Smartshares Review - making sense of the NZX's index funds

Updated 5 January 2019

TLDR Review Summary of Smartshares

Smartshares are 20+ index funds offered by a company owned by the NZX.
The funds charge fees between 0.33% and 0.75% offer a choice as to where to invest - Kiwi companies, global companies, emerging markets, mining, property and bonds and government debt.
Fees in some funds may be cheaper if bought from other share investment platforms, especially anything investing in America so shopping around is key.
The minimum investment is $500.

We are not a fan of high managed fund fees – some institutions charge as much as 3% on your investment every year to look after your savings…while you take all the risk on what they invest in. In the last couple of years, index funds have become available to the average Kiwi investor. Despite offering low fees and managed fund-beating returns, little is known about index funds and even less invested in them by Kiwi investors.

Smartshares is one such index fund investment platform, offering 23 different index funds, or ETFs, investing locally, in Australia and around the world in shares.

Our Review
In this guide, we outline what Smartshares is, what funds and shares they offer to the Kiwi investor, what index funds are and how they're different to other funds, as well as looking at alternatives and the level of fees involved.

Please note: moneyhub is not a Financial Adviser, and this guide has been published to explain the investment fundamentals and outline the pros and cons of Smartshares as an investment option.

This Guide covers:

First Steps - What is an "index fund"?

An index fund (or "ETF") is a type of investment that is established to invest in or track the components of a market index, such as the New Zealand NZX50 (our largest 50 companies) or the Standard & Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500).
An index fund provides diversity in risk, as your investment is spread over many companies within the index, proportioned by the size of each company's market value.
The index fund benefits from low operating expenses and management fees due to the fact that the fund must invest in the companies within the index and therefore doesn't need fund managers to make judgments or research in order to make the investments.
An index fund operates no matter the state of the markets, so as markets overall go up your investment is worth more, and vice versa.
An index fund is different to many other managed funds, which have investment managers working to predict market movements and make investments on your behalf to add value to your portfolio.

The Specs of Smartshares

NZX, the New Zealand Stock Exchange owns Smartshares. Smartshares issues ETFs under a number of different names based on where and what they invest in. For example, New Zealand ETFs include the “NZ Top 50 (FNZ)”, “NZ Top 10 (TNZ)”, “NZ MID CAP (MDZ)” and “NZ Bond (NZB)”. These different funds invest in New Zealand companies of various sizes – for example, the NZ Top 10 (TNZ) ETF would include the 10 largest companies on the New Zealand sharemarket.
Smartshares also offers ETFs and index funds of overseas sharemarkets to New Zealand investors. These ETFs cover Australia, Europe, Asia Pacific, the USA, emerging markets and world markets. The most popular overseas ETF is the “US500 (USF)” which invests in the top 500 companies on American stock exchange. These are companies you know, like Coca-Cola, Walmart, Nike and Netflix.
SmartShares is not an investment service provider like Simplicity or Sharesies, it’s a retailer of ETFs only. Smartshares operates for the purpose of issuing ETFs for the New Zealand stock exchange and selling overseas ETFs.
Unlike Sharesies or Simplicity, a Smartshares investor won’t be able to log into their Smartshares account and track their specific investment. Smartshares a simply shares on the NZX that invest in a lot more companies according to their structure. Because of the low cost in doing this, the annual fee ranges from around 0.3% to 0.6% of the Smartshare price and paid directly to the administrator. Different funds have different fund charges, which we outline below.

So, if I buy a Smartshare, am I buying a share on the sharemarket?
The answer to this is yes. A Smartshare is a share investing in other shares. But it’s a share by nature. Your investment in Smartshares is as diversified as the number of companies included in the ETFs.

What Smartshares are offered, and what’s the difference?
Smartshares offers 23 Exchange Traded Funds to choose from with their own specific New Zealand and/or international holdings. Together, the 23 ETFs offered invest across New Zealand, Australia and a broad range of global stock exchanges.

