Women are more likely to invest 'responsibly'

Friday, 27 September 2019

Leanne Freeman, responsible investor, accountant, and yoga teacher.

Women like Leanne Freeman don't want to profit from doing wrong and damaging the environment.

'I'm not really into arms dealing of nuclear power,' she said.

The Wellingtonian accountant and yoga teacher has her KiwiSaver money in one of the Booster KiwiSaver scheme's socially responsible investment funds, which have been seeing a flood of new sign-ups, with women in their 40s making up the largest demographic.

There's increasing evidence women are playing a more than equal part in driving demand for the increasing number of socially responsible KiwiSaver funds on the market.

Women like Freeman want a balance of good investment returns, and investments that do good.

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Freeman chose a Booster socially responsible investment fund so she could be sure her investments aligned with her values.

Her biggest concerns were avoiding armaments, plastic packaging and companies not taking responsibility for their carbon emissions.

As well as investing in a KiwiSaver fund that excluded certain industries, like fossil fuels and armaments, Freeman also wanted her KiwiSaver manager to engage with the companies in which her KiwiSaver fund held shares to push them to change.

Taking a long-term view is important to Leanne Freeman, responsible investor, accountant, and yoga teacher.

'At the end of the day it's the big companies that will make the difference,' she said.

If more people knew where their money was invested, they would make a choice to investment responsibly, she believed.

'I think the issue is people don't actually realise where their money is invested. Their focus is all on the returns,' she said.

David Beattie from Booster's senior management said the past year had seen a 195 per cent increase in people investing solely in Booster's SRI funds.

'You would have though we would have a higher proportion of Millennials, but it spanned all demographics, with the fastest-growing demographic being women in their mid-40s,' he said.

Research showed women were often the main consumer decision-maker in households, and Beattie believed many had become used to thinking about the ethics of the products and services they were buying.

'Women tend to be the most significant purchasers and consumers, and they are making more conscious decisions on products.'

They were bringing that conscientious decision-making into their choice of KiwiSaver funds, he said.

Research by the Responsible Investment Association (RIA) found more women than men expected thier KiwiSaver funds to be invested responsibly and ethically regardless of whether they were in a fund that was badged as socially responsible.

The only thing holding some women back was a lack of knowledge about credible options, and uncertainty about whether ethical funds performed better over the long-term, RIA found.

Further research by Hatch, an online investment service owned by Kiwi Wealth, found 93 per cent of women found socially responsible investing appealing, compared to 83 per cent of men.

Kristen Lunman, Hatch's general manager, said: 'Cynics may argue that socially responsible investing is just a fad but a closer look at the forces that have driven the movement over the past 15 years suggest otherwise.'