KiwiSaver changes are now in place

Changes to KiwiSaver have come into effect from 1 July. These changes are now live on Kiwimonster, and will be reflected in all the numbers you crunch.

Government contribution has been halved. Previously, for every $1 a KiwiSaver member contributes (up to a maximum of $1046.86) in a year, the Government put in 50c. The government contribution rate has now been halved to 25c for every $1 contributed, up to a maximum of $260.72 annually.

• High income earners no longer qualify for Government contribution. The Government contribution has been removed for KiwiSaver members with a taxable income over $180,000 per annum.

• KiwiSaver eligibility extended to 16- and 17-year-olds. The Government contribution and employer matching is now available to 16- and 17-year-olds in the workforce.

From next year, default contribution rates increasing. The default KiwiSaver employee and employer contribution rate will be moving from 3% of salary and wages to 3.5% on 1 April 2026, then to 4% on 1 April 2028. Employees will be able to opt to contribute at a lower 3% rate and have that lower rate matched by their employer. Contributions will be reset to the default rate after 12 months, but employees can choose to reselect the lower rate again.

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Changes to KiwiSaver announced by Government

The Government has announced a raft of changes to the KiwiSaver scheme, effective from 1 July 2025.

• Default contribution rates increasing. The default KiwiSaver employee and employer contribution rate will be moving from 3% of salary and wages to 3.5% on 1 April 2026, then to 4% on 1 April 2028. Employees will be able to opt to contribute at a lower 3% rate and have that lower rate matched by their employer. Contributions will be reset to the default rate after 12 months, but employees can choose to reselect the lower rate again.

• Government contribution has been halved. Currently, for every $1 a KiwiSaver member contributes (up to a maximum of $1046.86) in a year, the Government puts in 50c. The government contribution rate will be halved to 25c for every $1 contributed, up to a maximum of $260.72 annually.

• High income earners no longer qualify for Government contribution. The Government contribution will be removed for KiwiSaver members with a taxable income over $180,000 per annum.

• KiwiSaver eligibility extended to 16- and 17-year-olds. The Government contribution and employer matching will be extended to 16- and 17-year-olds in the workforce.

The Financial Services Council (FSC) has come out in support of the changes to increase the default contribution rate, and extend contributions to 16- and 17-year-olds. However, they have cautioned that the Government’s decision to reduce its contribution could disincentivise participation in the scheme, particularly for the self-employed. With 40% of members not actively contributing (for example, those on contributions holidays or people in irregular work), halving the government contribution makes it even less appealing for these members to start investing in KiwiSaver again.

Kiwimonster is evolving with KiwiSaver

We’re updating our tools to reflect the new KiwiSaver rules—including contribution increases and reduced government top-ups—so you can continue to deliver great advice, confidently.

While the new rules aim to increase participation, they don’t do enough to support the 40% of KiwiSaver members who aren’t actively contributing. That’s where Kiwimonster can help.

Even for those not currently contributing, Kiwimonster enables advisers to project future retirement outcomes. For example:

• Self-employed clients – whether or not they’re making regular contributions.

• People on a break – such as those on parental leave or overseas on their OE.

Using existing balances, advisers can still create meaningful forecasts—giving clients clarity, even if they’re pressing pause on contributions.

If you would like to find out how, give us a call.

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Fidelity Life welcomes record number of advisers to Career Connect programme

Fidelity Life has announced the fourth intake of its adviser programme, Career connect, for new advisers. This year sees the programme expand to welcome its largest cohort to date - 30 emerging advisers. The company will also soon invite adviser businesses to join the Career connect registry; to signal their interest in offering work experience opportunities to newly qualified financial advisers. 

Submissions this year attracted greater diversity, , with 56% of applicants under the age of 35, 62% coming from female applicants and just under 30 ethnicities represented across the more than 70 applicants.

