Investing for wealth

The core investment philosophy at InvestSMART focuses on the principles of diversification, low fees and investing for the long term. Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), in comparison to unlisted managed funds, provide a cost-effective method to ascertain these goals. They also have liquidity benefits, being easier to buy and sell at short notice.

ETFs provide broad diversification by only needing to purchase a small number of securities. In contrast, when buying and holding hundreds of individual securities to achieve a similar level of diversification, greater costs are incurred in brokerage and fees – imagine the brokerage to buy 200 individual stocks!  

ETFs are also great for managing risk. When you invest in an ETF, you lessen individual company risk and sector risk. By holding a basket of individual stocks, you are not limiting your exposure to individual sectors of the market. 

In using ETFs, InvestSMART has the capacity to pass on these lower costs to the investor in the form of capped fees and low-cost investing. As fees compound over time, even a slight increase in fees can result in substantial differences to your return. 

You can read more on ETFs here.

We can't tell you what portfolio to choose as we can provide general financial product advice only about the products that InvestSMART offers.

We cannot provide any personal financial advice and you should consider your own financial objectives, financial situation and needs before making an investment decision and submitting an application.

We have a number of tools you can use at InvestSMART including the Portfolio Manager and online calculators.

You will notice a common thread throughout the guides, the investment time-frame. We recommend investors look at the suggested time-frame associated with each portfolio to see if it aligns with their investment goal.

Here is a list of tools and guides to help select the right portfolio:

• InvestSMART's statement of advice
• InvestSMART's guide to growing your wealth
• InvestSMART's guide to investing in retirement
• InvestSMART's investor pack
• Wealth savings calculator
• Saving to buy a property calculator
• Saving for kids education calculator
• Saving for retirement calculator
• Target Market Determination for the InvestSMART Professionally Managed Accounts

Additionally, we have InvestSMART Bootcamp which is a comprehenisve investment course designed to get you started on the right foot. Click here for further details.

InvestSMART is the first to cap management fees in Australia. Costs are inevitable, but at the end of the day fees compound just like returns. From Alan Kohler's Great Investment Fee Scam:

"When it comes to investment management the more you pay, the less you get, for the simple but obvious reason that the price you pay comes off what you get. 

Think about it. The “product” you buy is an investment return, and the amount you pay for assistance in achieving it reduces the return. The higher the price, the more it reduces the “product”. 

There is no other thing on earth where that applies – where the price you pay for it eats into the product itself. Imagine if the more you paid for glasses, the less you could see!"

Research shows 75% of managed funds do not beat the industry standard benchmarks over ten years. The average underperformance percentage is 1.37%. The average fee charged by these funds is 1.39%. We do not believe this is just a coincidence. 

Over the course of 30 years a 1% fee would see a reduction in your total investment return of 26%. This means you have built 26% less of a nest egg than you could have, as mentioned, fees are inevitable but you should try to minimise them as much as you can.

By capping the management fee, InvestSMART takes a negative of the industry and turns it into a positive. The difference? The gap between the InvestSMART portfolio performance compared to the peer group. More money in your portfolio means more income and more growth and a wider gap to the competitors.
 

This is the most common question we get from experienced and inexperienced investors alike. 

No matter when you are looking to invest, there will always be something in the news that will have you asking this question. Whether it is a commentary on our local housing market, geopolitical uncertainty, or fears of a global pandemic. Uncertainty is constant, yet history shows us investment markets and asset classes continue to grow over the long term.

Having an investment plan and sticking to it is far more important than picking the exact day or week to invest. Developing good investment habits by investing for the long-term, in the right mix of asset classes, adding to your investment over time and rebalancing in a systematic fashion will see you reach your goal. In addition, chopping and changing your portfolio will chew up returns with transactions costs and potentially reduce your invested capital by paying additional taxes. 

InvestSMART can help you select and stick to a plan: 

• Provides simple contribution and income reinvestment options 

• Transparent online monitoring through your 'My Account' 

• Consolidated annual tax reporting direct to your inbox 

• CHESS sponsored ownership of your portfolio holdings 

• Our famous low fees starting at just over $1 a week, capped* at $550 per year. 

InvestSMART is a digital wealth platform and despite being digital its success lies in its human touch. Your relationship with money is deeply personal, from how we earn it to how we spend, save and invest it. And so, with the individual in mind, we designed our service. 

Support: When you need to speak to a person you can

We are a digital wealth platform that uses the "digital" aspect to enhance our human support. There is always a knowledgeable real person to help you when you need, through our content, help centre, webinars, on-site chat, dedicated client only inbox and old-fashioned phone calls. It's not by accident our support is mentioned more than anything else in our reviews.  

Fees: Your money is working for you not anyone else

It is unusual for a financial service provider to make a song and dance about its fees. But when you are the first provider to introduce a capped fee, instead of being a negative, it becomes a positive. 0.55%pa is a low management fee compared to the average and we take that a step further and cap it at $550pa. What this boils down to is more of your money generating growth and income for you.  

Returns: Your returns fund your lifestyle, make sure they're working efficiently

You'll notice the InvestSMART portfolios are all compared to peers. This means the average return of all other funds that are aligned to the same industry standard benchmark as our portfolios. Why? Because these are viable alternatives that you could invest in. We aim to outperform the average of our peers by the differential in our fees. You'll notice the gap to peers at the start is small, but if you compound that difference year after year, you will notice that gap grows significantly. We keep our costs low, keeping more in your account compounding for you.    

