Your money. Your values.
We aim to ensure your money matters in the way you want it to.
Our approach at Money Matters is to empower you with knowledge while demystifying complexities and tackling greenwash. We present you with choices that we believe best align with your values and goals, your appetite for impact and your ethical investing profile. You are always at the centre of the process – we are 100% independent and fully respectful of whatever level of impact you might wish to have. It’s our job to help you understand your spectrum of options so you can make a confident choice.
What level of impact are you?
Ethical investment funds come in a range from lower to higher impact. At Money Matters we explain how these funds work, and why our proprietary impact rating differs.
In a world filled with sustainability spin, we help you sort fact from fiction. We’re transparent about just “how ethical” funds really are, and wary of those that promise a high positive impact but fail to deliver.
We don’t let you fall for a fund manager’s statement about their level of commitment to ethical investing that doesn’t stack up to our independent expert scrutiny.
Ethical investments can be categorised by their degree of impact.
Lower Impact
Lower impact funds have a relatively low ethical exclusion threshold, which means they have a higher number of portfolio holdings. The focus of lower impact funds is more on ‘do no harm’.
Medium Impact
Next on the spectrum are funds that are more likely to prioritise companies deemed ‘best-in-class’. These companies have more positive impact (or less negative impact) than their industry peers.
Higher Impact
Higher impact funds have the highest ethical exclusion thresholds and focus on the highest positive impact companies. They provide comprehensive impact measurement, so you can tangibly see the difference your money is making.
Lower-impact funds are more focused on avoiding harm.
When selecting companies to include, these responsible investment funds consider Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors when making investment decisions. They also use Negative Screening, which seeks to avoid companies or industries assessed as having a major negative impact on the environment or society.
Higher-impact funds are more focused on creating impact.
As a fund's focus on impact increases, their selection process evolves to Positive Screening and Sustainability Themed Investment. Positive screening not only excludes investments with the most significant negative impact, but actively prioritises firms deemed 'best-in-class' ethical leaders.
As level of impact increases, so does:
The fund’s level of engagement in working with companies to encourage change.
The likelihood a company will vote in favour of all shareholder proposals for environmental and/or social action.
The breadth and depth of a fund’s contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The Four P’s model
Created by Rodger as part of his PhD, the ‘Four P’s’ model is based on extensive global research, and backed by both theory and practice. Acting as an ‘ethical scorecard’, on its creation in 1993 it was heralded as a new approach to investment and business. It was used within New Zealand’s first ethical investment fund and has been widely taught to businesses and fund managers. In the years since, the concepts involved have increasingly been adopted by the mainstream, albeit with many companies and fund managers using them as PR and greenwash. Rodger works to sort the leaders from the laggards. Our focus is on investing with the true leaders who demonstrably walk the talk and meet investor expectations at the various levels of impact.
The companies in Money Matters’ highest impact portfolios are those most likely to rate highest on the Four P’s ethical scorecard.
Purpose
This is a business’s reason for being. A genuinely ethical business’s purpose is to create not just financial wealth, but social and environmental wealth, too.
Principles
These are a business’s beliefs, core values, and virtues. Ethical businesses are guided by principles such as fairness, caring, honesty, and courage.
Practices
These are the actions a business takes to fulfil its purpose. This is where the true test of their environmental, social, and economic wealth creation lies.
Performance
This is qualitative and quantitative reporting on how a business’s practices have impacted its stakeholders, reflected its principles, and created environmental, social, and economic wealth.
When you invest with Money Matters,
you’re investing in ethical managed funds.
A managed fund is a pool of money from many investors, managed by a team of investment professionals on their behalf.
We recommend managed funds because compared with direct investment, managed funds come with a range of benefits. These include more specialist professional management, greater diversification and spreading of risk, and access to more investment opportunities. After decades of experience, it’s our belief that managed funds can meet ethical and financial expectations more effectively than direct investing.
Money Matters offers a spectrum of funds, including a range of higher impact funds. These funds have exceptionally rigorous criteria for avoiding unethical activity. They also have a particularly strong focus on investing in businesses that are most effectively solving today’s environmental and social challenges.
When you partner with Money Matters to create your ethical investment portfolio, we work with you to explore whether you want lower, medium or higher impact, or a combination of these. Whatever you decide you can be confident in the knowledge that you are genuinely investing ethically in the way you expect and contributing to a brighter future for people and the planet.
“Rodger has been advising me for many years. He is professional, well researched, and dedicated to making my investments work for me. I have no hesitation recommending Rodger.”
– Mike
Ready to make your money matter?
Achieving your goals starts with expert guidance.
Schedule an "Ask Anything" session with Dr Rodger Spiller – a no obligation conversation that will help you determine if Money Matters is the right match for you.