The Career connect programme awarded eight scholarships this year, up from seven last year, with each valued at up to $5,000. The recipients of the 2025 Career connect scholarships are:

• Grace Leaso, Auckland - Kōwhai scholarship (for an outstanding Pasifika applicant)  

• Grace Shearer, Hastings - Toe Toe scholarship (for an outstanding young applicant aged 21-25)

• Jada Mandery, Auckland - Women in Finance scholarship (supported by Kaplan Professional)

• Marcel Stenning, Auckland - Pāua scholarship (for outstanding applicant demonstrating excellence)

• Michelle Andrews, Auckland - Women in Finance scholarship (supported by Kaplan Professional)

• Milly Elworthy, Mosgiel – Rural scholarship (supported by FMG) 

• Olivera Vasic-Wooller, Auckland - Rāngi Po scholarship (for an underrepresented community in financial services)

• TK Buchanan, Christchurch - Pounamu scholarship (for an outstanding Māori applicant)

Fidelity Life Head of Solutions Michelle Doyle said

“By taking part, advice businesses play a vital role in mentoring fresh talent… It helps new advisers gain industry experience and build confidence as they transition into the profession.” 

The 2025 cohort of 30 will start their journey this week. Over the next six months, they’ll take on part-time study to earn their Level 5 qualification through Kaplan Professional. Fidelity Life will host a graduation ceremony early next year to celebrate their accomplishments.  

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Introduction to Quotemonster webinar 9am, 27 May

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Business Risk Research and SOAs with Quotemonster webinar 12pm 29 May

Introduction to Kiwimonster webinar 12pm 26 May

Katrina Shanks and Kris Faafoi recognised on the Hot List 2025

Link Financial Group NZ appoints Anton Wicken new compliance manager

The banking industry welcomes the first reading of CCCFA amendment bill

Auckland emergency departments diverting patients to urgent care clinics with vouchers to cover the cost

New Zealanders will soon be able to receive 12-month prescriptions for their medicines

Budget 2025 includes a range of health initiatives

Introduction to Kiwimonster on Wednesday, 29 January

Kiwimonster free service now available to Quotemonster users.

Check out free KiwiSaver scheme and fund data comparisons at  www.kiwimonster.co.nz - if you already have a quotemonster login then you can get immediate access. Explore the free comparison tools and let us know how to keep improving the reporting. Soon KiwiSaver research will be available bringing comparisons in categories such as service, support, and facilities research to financial advisers to support your advice process.

If you’re interested in learning more about Kiwimonster, we have an in-dept training session scheduled on Wednesday, 29 January 2025 12:00 pm-12:20 pm, please email us on info@quotemonster.co.nz if you are interested in joining us.

We look forward to seeing you there!

How much do you need to save for retirement?

There are many differences in opinion in how much people need to save. Here is a run through some excellent current resources:

This article calculates that if you want a ‘choices’ lifestyle (income of $60,000 - $87,000 a year) you’ll need to have between $890,000 and $1,360,000 saved depending on if you are a single person or a couple. If you want a well-off lifestyle (income of $100,000) a year, you’ll need to have saved somewhere between $1,929,000 and $2,640,000.

Some advisers like to exclude ‘lifestyle assets’ such as a mortgage-free home, caravan and boat from calculations, basing retirement calculations solely on cash and liquid investments. Other people may have downsizing to a smaller home to release some equity as a key part of their retirement strategy.

Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson advocates for people to start saving for their retirement as early as possible

“How much you need to save will depend on your own circumstances, but the sooner you start, the better the position you’ll be in when you stop working.”

Mercer Financial Advice launched a retirement income simulator late this year. If you haven’t already checked it out, we recommend you do. This is quite a comprehensive calculator that lets you estimate your projected retirement savings and how long it may last in retirement. What I particularly like about this tool is it lets you factor in the impact of a career break or move to part-time work, something a lot of parents decide to do at some point. It shows you the results in today’s dollars (having deflated the projected dollar amounts based on the rate of wage inflation of 3.2%).

Sorted also have their retirement calculator you can check out. Simply add your current age, the age you’d like to retire, whether you’re planning on your own or with a partner (and their current and retirement ages), whether you want to live in a main centre or the regions, whether you want a no frills, choices or custom weekly allowance, plus your expected KiwiSaver balances at retirement and any other savings, investments, inheritances, sales of a business or other income. You can also choose to include or exclude NZ Super, depending on whether you think it will still be around by the time you retire.

