Over 50% of Kiwis are in the wrong KiwiSaver fund

As of today, New Zealanders can now access personalised and professional Kiwisaver advice, care of kōura – a new, next-generation KiwiSaver scheme.

kōura offers a digital advice platform that will give all hard-working New Zealanders access to personalised and professional financial advice – something most people perceive to be out of reach - and something that a new KiwiSaver survey shows is desperately needed. kōura offers a simple tool that allows New Zealanders to analyse their KiwiSaver and ensure they are making the right investment decisions for the retirement they desire.

kōura brings to NZ an offering that is already extremely popular in the US – consumer-focused, digital financial advice.

To mark its launch, kōura surveyed New Zealanders about their Kiwisaver behaviours, and uncovered some alarming results:

• 53% of Kiwis are in the wrong KiwiSaver fund, which could result in people missing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars when they hit 65
• Only 23% of New Zealanders claiming to have a good understanding of the product
• 69% of Kiwis see KiwiSaver as being extremely important for their retirement, yet the average Kiwi will have less than 50% of their current income when they move into retirement

KiwiSaver is a critical tool for people’s retirement, yet if they are intending to rely on their KiwiSaver to retire, their income is likely to be less than half of their current income. This is significantly less than the 70% benchmark that is widely recommended for a comfortable retirement

kōura believes the issues with Kiwisaver come back to a lack of advice for consumers. In the 12 years since KiwiSaver has been operating, the focus has been on encouraging customers to sign up to KiwiSaver, rather than focusing on ensuring the right outcomes for customers. Advice and help is really hard to come by. Financial advisors are seen as out of reach for most people and our research shows most would prefer online research to an adviser in any event.

Today kōura launches a digital advice platform to directly address these issues. Its simple tool allows everyday New Zealanders to analyse their KiwiSaver and ensure they are making the right investment decisions for the retirement they desire. And they can access it anywhere, anytime, without needing access to a financial advisor.

kōura has been founded by Rupert Carlyon and Warren Couillault – and is the third KiwiSaver Scheme that Warren has established, the previous two schemes being the Fisher Funds and Generate KiwiSaver Schemes.

www.kourawealth.co.nz

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