Skip to main content
ManagedFunds.nz

SIPO

Statement of Investment Policy and Objectives (SIPO)

The fund-manager document setting out the fund's investment objectives, strategy, asset-allocation ranges, derivative use, hedging, rebalancing and exclusion rules — filed on FMA Disclose and binding on the manager.

The Statement of Investment Policy and Objectives (SIPO) sits below the PDS in NZ's fund-disclosure hierarchy. Where the PDS is the consumer-facing summary, the SIPO is the technical investment-policy document — the binding rules that the manager must invest within. SIPOs are required under sections 164–168 of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 for every managed-investment scheme.

A SIPO sets the fund's investment objective (typically a return target plus a benchmark and time horizon), permitted asset classes, asset-allocation ranges per asset class (e.g. NZ equities 0–30%, international equities 40–70%, fixed interest 10–35%, cash 0–10%), permitted instruments, derivative-usage rules, currency-hedging policy, rebalancing rules, and any responsible-investment / ESG screening criteria. Compared to the PDS, the SIPO is where the precise numerical and policy guardrails live.

A SIPO can be amended without rewriting the PDS, but material amendments must be filed on the FMA Disclose register and investors notified. SIPOs are most useful when investors want to confirm exactly what a fund can and cannot hold — for example, the specific exclusions applied by a "responsible investment" or "ethical" fund, or the maximum derivative leverage a hedge-oriented fund can run.

On ManagedFundsNZ, each fund page surfaces the SIPO-derived asset-allocation ranges (min / target / max per asset class) and the responsible-investment screen verbatim from the SIPO when available — sourced via the FMA Disclose register and re-checked at each manager filing.

Real examples from NZ fund disclosures

Verbatim quotes from NZ retail managed-fund disclosure documents lodged on the FMA Disclose register.

  • Mercer Responsible Balanced — SIPO RI exclusion list

    "Exclusions include: controversial weapons (cluster munitions, anti-personnel landmines, biological/chemical/nuclear weapons manufacturers; automatic/semi-automatic civilian firearms); tobacco (production, nicotine alternatives, tobacco-based products; >50% revenue from tobacco distribution/wholesale/retail/services); Russian assets (sanctioned entities, Russian-incorporated shares, Russian sovereign bonds, Russian currency, Russian private markets assets)."

    — Mercer Investment Funds SIPO, 23 March 2026

    View PDF on FMA Disclose

See this in practice

Common questions

What does a SIPO contain that a PDS does not?
A SIPO contains the precise asset-allocation ranges per asset class, permitted-instrument lists, derivative-usage rules, hedging policy, rebalancing rules, and exclusion lists. The PDS summarises these in plain English; the SIPO defines them as binding policy.
Can a fund manager change a SIPO?
Yes. Material SIPO amendments must be filed on the FMA Disclose register. Investors should be notified before material changes take effect. The version date on the SIPO PDF on Disclose is the canonical "current" SIPO.
Does every fund have its own SIPO?
A SIPO is published at the scheme level, but it lists each fund's objective, benchmark and asset-allocation ranges separately. One SIPO document can therefore cover multiple funds within the same scheme — for example, a manager's Conservative / Balanced / Growth diversified-fund family typically shares one SIPO.
How are SIPO asset-allocation ranges set out?
Each fund in the SIPO lists target / minimum / maximum percentages per asset class. For example, a Balanced fund SIPO might list "International equities — target 35%, min 25%, max 45%". The manager must keep the actual mix inside the min–max bands at all times and rebalance toward the target within the SIPO-prescribed window. ManagedFundsNZ surfaces these ranges on each fund page via the /funds/{m}/{f}/investment-mandate/ surface.

Primary sources

Related terms