What do the different Smartshares invest in?
Smartshares offers a number of different ETFs. They are grouped into six categories - SmartLARGE, SmartMEDIUM, SmartSMALL, SmartINCOME, SmartDIVIDEND and SmartSECTOR, which are explained in more detail below.

SmartLARGE
These funds invest in some of the biggest companies listed in New Zealand and offshore.

NZ TOP 50 (FNZ) - Annual fund fee: 0.50%. This fund invests in the 50 largest companies on the New Zealand sharemarket (for example, Spark, Auckland Airport and Fletcher Building).
NZ TOP 10 (TNZ) - Annual fund fee: 0.60%. This fund invests in the 10 largest listed New Zealand companies (for example, Fletcher Building, Sky City and Trade Me)
AUS TOP 20 (OZY) - Annual fund fee: 0.60%. This fund invests in the 20 largest listed Australian companies (for example, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank and Telstra)
US 500 (USF) - Annual fund fee: 0.34%. This fund invests in the American S&P 500 index, which is America's largest 500 listed companies (for example, Apple, Alphabet and Coca-Cola)
EUROPE (EUF) - Annual fund fee: 0.55%. This fund invests in Europe's largest companies listed all over the EU and the UK, including Nestle, British American Tobacco and HSBC.
ASIA PACIFIC (APA) - Annual fund fee: 0.55%. This fund invests in Asia and Australia's largest companies, including Samsung, Westpac and AIA Group.
EMERGING MARKETS (EMF) - Annual fund fee: 0.59%. This fund invests in companies in emerging countries such as China, Brazil, Taiwan and South Africa.
TOTAL WORLD (TWF) - Annual fund fee: 0.56%. This fund invests in large American and global companies, such as Apple, Alphabet and Amazon.
US LARGE VALUE (USV) - Annual fund fee: 0.51%. This fund invests in large American companies - the more market value, the higher the percentage of investment.
US LARGE GROWTH (USG) - Annual fund fee: 0.51%. This fund invests in growth shares in America, often shares with low dividends and potential for higher future profits.

SmartMEDIUM
These funds invest in medium-sized companies, either in New Zealand, Australia or the USA.

NZ MID CAP (MDZ) - Annual fund fee: 0.60%. This fund invests in mid-sized New Zealand companies such as A2 Milk, Air New Zealand and Chorus.
AUS MID CAP (MZY) - Annual fund fee: 0.75%. This fund invests in mid-sized Australian companies such as Seek, Bluescope Steel and Bank of Queensland.
US MID CAP (USM) - Annual fund fee: 0.51%. This fund invests in mid-sized American companies.

SmartSMALL
This fund invests in small American companies listed on the stock exchange.

US SMALL CAP (USS) - Annual fund fee: 0.51%. This fund invests in small-sized American companies.

SmartINCOME
These funds invest in safe debt with trusted government and companies in good financial health, both in New Zealand and globally.

NZ BOND (NZB) - Annual fund fee: 0.54%. This fund invests in New Zealand issued corporate and government bonds, i.e. investments which give a fixed percentage of interest.
NZ CASH (NZC) - Annual fund fee: 0.33%. This fund invests in term bank deposits within New Zealand.
GLOBAL BOND (GBF) - Annual fund fee: 0.54%. This fund invests in corporate and government bonds globally.

SMARTDIVIDEND
These funds invest in profitable companies that pay the highest dividends in their market (Australia and New Zealand).

AUS DIVIDEND (ASD) - Annual fund fee: 0.54%. This fund invests in Australia's top 50 dividend paying companies, such as Rio Tinto, Wesfarmers and Westpac. Such companies are highly profitable and return dividends as a priority over growth.
NZ DIVIDEND (DIV) - Annual fund fee: 0.54%. This fund invests in New Zealand's top 25 dividend paying companies, such as Meridian Energy, Spark and Contact Energy. Such companies are highly profitable and return dividends as a priority over growth.

