Equity Trustees supporting you to create transformational giving

As the professional trustee of your giving vehicle, Equity Trustees’ duty as a fiduciary is to ensure it is governed well and compliant with all the relevant laws and regulations.

But we can do more to support you to create transformational giving. It’s part of our service.

Your Relationship Manager, is here to ensure that you and your family have access to tools and resources to power your philanthropy as well as applying sound investment strategies to your giving vehicle, ensuring healthy returns can be directed to your giving objectives.  

We are in constant conversation with families we support. Together with feedback through surveys and our client feedback program, we have heard you:

• Socially responsible investment factors like ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance should be important considerations when managing investment portfolios
• Similar to advances in online banking, you want easy access to information about your giving and have greater control in managing your philanthropy

We are in the process of some important changes in response to this feedback. 

Commitment to Responsible Investing

The Equity Trustees Asset Management team has expanded with a new appointment in the newly created role of head of Responsible Investing, Dilan Ashton.

Dilan joins Equity Trustees from Warakirri Asset Management, where she was a senior business development associate. Prior to that, she was a senior analyst at JBWere for more than 10 years. She will be responsible for further developing our capabilities in responsible investing and ensuring our investment strategies and asset portfolios reflect best practice.  

The appointment is in recognition of the importance of labour, environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations in investment – we will retain the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) for ESG overlay on all equity portfolios.  

ESG makes good business and financial sense. Well-managed companies that exhibit strong corporate governance and develop and maintain a social licence to operate through strong E and S policies and behaviours will overwhelmingly also prove to have more sustainable and robust businesses and prove to be better investments over the longer term.  

In a previous edition of Horizon, we shared the tenets of the Equity Trustees Charitable Foundation (ECF) investment strategy. The investment of the ECF has always catered for an ESG lens but as of late last year it now  applies a ‘negative screen’ lens across the portfolio. This  means that any holdings in tobacco, gaming, alcohol, defence sectors and adult entertainment are excluded from the portfolio. Only very minor adjustments were required to implement this negative screen across the portfolio and we do not expect that these changes will adversely affect investment performance issues.   

Bringing technology to your philanthropy

We’re committed to making it simpler for Australians to start (or build on) their giving, in a more affordable and strategic way because we recognise that is one of the most efficient ways to get more funds to the for-purpose sector.

The global pandemic forced many in the for-purpose sector to innovate systems and processes to ensure doors stayed open and services continued in the face of increased demand.  

The lockdown period also allowed many to build internal capacity and capability to come back post-pandemic, stronger than before. Equity Trustees also used the opportunity to act; we have made a strategic investment into technology which will enhance your giving experience.

The first visible difference will be increased accessibility and transparency for those with ECF sub-funds who will see their fund’s valuation, experience a streamlined processes to distribute funds to favourite beneficiaries - and make it easy to top up your fund.  

In the coming months your Relationship Manager will be in touch to talk about how this initiative will put your philanthropy at your fingertips.