SIPO
Statement of Investment Policy and Objectives (SIPO)
The fund-manager document setting out the fund's investment objectives, strategy, asset allocation ranges, and investment-policy constraints (including any responsible-investment screens).
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.
A SIPO sets the fund's investment objective (typically a return target plus a benchmark and time horizon), permitted asset classes, asset-allocation ranges (e.g. equities 50–70%), permitted instruments, derivative usage rules, hedging policy, rebalancing rules, and any responsible-investment / ESG screening criteria.
A SIPO can be amended without rewriting the PDS, but material amendments must be filed on the FMA Disclose register and notified to investors. 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.
Common questions
- What does a SIPO contain that a PDS does not?
- A SIPO contains the precise asset-allocation ranges, permitted-instrument lists, derivative-usage rules, hedging policy, 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.
Primary sources
Related terms
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PDS
Product Disclosure Statement (PDS)
The headline legal document a NZ managed fund or KiwiSaver scheme provides to retail investors, summarising the fund, fees, risks, and how to invest.
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OMI
Other Material Information (OMI)
A supplementary FMA-required disclosure document containing material information about a fund or scheme that is not included in the PDS.
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QFU · Fund Update
Quarterly Fund Update (QFU)
A standardised FMA-mandated quarterly report each NZ retail managed fund publishes, summarising fees, returns, risk indicator, asset mix, top-10 holdings and fund size.
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Disclose register · disclose-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz
FMA Disclose register
The official New Zealand register of every retail managed-investment scheme — the primary public source for fund PDSs, SIPOs, OMIs, Quarterly Fund Updates and full-portfolio holdings disclosures.
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RI · ESG · ethical investment · sustainable investment
Responsible investment (RI / ESG / ethical)
A fund that applies environmental, social and governance (ESG) screening criteria — typically excluding sectors such as tobacco, controversial weapons, fossil fuels, or applying positive sustainability tilts.