A useful guide for planning how to spend your savings nest egg when it comes time to retire is The New Zealand Society of Actuaries’ Drawdown Rules of Thumb. It sets out different strategies you may like to use depending on your priorities and risk level, whether you intend to leave an inheritance or whether you want to front-load your spending. They have also published Spending patterns through retirement: implications for retirement planning and drawdown which urges those planning for or managing income in retirement to consider how spending patterns can be expected to change throughout the duration of retirement. Their analysis suggests a typical scenario for New Zealand retirees is that real spending reduces by around 2% a year, which would significantly reduce the amount needed to be saved compared to commonly used benchmarks that assume spending stays level in real terms. Though it’s important to note that the data doesn’t show whether the lower spending is because people become less active during retirement and choose not to do things or become constrained by their resources and must give up such options.

All these reports could be used to build a sound basis for the KiwiSaver and wider Superannuation planning services you may offer.

As always, when it comes to something as important and complex as your retirement savings, if you are reading this and you are not a financial adviser, we encourage you to speak to an adviser about your retirement – and while you are at it, your life and health insurance too.

But you probably are a financial adviser, in which case – why not check out Kiwimonster? Our new, free, data service for advisers to help support your KiwiSaver advice process. You can find it at www.kiwimonster.co.nz

Happy New Year!

We hope you had a lovely break, got to enjoy some sunshine and had a chance to relax. The Chatswood and QPR teams are back in the office and looking forward to everything we have planned this year.

Things you may want to check out again now you’re back:

1. Research: If you come across legacy products, then dive into our Standalone Head-to-Head feature, designed to make product comparisons more precise and efficient. This tool lets you compare two products side by side in detail, highlighting key differences across benefits, features, and ratings.

2. Insurer updates: A range of new insurer benefits and features were launched late last year – have you seen…

   o   Chubb Life – Continuous trauma

   o   Fidelity Life – Specific Injury benefit

   o   AIA – Accidental Injury benefit

3. Advicemonster: If you’re not already using Advicemonster to create better, faster, and more robust SOAs, we’ve added even more reasons to make the switch. Have you tried our new AI features?

4. Businessmonster: New Year, New Business!? Whether you are experienced or new to giving advice on business insurance we offer you the best online business insurance statement of advice assistance tool you can find. It includes access to the companies office API and AI services to help get you the data you need faster and even help with drafting parts of the SOA. If you have Advicemonster you can check it our for free. If not, request a trial so you can check it out by clicking here.

5. Security: Your FAP has requirements to meet certain standards. Want to take another look at what we do to help you? Check out our Outsource Provider Statement and information security bulletins for extra peace of mind.

6. If you haven’t already, check out Kiwimonster - compare over 30 KiwiSaver schemes and 300+ funds with ease at www.kiwimonster.co.nz or by clicking on the new icon at the top of the screen when you login to www.quotemonster.co.nz.

7. You’ve read this far. Not many people have. Email Russell to ask about a super special offer (but hurry, the rest of the staff will get in and stop him by the 16th of January – so you must email before then).

Hit us up with any questions you have. And if you have any thoughts on training you would find useful, please let us know here or here.

Quality Product Research by the numbers

As 2024 draws to a close we thought we’d do a quick by the numbers post to review what we’ve been up to this year. It has been a busy but wonderful year, and we’d like to thank everyone who has crunched numbers with us, come along to our roadshows, invited us along to their events and done business with us.

Research Advisory Board events held this year: 3

Years in operation: 13

Team members: 16

Quotemonster roadshows held: 17 venues all around the country plus one online

Research: 8 types of personal, 5 types of business, 24+ insurers, 80 on-sale products, 200+ legacy products – phew!

Users of Kiwimonster so far: 198

Number of insurer price changes: 230+

Highest number of users logged in on one day: 495

Attendees at roadshows: More than 800

Subscribers: 1100+

Unique number of IT update and improvement tasks: 2941, exclude duplicate and on hold items of which the IT team closed and made live more than 89.46%

Kilometres travelled by the team: more than 9,200 kilometres travelled, from the smallest meeting in Taupo to the largest on the North Shore of Auckland. And yes, we use carbon offsetting!

