Russell pushes buttons for the adviser market

Russell Investments pushes all the hot buttons as it looks to the adviser market.

Sunday, December 12th 2021, 9:13AM

Matt Arnold

In its most recent move it's lowered fees, gone for sustainability, added infrastructure further embraced ESG.

The firm has revamped its suite of multi-manager Russell Investments PIE funds to further strengthen the investment and value proposition for local financial advisers, their clients and smaller institutional investors.

“We have significantly enhanced our local fund offering through lower costs, improved tax efficiency and the introduction of new funds,” Russell Investments New Zealand director Matt Arnold says.

The two new funds are a Sustainable Global Shares fund and a Hedged Global Listed Infrastructure Fund.

It says the shares fund will be one of the lowest cost equity funds available to local investors, and it will be available in both currency-hedged and unhedged formats.

To meet the sustainable label, it will be based on Russell’s proprietary carbon-intensity reduction strategy that favours companies with strong Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) characteristics.
“This index-oriented global shares fund targets reduced carbon emissions and an improved ESG profile. The fund also aims to reduce exposure to fossil fuel reserves relative to the benchmark index,” Russell says in a statement.

Russell business development manager Scott O’Ryan says the fund is “designed to improve tax efficiency relative to commonly used Australian index funds, while also making meaningful steps to reduce the carbon footprint and improve the ESG characteristics of their portfolios.”

The new infrastructure funds provides actively managed, diversified exposure to the listed infrastructure sector, which historically has offered investors a unique blend of income and capital growth. This fund is expected to be available in during the first quarter of 2022.

“Global listed infrastructure provides investors with exposure to a sector of the global economy that is experiencing long-term secular growth,” O’Ryan said.

Arnold says the firm has lowered the fees on its current multi-manager funds.
He says this has been achieved by “leveraging the firm’s global scale and buying power.”

Tags: ESG