Equity Trustees has launched a range of new funds, including an indexed property fund and an Australian equities ethical fund.
Other funds launched today are indexed Australian and international equity funds, a high-income fund and a mortgage income fund.
Equity Trustees managing director Don Christie says the new funds are part of an extensive program of expanding the product range without abandoning the company’s core value of avoiding risky investments.
“The objective is to offer higher-than-normal returns while allowing our clients to still sleep soundly each night,” he says.
Equity Trustees has appointed external managers for some funds, while managing others internally through its EQT Funds Management operation.
The indexed Australian equities fund uses Vanguard and invests in the top 100 stocks on the ASX. The same fund manager is being used for the indexed international equities fund.
The indexed property fund is being run in-house and will invest in Australian listed property trusts with a market capitalisation of $1 billion or more. This criteria will cover about 60 per cent of the listed property trusts on the ASX.
The ethical fund will be managed by Johnson Taylor Potter. Christie says the stock selection process has been extensive.
“We start with the top 300 Australian listed companies and then apply what we call negative filters,” he says. “These eliminate companies whose principal business is the promotion of gambling, tobacco, alcohol, armaments, uranium or pornography.”
After this process, the fund manager applies positive filters, Christies says.
“If a company has established a charitable foundation or invests in projects to improve the environment – such as reducing salinity, reafforestation or a reduction in pollution – then it will be ‘upweighted’ and move up the list of desired investments.”
EQT does not state in its prospectus how many listed companies survive this ethical criteria out of the top 300 companies on the ASX.
Grange Securities has been selected fund manager for the high-income fund, while the mortgage income fund and the cash management fund will be managed in-house by EQT.
Equity will be paying a 0.25 per cent trail on the client’s daily balance. There are no entry or exit fees for the funds.
