Let’s get ethical
The latest ethical fund to hit the market in New Zealand is one that invests in Australasian shares.
The fund is being run by Guardian Trust Funds Management and is being done in conjunction with ethical fund guru and financial planner Rodger Spiller.
GTFM managing director Anthony Quirk says the company already runs mandates for many charitable trusts which are interested in this kind of investment, as well as church groups.
He says a number of stocks are not permitted in some of the GTFM's existing mandates.
"In some ways, we are formalising what we have already been doing."
The starting point for the fund will be GTFM's Australasian portfolio. Spiller will then provide a screening process to determine which companies satisfy the ethical goals of the new fund.
The first part of that process will be to exclude the so-called "sin" stocks, such as tobacco, alcohol and gambling. The next stage will be to refine the portfolio down to a group of stocks that meet other socially responsible objectives, including whether the businesses are sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Spiller's screening process is built on the work he did for his PhD in business ethics and investment.
Besides providing investors with the opportunity to invest in a portfolio of ethical or socially responsible funds, the company will be trying to encourage other New Zealand and Australian businesses to become more responsible.
Spiller hopes that the "power of the economic vote" will help companies change their ways.
Besides running a financial planning business Money Matters, Spiller is also an executive director of the NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development and the NZ Centre for Business Ethics and Sustainable Development.
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