Independence & Trust: The best investment options for you, regardless of the ETF provider 

Our Investment Committee is 100% independent of product issuers and have built careers in markets over decades and they distill that experience into our service. Their independence sees our portfolios hold the best ETFs to meet our clients' needs, regardless of who issues the ETF. 

Security: Peace of mind that your assets are securely held 

You are the legal owner of your investments with InvestSMART. All accounts have their own HIN in the client's name. Additionally, two-factor authentication is used for any portfolio changes. 

We understand it will happen, but it’s unpleasant when it does. So, here’s what to do when your account balance goes the wrong way.

Volatility

The securities markets are often associated with big swings in prices. For example, when the stock market rises and falls more than one per cent over a sustained period, it is called a “volatile” market. See Nuts and Bolts: What is Volatility.

Reasons behind volatility will vary, and seeing headlines detailing consecutive down days in markets and then seeing the flow-on effect on your investment portfolio tends to induce concern.

We invest knowing down days will occur, and it’s how we react to them that will determine your long-term investment success. Here’s how you and InvestSMART help to manage volatile times and keep your investments on track: 

1. Diversification is the key to lowering volatility over time. InvestSMART rebalances your portfolio from time to time, ensuring your portfolio maintains a blend of assets in line with the mandate of each portfolio. In short, we make sure a balanced portfolio remains balanced. It gives you confidence your portfolio blend and risk is in line with your expectations.
2. Make sure your investment portfolio is in line with your investment time horizon. The length of the timeframe directly correlates to the breakdown of growth and defensive assets each portfolio invests in. The longer the timeframe, the higher the growth assets and the greater the volatility. That timeframe allows for market downturns and provides time to recover. InvestSMART makes this easy for investors by clearly indicating the recommended timeframe for each portfolio.  
3. What you can do to help. Focus on your timeframe. You know downturns happen. It’s par for the course when it comes to investing. Stick to your timeframe, continue your regular contributions and add more funds if you can.

I’d recommend this excellent piece by my colleague John Addis on How to Worry Better for further reading.

Finally, we’re here to help. Use the chat function, email or call on 1300 880 160. We cannot provide personal/specific advice, but we can talk about investing generally and account management.

InvestSMART aims to make building and maintaining your wealth easy. The best investing is done slowly, almost forgotten about in the background and a great way to ensure you continue to grow your wealth is to use the InvestSMART automated account settings.

Growing your wealth

• Regular contribution plan: Turn on a regular contribution plan to have a minimum of $100 per month direct debited from your bank account into your InvestSMART account.
• Automatic dividend reinvstment: The default setting for your InvestSMART account is to automatically reinvest the distributions. Instead of just going straight back into the ETF they came from, they are reinvested across your portfolio to maintain balance.

Maintaining your wealth

• Automated income settings:
  • Income sweep: Every month we scan your account to see what dividends have been paid. They are bundled up and transferred out to your bank account. Clients living off the proceeds of their portfolio make use of this setting.
  • Regular withdrawal plan: Have a preset amount withdrawn from your portfolio each month. The InvestSMART team will ensure your portfolio maintains the right balance whilst providing you with regular funds.
  • Adhoc withdrawals: Withdraw funds as and when you need to fund your lifestyle or take advantage of market highs.

Anyone over the age of 18 and is an Australian resident can open an InvestSMART account. For minors, an adult must invest as trustee for the child.

Types of accounts with InvestSMART:

• Individuals
• Joint
• Individuals as trustee for children
• Self managed super funds
• Family trusts and other trusts (e.g. charitable/discretionary)
• Companies

Can you invest your super with InvestSMART?

• Only if it is in an SMSF.

When clients ask if their investment is safe with InvestSMART there are two main categories they are referring to; investment risk and the security of their investment.

Investment risk:

When you invest in anything other than a term deposit, you are taking risk. Investing is not about avoiding risk; it is about balancing risk with return and having an understanding of the risks associated with each asset class.

The InvestSMART team build investment portfolios designed around different risk profiles from conservative through to high growth. These portfolios hold the same asset classes and ETFs, but the weighting allocated to each asset class varies depending on the risk profile. The portfolios are designed to wear the bumps of the market.

Additionally, we recommend this article on how ETFs can help you manage risk.

Security of your investments:

We take the security of our investors accounts seriously and have built our service around this:

• All client's investments are CHESS sponsored. They are held on a HIN in the client's name. This means the client is the legal owner of the shares and not a beneficial owner.
• Clients are able to transfer out their holdings.
• Investors can enable two-factor authentication for account login.
• Two-factor authentication is required for all account changes.
• Bank level web security keeps client information safe and secure (that's our 256-bit SSL/TLS certificate).

What can investors do?

Investors can give their investments the best possible chance by selecting a portfolio in line with the same timeframe as their goal and risk appetite. Additionally, the best defense against volatility is time. Sit tight and allow your portfolio to recover. All investing comes with volatility and occasional uncertainty but, as the famous investor Charlie Munger says, never interrupt your compounding unnecessarily. 

Your InvestSMART account will earn dividends through the exchange traded funds (ETFs) it holds. InvestSMART uses a broad range of ETFs across multiple asset classes: 

• Australian shares,
• International shares,
• Property,
• Bonds,
• Term deposits and
• Infrastrucure assets.

All of these investments earn income and that is paid to you as a distribution. All associated franking credits are passed through to you as well.