcast - Can you push for social change by investing ethically? You can listen to this episode by clicking:
I am with SBS Lifestages currently and have been since I was 14. The issue is that I made that decision almost 5 years ago with no real consideration to what ethics are or what my values are.
Personally, I believe that there are still issues with Kiwi Saver Providers in general and it all links in with the systemic and institutional racism, disparities in outcomes and other issues Maori face- but, that's a kaupapa in and of itself. It's not as if I'm asking for a 100% ROI or anything, I'm just asking for somewhere which invests with tikanga, customary rights, whakaaro Maori at the forefront. I don't want my money to be building empires for pakeha who have no intention of respecting the tangata whenua of the land which they reside on.
Side note: Whilst researching appropriate funds, I found Ka Uruora. It looks amazing and I'm so sad I didn't find this earlier. SuperLife provides Kiwi Saver funds which can be found here https://www.superlife.co.nz/kiwisaver-home/about-kiwisaver. They allow you to chose between 40 different funds.
So, I guess my disclaimer is that this is the best provider I have found at this point - I can not guarantee that they will protect our views and values. I don't think that any Kiwi Saver Provider would be able to do that! But, possibly I am wrong. Feel free to send me what you think on tekahukura@maorimillionaire.com . I'm happy to continue this korero on ethical investing and finding the best kiwi saver providers which suit our individual needs.
Disclaimer: I do not receive anything for sharing my ideas on here. Koura Wealth, Ka Ururoa or SuperLife has not paid me to promote their businesses. All ideas are my own.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is provided as general information. It is not intended as financial advice for the purposes of the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Acts 2019 (FSLAA). No investment objectives, financial situation and particular needs of any particular person has been taken into account in the publication of this article. Professional advice should always be sought before taking out any financial product.