Reviewer: Michael

A little off the managed fund topic, but would you be able to shed some light on current pricing of Rabo Perpetual bond? I purchased a sizable amount of Rabo Perpetual bonds through my bank, as they were sold as an investment on the 'safer' side. Especially with the resetting rate, which would minimise the price fluctuations. However now they are priced at 82 cent in the dollar. Im just curious about the pricing - whats causing it? For a 'safer' investment I wasnt expecting a 20% loss in my principle if I ever needed access to the cash :-)

Mike Heath: Michael, without wanting to sound like I’m brushing you off could I ask that you have a chat with your broker about the Rabobank Perpetual Bonds. As we do not offer these bonds on our platform we are not in a position to comment. Regards Mike

Reviewer: Louisa

Would you guys look at adding the AMP NZ Fixed Interest Fund to the list? This fund did 19.58% last year and is Morningstar rated 5 stars.

Mike Heath: Louisa, thanks for the suggestion. We are soon to commission a gap analysis of our funds offering which may also capture the point you make. We’ll keep you posted in ActiveMoney. Regards Mike

Reviewer: Robert

When are you giving us a term deposit pie??? You were first with the cash advantage fund but trailing badly behind marac and udc with a fixed term pie product.

Miek Heath: Robert,  we are looking at a PIE TD but can not give a firm date for it yet.

Reviewer: Chris

Are all managed funds in PIE only? Not very interesting for me who still invests all at 19% in my kids' name. Will this change? Also, can I open a On-Call Savings Account in their name? Cheers. PS Forced rating meaningless as I am not a customer.

Mike Heath: Chris, do you mean are all our Managed Funds are PIEs? The answer is yes, all 38 funds are PIEs. And Chris, you can definitely open an account for children with all the same features and benefits as an account for an adult. Let me know if I haven’t answered your question

Reviewer: Rose

Is Raboplus planning on making more wholesale Australain based funds available in the future? Especially emerging markets or resource focused funds.

Mike Heath: Rose, thanks for the feedback and suggestion.  I recently read a paper on the mutual recognition opportunity, and plan to discuss it our next investment committee meeting.  It is at this committee where we review current funds/fund managers and assess new funds/fund managers. 

Only last week we conducted a series of meetings with current/prospective fund managers with the output of these meetings feeding into our investment committee decisions.  Whilst I can not be more specific at this point in time, we do plan to add new funds/fund managers over the coming months and will take your suggestion on board.

Regards,
Mike

Reviewer: Jamie

Good start as a gateway to managed funds. Though I have a few queries are the returns stated gross of tax/fees or net (if so at what rate/PIR?). As for instance the returns stated for AMP Int FI do not match the ones on their product sheet. In addition are you planning to add any more bond products (eg FDR global bonds?), or alternatives like distressed debt, hedge funds, etc. The choice is quite share heavy. It is good to have entry fee under 1% but 0.5% or less would be better especially for bonds etc. If you want to switch funds do you have to pay this again? A lower rate for switches say 0.25%, or even better 0%, would make the platform more attractive.

Mike Heath: Jamie, thanks for the compliment.  In answer to your questions:

• The fund unit prices quoted are gross of tax, and net of any fees that may apply.

• For the stated returns, if you look at the fund profile for the AMP Capital Hedged Global Fixed Interest you’ll see that the table labelled “Trailing” shows the same values as we do under the tab labelled “Fund Performance” except for the “Since Inception”, which I shall investigate.

• With regards to the range of funds/providers, and our current fee structure, we’ll take both on board for consideration.

Thanks for taking the time to provide this feedback.

Reviewer: Ari (genuine)

Err, no. My only relationship with RaboPlus is as a customer. If I was a staff member I would have left a shorter marketing-length message that could be pasted to the top of the screen instead of a long waffling story. (Like this one). If you'd read my other posts at Rabo and NZMoneyTalk you'd see that I'm obviously a customer. My story was real and so is my appreciation of the ease of using the managed funds here. Honestly!

Reviewer: Ari (sounds Like A Rabo Bank Person Wrote It!)

I'm sure Rabo is good but lets be real here...Reviewer 'Ari' sounds like a script for an infomercial - well written and it even has the...'I especially liked the Fun of the Month promotion' - Big ups to Sam...but come on staff at Rabobank - w*** w***...if it's so good - let us decide!

Reviewer: Sam

Very, very nice :-) Again just like term deposits easy to set up. RaboPlus give yourselves a pat on the back!! A great selection of funds. To all the other large fund providers out there, you really want to be a part of this.