InvestSMART
Investor Pack Investor Pack

Why Invest With Us?

InvestSMART believes in diversification, lower fees and transparency. Whatever shape and size your financial goal comes in, we've got the solution for you.
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Our investment philosophy

Technology driven
Technology continues to drive innovation in our investment solutions and costs down. InvestSMART’s Professionally Managed Accounts (PMA) provides you direct ownership of a portfolio of securities managed by our investment team utilising data driven investment filters.
Goal focused
Reaching your financial goals is not about having a complicated strategy, it's far more important to be contributing often to a sound investment plan across a diverse range of asset to allow compounding returns work its magic.
Fee conscious
Compounded over time, even a small difference in fees can result in substantial differences to your return. Through ongoing technology advances, our goal is to continue to reduce the cost of investing.

Six benefits of investing with us

There are many benefits to investing with InvestSMART, but what really sets us apart from our peers is our long term consistent performance.
Performance
We continue to consistently outperform the majority of our peers after fees. Learn more about our performance.
Low Fees
We have a flat admin fee of 0.11% and our investment management fees are 0.44% per annum and capped at a maximum of $880 p.a. Learn more about capped fees*.
Transparency
All securities held in your own name. View all your holdings, dividends paid, transaction history and fees charged.
Knowledge
Benefit from knowing what you're invested in and more importantly, why. Plus get access to a team of some of the most passionate analysts and portfolio managers in the business.
Flexibility
We make it easy to adjust your portfolio and switch between different investment models to suit your needs at every life stage.
Convenience
We do all the work for you. From setting up your account to ongoing rebalancing of your portfolio – so you're always on track achieving your goals.

Our investment committee

The primary role of our Committee is to oversee the general management and ongoing monitoring of our investment solutions and investment strategies.

  • Paul Clitheroe, AM
    Chairman
    Paul Clitheroe, AM
    Paul Clitheroe, AM AM, B.A. (UNSW), SNF Fin, CFP Chairman

    Paul has 37 years of investment experience and is regarded one of Australia's leading "money" experts. From 1993 to 2002, Paul hosted the popular Channel 9 program Money and now currently writes for newspapers across Australia, is a frequent guest expert on Australia's major television networks and radio.

    Paul is Chairman of The Australian Government Financial Literacy Board and Money Magazine. He also holds the Chair of Financial Literacy at Macquarie University.

  • Effie Zahos
    Money Commentator & Director
    Effie Zahos
    Effie Zahos Money Commentator & Director

    Effie is one of Australia's leading personal finance commentators with more than two decades of experience helping Australians make the most of their money. A regular money expert on Channel 9's Today Show and on radio around Australia, Effie is also the author of The Great $20 Adventure and A Real Girl's Guide to Money and Ditch the Debt and Get Rich.

    Effie was Editor-at-Large of Canstar for four years and now acts as an ambassador for the comparison site. She was also editor of Money magazine until 2019, having helped establish it in 1999.

    Passionate about financial literacy, Effie sits on the board of directors for Ecstra, a not-for-profit organisation committed to building the financial capability of all Australians.

    Effie holds a Bachelor of Economics Degree from the University of Queensland. She is the proud mother of two children who are beginning to build on their own financial freedom.

  • Alan Kohler, AM
    Founder-Eureka Report
    Alan Kohler, AM
    Alan Kohler, AM Founder-Eureka Report

    Alan Kohler is one of Australia's most experienced business commentators. Alan has been a trusted source of investment advice to Australians for many years, and in 2005 he founded Eureka Report - Australia's #1 online investment report. Along with Robert Gottliebsen and Stephen Bartholomeusz, Alan also founded Business Spectator, the popular business news and commentary website now owned by News Corp. He has been a columnist and editor at the Australian Financial Review and The Age. Alan is the regular finance presenter on the ABC News and producer of the popular nightly graph (or two) and writes a regular column for the New Daily.

    As well as being Editor-in-Chief of InvestSMART Group, Alan is currently finance presenter on ABC News, Business Editor at Large of The Australian, presenter of the Talking Business channel on Qantas radio and an adjunct professor in the business faculty at Victoria University.

  • Ron Hodge
    Managing Director
    Ron Hodge
    Ron Hodge B.Com, B.Econ, MSc. Info Tech, GAICD, SF FIN Managing Director

    Ron has worked in financial services for over 25 years, including UBS in Singapore and Bell Commodities in Sydney and founded InvestSMART in 1999. Ron holds a Masters degree in Computer Science, Bachelor Degrees in Commerce and Economics, a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investments and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

  • Alastair Davidson
    Head of Funds Management
    Alastair Davidson
    Alastair Davidson B Ec (Hons), CA Head of Funds Management

    Alastair has held executive positions in the banking and financial services industry for over 27 years in the UK, USA and Australia. Prior to joining InvestSMART in 2014, he held Director positions with Aurora Funds Limited, Challenger and Salomon Smith Barney. Alastair has an Honours degree in Economics from the University of St Andrews and is currently the Treasurer of the Centenary Institute of Medical Research, Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Centenary Institute Endowment Fund and member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland.

FAQs

Under our Professionally Managed Accounts, you will gain the following benefits:
1. Professionally managed investment portfolio: An investment portfolio managed by InvestSMART's investment team.
2. You own the securities: The investor holds legal ownership and the underlying securities are registered under your name.
3. Reporting: Complete end of year Accounting and tax reporting is provided on your investment. 
4. Transparency: Investors are provided full visibility of all stocks held in your portfolio.
5. Tailored & Unique Portfolio: Under a PMA, we offer multiple model portfolios to choose from so that you can create a customised and diversified portfolio to suit your individual needs. Our model portfolios will differ in the levels of risk and return, and each model offers a different investment emphasis (such as Australian & international equities, property securities, international ETFs, etc).
6. Account Management: The paperwork and administration is taken care of, reducing the administrative burden on investors.
7. Tax effective: You only pay tax on gains & income you received.
8. Inflows & outflows: Your investment will not be impacted by the decisions of other model portfolio investors. An example of this is when a pooled investment like a managed fund receives redemption requests at the bottom of the market and is a forced seller at the worst time.
9. Flexibility with income/distributions: Choose to receive the dividends directly into an account of your choice or set up a regular payment or request drawdowns on an adhoc basis.

Diversification

We recognise that over the long term not one asset class is guaranteed to deliver substantial outperformance on a consistent basis and that attempting to time the turning points across the various asset classes is near impossible.

Lower Fees

Compounded over time, even a small difference in fees can result in substantial differences to your return and a higher management fee is no guarantee of better performance.

Transparency

We believe in absolute transparency. This directly impacts how we manage conflicts and report our performance. We take disclosure, conflicts and transparency extremely seriously. 

Once the funds have cleared in the InvestSMART Applications Account they will be transferred over night into your investment account. Once settled in the investment account our team will buy the holdings in the model/s you have selected.