SMARTSECTOR
These funds invest in Australian and New Zealand commercial property.

AUS PROPERTY (ASP) - Annual fund fee: 0.54%. This fund invests in Australian companies that own commercial property.
AUS RESOURCES (ASR) - Annual fund fee: 0.54%. This fund invests in Australian companies operating in the energy sector or the metals and mining industry. Companies include BHP, Rio Tinto and Santos.
AUS FINANCIALS (ASF) - Annual fund fee: 0.54%. This fund invests primarily in shares in Australian banks and insurance companies.
NZ PROPERTY (NPF) - Annual fund fee: 0.54%. This fund invests in New Zealand companies that own commercial property, including Goodman Property, Kiwi Property and Precinct Property.

Hedging
The Smartshares international equity funds are actually unhedged; this means investors will also have currency movements driving investor returns. The Global Bond Fund (GBF) is 100% hedged. This means that if the NZ Dollar rises against any overseas currency, the value of the overseas investment is not diminished due to the hedging and therefore eliminating exchange rate movement as an investment risk.

The minimum Initial Investment: $500 for each Smartshare, but you can own a fractional number of any Smartshares (i.e. a $500 investment would buy you 201.69 NZ TOP 50 Smartshares at a unit price of $2.479).

Investment Products include:
Cash (i.e. bank deposits in New Zealand banks)
New Zealand Fixed Income (i.e. investments in government bonds or company debt)
New Zealand Shares (i.e. shares in Spark, Fletcher Building and Air New Zealand)
Australian Shares
International Fixed Income bonds and deposits
International Shares

Who is SmartShares Suited to?

Best For: Long-term investors looking for stability and growth that is passive with low management fees. With Smartshares, you buy anticipating local and/or global markets to rise over time while being diversified enough to avoid losing money if one or two shares flounder.
Not suitable for: Investors looking to make individual investments in specific companies, or investors looking for short-term buying and selling. Index funds don’t move that much in the short term.

Standout Features:

New Zealand’s largest range of ETFs, with management fees from just 0.33-0.75%
There is a one-off $30 establishment fee, which enables investment in one or as many different shares as you wish. Subsequent investments have no fee applied.
There is no annual fee to hold Smartshares (Simplicity and Sharesies both charge $30/year on top of their fund management fees - the $30 Smartshares establishment fee is a one-off).
There’s no joining fee, meaning every dollar you invest goes directly to your Smartshare holding.
The diverse number of funds means you can focus on particular industry sectors in specific countries, such as Australian property, New Zealand property and global emerging markets.

But be aware:

But, investment allocation can be painfully slow meaning you have uncertainty over purchase price - it can take up to 43 days between buying SmartShares and having them allocated to your account. This is unhelpful for people wanting to have certainty or purchase price or move quickly on a market movement. We detail the mechanics of this in the Conclusion section.
Certain funds will make investments in companies trading in weapons, tobacco, nuclear and other “unethical” business. As of now, there are no "socially responsible" funds offered by Smartshares.
As with any investment, markets go up and down. The Dotcom bubble in the early 2000s sank global indexes, as did the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. All indexes are now at record highs, but this is no guarantee of future earnings.

SmartShares - What You Need to Know

Claims made by SmartShares

“With one simple purchase you get an investment in a range of securities, such as listed companies or government bonds, spreading your risk more broadly”.

Is it True?
Yes. Each fund invests in a specific group of securities, but there are enough investments to diversify your money so you’re not exposed too badly if one company doesn’t perform.

“The funds keep costs down because in most cases Smartshares does not need to make active investment decisions, which may require spending on research and analytical expertise”.

Is it True?
Yes, the nature of ETFs is passive, and no research and judgement is ever needed to make the investments. Smartshares invests exactly in what it says it will, and this doesn’t change.

“The funds enable you to build a global portfolio in NZD, without having to worry about the complexity of managing foreign currencies or overseas tax. Distributions are paid in NZD and automatically reinvested for you, unless you choose to receive them in cash”.

