Values-Aligned Investing
Your wealth. Your values.
Your future.
Independent advice on ethical KiwiSaver, ESG-screened portfolios and faith-based investing, for people with $50,000 or more in KiwiSaver, or $50,000 or more available to invest.
Your money can reflect what matters to you.
You have worked hard, contributed regularly and built a meaningful balance. But knowing how much you have is only part of the picture. Understanding where your money is invested, the businesses it supports and how those choices reflect your values matters too.
Bespoke Wealth helps you explore values-aligned options for your KiwiSaver and wider investments, with advice that considers your financial goals alongside the principles you want your money to follow.
Several approaches, often used together.
There is no single way to invest in line with your values. Most people combine a few approaches: excluding what they don't want to own, favouring companies that manage environmental, social and governance issues well, and choosing funds whose stated principles match their own.
The right mix depends on what matters most to you, and on how much you are willing to give up in diversification to get it. We talk through both before anything is changed.
What ESG investing means in practice.
ESG is a framework for looking at how a company behaves, alongside its financial numbers. Environmental, social and governance factors can affect a company's risks and its long-term returns, whichever way you invest.
Environmental
How a company treats the natural world: emissions, energy use, water, waste and its exposure to climate risk.
Social
How a company treats people: employees, customers, suppliers and the communities it operates in, including health and safety and labour practices.
Governance
How a company is run and overseen: board quality, executive pay, shareholder rights, accounting transparency and how conflicts are managed.
Portfolios built around a faith tradition.
For some clients, the starting point is religious rather than environmental. Many faith traditions set out clear principles about how money should be earned and invested, and those principles can be applied to a modern portfolio.
In practice this usually means screening out businesses whose activities conflict with those principles, and sometimes using alternative financing structures in place of conventional interest-bearing bonds, so the portfolio behaves differently from a standard one.
The screening standards and oversight behind each option vary by provider. We explain the methodology and product documents for anything you are considering, so you can judge whether it genuinely meets your own understanding of your tradition. Where a decision is properly a matter of religious interpretation, we encourage you to take guidance from your own religious authority.
Ethical KiwiSaver.
KiwiSaver is often the largest single investment a New Zealander owns, so it is usually the most important place to start. A number of KiwiSaver funds apply ethical or values-based criteria, and some are built specifically around a faith tradition.
We review what you are in now, how it is actually invested, the fees you are paying and whether a values-aligned alternative still fits your timeframe and appetite for risk. Choosing on values alone can leave you in the wrong fund for your age or goals, and that is worth checking before you switch.
Managed portfolios with your principles built in.
Beyond KiwiSaver, we can build and manage a portfolio that reflects your values from the outset rather than as an afterthought. That might mean a defined list of exclusions, a preference for funds with strong ESG ratings, a faith-based mandate, or a combination of all three.
Because we are not tied to any product provider, we can look across the market for what fits, including global portfolios where the available universe in New Zealand is too narrow. We manage the portfolio and review it with you as your circumstances change.
Honest about the trade-offs.
Values-aligned investing narrows the list of companies you can own, which can mean less diversification, different returns from a mainstream index, and sometimes higher fees. The definitions behind a fund's label also vary, so what one provider calls ethical another may not.
None of that makes it a bad choice. It just means the decision deserves a proper look at both the values and the investment consequences, which is exactly what our first conversation covers.
James Newbigin
Founder & Financial Adviser
A conversation that starts with you.
Tell us what you would rather not own, and what you would like your money to support. We will tell you honestly what is achievable, what it costs and what it means for your portfolio.
You do not need to have everything worked out before getting in touch.
This page is general information only and is not personalised financial advice. It does not take into account your particular circumstances. Bespoke Wealth is an FMA-licensed financial advice provider (FSP1011643). Read our Disclosure Statement.