Overview
Your Whai Rawa investment is a unitised fund. Read more on how this works below.
How do units work?
When your contributions are allocated to the fund, they join a pool of assets from other members invested in that same portfolio. To keep track of the value of each person’s share of the pool, the total value of the assets in the pool is divided into units of equal value. Units are then allocated to your account, according to the amount of your contribution and the entry unit price at the time of your transaction.
What are Unit Prices and what do they mean?
As you may know, the Whai Rawa Fund operates quite differently to bank accounts or term deposits. It does not have set interest rates, but instead the value of your savings rises or falls depending on changes in the price of the investment assets owned. Unit prices are used to help track changes in the value of your Whai Rawa account.
When you deposit money into your Whai Rawa account, your money is invested into Mercer Investment Trusts New Zealand’s Socially Responsible Conservative, Balanced or Growth Portfolio, depending on your Investment Fund choice. Each investment you make in the Whai Rawa Fund is divided into a number of units that represent your proportionate share of the Whai Rawa Fund.
So, by tracking the unit price, you can tell whether the investments are going up or down in value (because the unit price will rise and fall too). Of course, you can also track how things are going by looking at movements in your savings’ balance – but this might change because of withdrawals or contributions. Tracking those movements will tell you whether your own Whai Rawa savings are growing, whereas tracking changes in unit prices will tell you how well the Whai Rawa Fund is performing.
How to see your units on the digital platform
When you log in to your online account area, under your Account Balance, you’ll notice that the value of your Whai Rawa investment is being calculated and updated daily. Additionally, you can go to your ‘Investments’ page, where you will see the latest unit price for your current Investment Option, followed by the number of units you own, and your current account balance.
Questions? Get in touch with us today.