Is it True?
Yes. You only invest using New Zealand dollars – Smartshares does the work converting your money into local and international investments. Whatever dividends you receive will be invested into new units in your Smartshare, but you can choose to have the dividends paid in cash to your bank account.

The Competition – SmartShares vs InvestNow, Simplicity, Superlife and Sharesies

Smartshares, Simplicity and Sharesies are just some of the options for index fund investing. You can invest in local and foreign ETFs directly via major international players such as Vanguard, but for this review we only cover New Zealand-based index fund investment schemes outside of KiwiSaver.

Simplicity offers four index-based funds, with fees fixed at $30/year + 0.31% of funds invested. The funds include a proportion of investments in cash and bonds, so they’re not 100% in shares.

Superlife is a KiwiSaver scheme provider that offers the same funds as Smartshares – both brands are owned by the NZX. So, if you like Smartshares as a non-KiwiSaver investment, it could be suitable if you’re also in KiwiSaver. The latest data of its range of funds puts the annual management fee at 0.80 - 0.84% on a $10,000 investment.

What Others Are Saying
Mary Holm in the New Zealand Herald advised in 2016 that Smartshares were “an easy way to gain significant diversification with even very small balances…New Zealand's index funds are expensive compared with overseas, but still a great way to get good diversification with as little as $500, and they allow you to buy more with a regular deposit scheme from something like $20 per week”.

Personal Finance website goodreturns.co.nz investigated the platform in 2016, stating that “as the pioneer of ETFs in New Zealand, Smartshares is committed to developing a market that provides investors with a range of diverse, low-cost and easily accessible investment options”. It also stated that the “goal for Smartshares has been to develop building blocks that enable New Zealand investors to easily construct a personalised, low-cost, globally diversified portfolio”.

Stuff.co.nz published an article in 2016 claiming “New Zealanders are switching on to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as a simple, cost-effective way to start investing in shares”, and that “ETFs are very popular internationally but have been slow to catch on here”. The article went on to state that the most popular smartshare followed the NZX50.

Interest.co.nz published an opinion piece in 2015 stating “starting out with a simple investing product like NZX Smartshares, might be a great way to dip your toes in and see how it feels” before stating in late 2017 that “Smartshares cuts cost of investing in ETFs in drive to streamline investment process” after competition grew in the ETF sector from Sharesies and Investnow.

The Bottom Line

Overall, Smartshares offers the most diverse number of ETFs in New Zealand with the lowest fees when compares to Sharesies, InvestNow and Simplicity. In addition to that, there are no joining fees, annual membership fees and you can invest in any fund with $500 or more.
But, investment allocation can be painfully slow meaning you have uncertainty over the purchase price. All investments are only processed once a month, with the direct debit run on the 20th (or next business day if the 20th is a non-business day). Units are then purchased at the end of month NTA price and are allocated to the investors CSN on around the 3rd business day of the following month. For example, if you decide to purchase 1000 Smartshares on 25 January, your payment won't be taken until 20 February and your 1000 Smartshares won't be allocated until 3 March. In that time, you may miss opportunities in the market. Smartshares does advise that any investor can purchase Smartshares units on sharemarket by going through a broker. However, the broker will charge a brokerage fee. Using this method, you can get the same-day market price and have the units under your Customer Number two business days later. Buying from a broker works well for people wanting to have certainty or purchase price or move quickly on a market movement
Certain funds appear on other platforms and may have cheaper management fees - if you are looking a particular index, it pays to shop around and compare fund fees if you're serious about a long-term investment.
The underlying investment funds offer diversity in the sharemarket (both in New Zealand and overseas) without significant risk.
Smartshares may not appeal to everyone - if you’re fresh into investing, the 20+ funds may be overwhelming. We'd also like to see Smartshares classify its investments into risk categories (low, medium, high etc) as Sharesies has done to better explain them to inexperienced investors.

