We believe that long term investment outcomes for members is driven by asset allocation and investment diversification.
The outcomes desired by members can vary with their age and personal situation, so we offer a broad range of investment options each with a different investment objective – from options targeting very high returns (and a high exposure to shares - and risk) to options targeting moderate returns (from mainly fixed interest investments which usually have a markedly lower risk of loss).
smartMonday leverages the research views and insights of Aon’s global investment team to formulate investment strategies and construct investment options. The Aon investment team is one of the largest in the super industry with more than 200 experts specialised across asset allocation, risk analysis, and investment implementation. As well as designing the strategic investment position of each investment option, this team regularly introduces new ideas to generate more return or reduce investment risks for members.
Fundamental to our implementation approach is the appointment of independent third-party investment managers to implement the investment portfolios. This approach removes a key conflict of interest and it enables us to easily remove managers who don’t meet our performance standards. This can be difficult to do with an internal investment team.
We utilise the expertise of the third-party managers to supplement our extensive in-house expertise in finding the best investment ideas no matter where these are. To help us keep track of manager activity we maintain detailed information on more than 12,000 investment strategies worldwide. Achieving this breadth of detailed coverage would be very difficult without the support of the extensive investment network Aon offers.
Since becoming the first investment consulting firm to be a global signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) in October 2009, Aon has been a strong advocate for sustainable and socially positive investment practices through the application of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles.
We instil ESG attributes in smartMonday portfolios mainly by seeking to work with investment managers whose own views are consistent with Aon and the trustee of smartMonday. We have taken additional steps to reduce risk in two areas for some options, 1) reducing investment in tobacco shares and 2) increasing investment in companies that seem better able to navigate the financial risks that may arise from the global economy’s transition to a lower carbon mindset.