Rating factors: 27,000+

Frequency of quotes produced: A quote every 13 seconds, on average. Even more during busy periods leading to…

Total quotes crunched to date this year: more than 2.5 million

Total quotes crunched ever: more than 30 million

Executive Team changes at Partners Life

From 1 October 2024, there will be some changes to the executive team at Partners Life. Andries van Graan, previously Chief of Adviser Distribution, will be Chief Distribution Officer. Kate Dron, previously Chief and Appointed Actuary, will be Chief Customer Solutions Officer.

Van Graan’s new role will focus on strengthening partnerships with independent financial advisers and working to amplify Partners Life’s customer referral partnership with BNZ.

Dron’s new role will focus on ensuring that Partners Life’s solutions service a wide range of customer needs with a particular focus on enhanced simplicity and accessibility and includes establishing a establishing a business led data, analytics, and insights team.

More news:

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mySolutions webinar 'KiwiMonster' 9 October

Financial Advice NZ webinar 'Understanding artificial intelligence in financial services' 16 October

Johny Winstone says advisers offer key emotional support

What advisers think of KiwiSaver

At our latest roadshows, we’ve been lucky enough to have Generate KiwiSaver Scheme join us, giving advisers insights into the benefits of offering KiwiSaver advice. We’ve also been finding out what our roadshow attendees think about KiwiSaver.

To date, the results show that for those advisers who are already offering advice on KiwiSaver investments, the top reasons for offering KiwiSaver are diversifying revenue, building a KiwiSaver book for long term value and adding value to clients. Advisers have told us that performance, ease of withdrawals and alternative fund options are most important to clients when choosing a KiwiSaver provider. And 27% of advisers were interested in additional resources or support related to KiwiSaver advice and independent research.

If you haven’t joined us already, come along to one of our remaining roadshows to find out more – along with info on KiwiSaver we’ll be highlighting some major new research, talking about two new regtech tools to help keep you safe, giving you a sneak peek at Kiwimonster, and much, much more.

• 20 August -Queenstown

• 21 August - Dunedin

• 22 August - South Auckland

• 27 August - Whangarei

• 28 August - North Auckland

• 29 August - Nelson  

More news:

Fidelity Life extend 3 months free until 31 December 2024

Michael Weston talks about key priorities at Partners Life

Jon-Paul Hale highlights the good advisers do

Asteron Life are looking for a Lump Sum Claims Specialist

Study finds three-quarters of respondents have realised the importance of financial knowledge

FAMNZ launch inaugural Adviser Elevate series on 28 August

AIA sponsor the Parliamentary Rugby Team

Charlene Overell is the Financial Advice New Zealand Volunteer of the Year

Generate KiwiSaver Scheme joins the Quotemonster Roadshow!

We are thrilled to announce that Generate KiwiSaver Scheme will be joining Quotemonster on our upcoming roadshow! This collaboration brings a fantastic opportunity for advisers to gain valuable insights about the benefits of offering KiwiSaver advice to your clients.

Learn more about how KiwiSaver works, understand its long-term value, and address any concerns or challenges you may have. Here's a glimpse of what to expect.

Why provide KiwiSaver advice?

Generate will share compelling reasons why advisers should consider offering KiwiSaver advice as a critical part of their advisory services. They will demonstrate how KiwiSaver advice can be a cornerstone of a robust financial plan, offering benefits that extend far beyond retirement savings.

Myth busting: Overcoming challenges

Advisers often encounter various myths and misconceptions that can act as hurdles when providing KiwiSaver advice. Generate will address these challenges head-on and explain how they can help you provide KiwiSaver advice seamlessly while meeting your advice obligations.

Compare KiwiSaver providers

We are excited to give you a sneak peek at our newest service – Kiwimonster! You won’t want to miss this.

Join us on the Roadshow!

Click on the links below to register for your town:

Taupo

Tauranga

Hamilton

West - Auckland

Christchurch

Invercargill

East/Central - Auckland

Napier

Palmerston North

Wellington

New Plymouth

Queenstown

Dunedin

South - Auckland

Whangarei

North - Auckland

Nelson

Click here to see all venues and dates.

The issuer is Generate Investment Management Ltd. A copy of the Product Disclosure Statement and advertising disclosures are available at generatekiwisaver.co.nz/disclosures.