Limitations

Smartshares, like most managed funds, are not for the short term. While funds are free to buy and sell, to get the most out of index funds you’re realistically looking at a 5-10 year investment plan to maximise the return.
And, if you are an active or aggressive saver/investor and want a fund manager to continuously pick shares or other securities for short/medium term investment, Smartshares isn't the investment for you.

10 Things to Know About SmartShares

Smartshares isn’t a KiwiSaver scheme, but you can invest in Smartshares via SuperLife

Smartshares owner NZX also owns SuperLife, and offers KiwiSavers the ability to pick the Smartshares’ portfolio of 23 ETFs as an investment option in as a KiwiSaver scheme. This scheme directly competes with Simplicity.

You don’t need to buy Smartshares directly – they have a few investment partners who offer advice

Institutions like the ANZ Bank, Forsyth Barr, Craigs and the ASB Bank are some of many brokers you can contact to buy Smartshares from. They can offer personal advice as to the best investment options for your financial situation.

Smartshares offer excellent investment diversification

An investment in one Smartshares fund means you’re putting money into a number of companies, so if one doesn’t perform as expected the strength of other companies will balance out the bad eggs. For example, the NZ Top 50 Smartshare invests in the 50 largest New Zealand listed companies, so you are well diversified. Other funds invest in 500 or more companies, meaning you are well diversified.

You can make regular payments from $50 a month

If you’d like to make regular contributions to savings outside of a KiwiSaver fund, Smartshares offers a regular savings plan requiring a minimum monthly contribution of $50. This offers a hassle-free way of saving with Smartshares converting money received into your chosen ETF.

The performance of Smartshares is transparent

You can check the 1 month, 3 month, 1 year, 3 year and 5 year return on any Smartshare at any time by visiting the Smartshare investor report web page.

Dividends your fund(s) receive are reinvested, meaning more cash is invested on your behalf

Many of the shares your ETF invests in pay dividends. These cash payments represent the profits from companies returning it to the shareholders, i.e. you. When a company declares a dividend, your fund will receive money and buy more shares in the ETF with the funds. For example, if you receive a $100 dividend and the ETF is currently priced at $2.00, your ETF will buy 50 more Smartshares on your behalf. This is the best way to increase the value of your investment.

Smartshares offers a proven investment model by investing in index funds

Index funds historically outperform managed funds. According to Fortune Magazine, the S&P 500 (an American sharemarket index) outperformed more than 82% of all active funds over a 15-year period. Given the low fees an index fund charges and the reliability in outperforming active funds, it's a relatively conservative approach to investment for your retirement.

SmartShares isn't the only index fund on the market

Simplicity’s non KiwiSaver funds and Sharesies offer ETF-based investments. The fees vary, and as more entrants come to the market, we expect the fees charged to fall as competition heats up.

Smartshares offers 0800 phone support – others don’t

Unlike Sharesies (email only) and Simplicity (email and callback only), Smartshares has a team for customer support. They don’t provide financial advice, but if having phone access is important then Smartshares beats the others hands down.

Signing up isn't Complicated, but you’ll need to decide what fund(s) to invest in first

Making your initial investment in Smartshares is like ordering from a menu. You’ll need to decide your initial investment and if you want to make monthly contributions. Once you’ve picked the fund or funds you want to invest in and indicated any ongoing contributions you’d like, you'll need a form of ID (New Zealand driver licence or New Zealand passport) and your IRD number. It takes about ten minutes via their online form and payment options are made clear during the process.

Conclusion

We like Smartshares' commitment to drop annual fees to $0 and reduce the minimum investment to $500 all while giving investors a good range of low management fees.
The 20+ funds offer diversity - as index funds offered they protect an investor from being exposed if the wrong companies are picked and later get into trouble.
For new investors looking to get into the sharemarket, either in New Zealand and/or overseas, Smartshares delivers an easy to use platform that makes growing a portfolio easy and cheap.