The Financial Markets Authority has released a resource for investors and potential investors considering alternatives investments to term deposits.

Funds for Everyone aims to simply explain methods of investment and differences between types of funds.

“When interest rates fall, it’s natural that people start to look for alternatives to term deposits,” says FMA Investor Capability Manager Gillian Boyes.

An FMA survey of 195 term deposit investors last month found 43% were more likely to invest less in term deposits because of low interest rates.

Of the respondents, a quarter were considering managed funds or exchange traded funds to get better investment returns.

“With more people expressing interest in managed funds, we’ve developed a guide to these types of investment to help people make more informed decisions," says Ms Boyes.