KiwiSaver

One of the first tips any adviser will give to someone investing for retirement is to ‘start early’. The sooner you start, the more you’ll earn and the bigger your nest egg will be. But how much bigger exactly? And what are the barriers that stop people investing early? Investing early We ran three scenarios…

According to the Financial Markets Authority (FMA), New Zealanders made around 500,000 individual changes to their KiwiSaver investments last financial year. While changing your KiwiSaver investment approach is theoretically free, the snail pace at which it happens can result in some significant costs to investors. There are two main ways people make changes to their…

The InvestNow KiwiSaver Scheme has just clicked past its first birthday, so we thought it would be interesting to share with you how the members of the InvestNow KiwiSaver Scheme are taking advantage of the flexibility and choice that we offer – building portfolios that best meet their investment preferences and objectives. A quick recap -…

Over 3.1 million New Zealanders are now KiwiSaver members but perhaps only a minority have established a strategy designed to fit their individual goals. With KiwiSaver assets set to grow into an ever-more substantial component in the financial lives of New Zealanders, however, the hands-off attitude to long-term savings strategies is likely to change. The InvestNow KiwiSaver Scheme was established in…

Whether it’s for KiwiSaver, a personalised Managed Funds portfolio or bank Term Deposits for your rainy-day monies – InvestNow puts you in the driver’s seat. InvestNow is an online investment platform that is Kiwi-owned and operated. We are a team of leading investment experts, with decades of combined experience and expertise behind us. We provide…

Countless studies across the world have revealed retirees share the same number one fear: running out of money. In fact, global insurance company Allianz Life research found over 60% of US baby boomers fear running out of money in retirement more than death. Similar trends emerged in a recent Australian Allianz survey where pennilessness outranked…

For many investors who cut their teeth in the 1980s, the crash of 1987 left holes in their wealth and lasting scars. Is there a danger investors today react the same to a similar event? David Boyle drills into the past for lessons on how to avoid the horror... If you are a certain age…

Insufficient design Over the last 14 years, KiwiSaver has evolved from a gleam in the eyes of Sir Michael Cullen to a starring role in the financial lives of more than 3.1 million New Zealanders, topping $82 billion in funds under management.  However, as popular as it is, of late many have been pointing to its obvious design flaw – the limited ability for…

Fees have been in the spotlight recently but Mint head of sales and marketing, David Boyle, explains why we need to dig deeper to understand what is really stopping KiwiSaver members from saving... KiwiSaver fees have hogged the headlines more than ever over the last year, sparked first by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) ‘value…

The government put the KiwiSaver market in a temporary tail-spin this May after giving five default KiwiSaver providers the boot. While not a total surprise, the decision to slash the number of default KiwiSaver schemes from the current nine to six as of December 1 this year, went further than many expected. The dramatic move will see AMP, ANZ, ASB, Fisher Funds and Mercer lose any default fund…

Are KiwiSaver admin fees outdated and unfair? Kiwis paid over $80m in KiwiSaver admin fees last year, in a negative investment return environment Last year Kiwis paid over $80 million in KiwiSaver administration fees, in an environment that produced negative investment returns to the amount of -$820.9 million, according to the Financial Markets Authority (FMA)…

KiwiSaver has come a long way since its surprisingly successful debut in 2007. Officially launched by the Helen Clark-led Labour government in July 2007, KiwiSaver accumulated over $720 million for more than 480,000 members during the first nine months of operation. The first flood of KiwiSaver members blew Treasury budget projections out of the water,…