The policies, standards and procedures are documented in a Statement of Investment Policies and Objectives (SIPO) and have been set by the trustees on the basis of investment principles and beliefs.

The principles that drive the current approach are:

1. Asset allocation is the prime determinant of the performance of a portfolio over the long-term.

2. Risk and return are strongly and positively related.

3. Diversification can be used to reduce volatility.

4. Taxation and the costs of investment management can materially affect the net returns earned by investors.

5. The market prices of illiquid assets reflect a premium to investors (in the form of additional investment return) for bearing the risk of not being able to sell the assets on demand at their market value.

 
The beliefs that drive the current approach are:

1. The quality of the governance of an investment program has a direct effect on the level of risk-adjusted returns generated by the program. 

2. Active management is a valid investment strategy – the trustees believe there are opportunities for active management to generate higher returns and manage risk where sufficient market inefficiencies exist. 

3. There is an incremental return over time associated with the hedging of foreign currency risk in a New Zealand-domiciled portfolio due to the existence of an exchange risk premium.  

4. Investors with a long-term horizon can outperform more short-term focused investors over the long-run.

The trust consists of a board of six trustees that are elected by the community for terms of four years. Trustees continuously review and adopt global best practices in the oversight of the trust’s portfolio.  The day-to-day operations of the trust are managed by a Chief Executive and staff.

Trustees recognise that specialist advice and/or services may be required in the areas of taxation, portfolio management and investment management, and seek the assistance of third-party providers as required. Professional advisors must be independent of investment managers and providers of managed fund products.

The trustees have appointed Frontier Advisors as the Trusts investment advisor to provide strategic advice, to assist the trustees to develop their investment policies and to help evaluate the performance of the Diversified Portfolio and the Trust’s investment managers. Frontier Advisors has been at the forefront of delivering investment advice and technology to institutional investors for more than 25 years. They provide advice on $850B of assets across the superannuation, charity, public, insurance and higher education sectors.