Thousands bank more than $1 million in Sharesies and Hatch
Sharesies co-founder Leighton Roberts said this week that the investing platform now has more than 1500 portfolios with more than $1 million invested.
Fewer than 100 of them included KiwiSaver.
"It has escalated over the last 12 months," he said. "Particularly as markets recovered. Quite a few people bought in quite heavily during the turmoil earlier this year."
He said he was surprised by the holdings of the larger portfolios.
"Across that group there's 1100 different instruments being held, which is way more than I would have expected for portfolios this size."
He said while funds were the majority of most Sharesies' investors' portfolios, those with $1m-plus balances had
invested heavily directly in companies such as Tesla
, Rocket Lab, Nvidia, Infratil, Xero, Meridian, Ryman, Air New Zealand and Fonterra.
"It's probably half and half New Zealand and US shares … way fewer ETFs than normally makes up a portfolio. I guess these people have gone in with quite high conviction."
Some could be people who were being given shares from companies they worked for, such as Xero and Meridian, he said.
"In general, the larger portfolios on our platform look to be making quite conviction-based decisions."
Some might have built up their investments over a long period, he said, and some transferred into Sharesies. "Some like Rocket Lab and Nvidia have seen such big price rises that the actual buy-in didn't need to be that huge to hit these numbers. My daughter I think is up 1000 percent on Rocket Lab although that unfortunately is nowhere near $1 million."
He said it was good to see confidence in investing growing.
Waimarie Marks, managing director of Hatch and Invest Direct said there were just over 1200 portfolios with more than $1m on her platforms.
She said investing platforms had been around for long enough that people had become comfortable with them.
"It's the ability of people to have optionality over a longer period of time. We saw a big boom in 2021, and 2020 with Covid too then it mellowed out a bit but with the economic conditions and
interest rates changing again
, having the ability to invest in something that can be bigger than what we've normally had access to - that's what is driving it. There are multiple market options for products, fixed interest, all those things allowing people to do more."
Thousands of New Zealanders now have more than $1 million invested through online platforms like Sharesies and Hatch.
Photo:
Supplied/123rf
She said people were educating themselves about investment and using AI. "It's easier to consume now, it's not as scary."
Dean Anderson, founder of Kernel Wealth, said he had some customers with tens of millions of dollars in their accounts who were looking for cost-effective or DIY options for the investments.
"We see this as a growing category - driven by those looking for a long-term, digital-first, tax and fee efficient way to manage intergenerational wealth. Feeding into this is also our wider Kiwi success, where there are so many outstanding companies and startups having success, being sold, and creating a new generation of wealth in New Zealand. This first generation of material wealth are looking for a different solution compared to the past."
He said older generations had the bulk of the wealth but there was also a "first wave" of inheritances coming through to their children.
"They're receiving some assets and going 'what do we do with this now'. They're much more in control, looking for a more digital-led solution. They want choice.
"It generally surprised me, the size of the accounts. The balances we're talking about, I would have assumed 12 months ago those accounts would have an adviser but they don't. They may be setting up their own structure, managing it themselves - people with multimillion-dollar accounts are well informed and making their own decisions."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero
,
a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Police too loose with number plate recognition system, review finds
An example of a thumbnail photo from an ANPR camera. Photo: Supplied The police have been too loose using systems that identify vehicle number plates and must tighten up, a new review has found. Police use of two privately-run automated number-plate recognition (ANPR) systems, Auror and SaferCities, has soared. The review by police only covered Auror. It found anyone with a police email could use the system, even many who had no reason to, and they did not have to say why they were accessing it. "With the limited controls on who can log into the platform and no system requirement to enter the lawful basis on which the information is being obtained, there is a risk of misuse by staff (intentional or unintentional)," the 35-page review said. The public would lose trust if police went too far in accessing personal information using Auror, it warned. "Police are working on restricting access." Auror was set up with help from police a decade ago and had grown internationally, as well as to the extent New Zealand officers used it at least 250,000 times - and probably 380,000 times - last year. The review did not set out to uncover any misuse; that was out of scope. An earlier general review of ANPR found a few isolated instances of misuse. Auror's software can make sense of retailers' CCTV footage of vehicles and people. Crime reports via Auror have doubled to 12,000 a month since 2022. In addition, police can use it to tell where a vehicle has been spotted over the past 60 days. Overall, the system boosted crime fighting and had a wide number of uses, the review found. But there had been limited internal audit of police use of it. "Improved information storage systems would enable safer use of information with greater transparency. "As many police employees have no operational requirement to access Auror (or other Police systems such as NIA [national intelligence application]), the reviewers consider access should be limited to those with an operational need." Auror supported this, it said. Police had been told to fix the loose controls before but "issues associated with access and insufficient recording of information about the nature of the searches identified in this review persist". The review several times linked Auror to facial recognition, though Auror has previously said it does not use that technology. Its application called Connect the Dots "is a form of facial recognition technology, however the only source of images [of suspects] for comparison are those provided by retailers into the platform". Auror said it had been transparent about the use of image matching, as RNZ has previously reported . "It is also clear on our website ," it said. The website calls it "face matching". RNZ reported earlier this week on a surge of theft and shoplifting reports to police via Auror, after it taught retailers how to provide better footage and details, like names, to make it past the police system that vetted reports for "solvability". The new review underscored how the ANPR was a doubled-edged sword. "Trust and confidence in police is negatively affected where personal information is used beyond the mandate provided to police in legislation." This problem was at the heart of several failed legal challenges last year against police use of ANPR evidence in court. The review added: "Additionally, where offences are reported to police with clear details of offending and information providing lines of enquiry to identify suspects, inaction by police will also impact trust and confidence." Auror had been generating more information than police knew what to do with. "The volume of offences processed and reported through Auror will always outpace police's ability to investigate them," it said. Too much poor quality information would just jam up any data storage. "Police will need to consider how best to prioritise who is held to account within the available resources while maintaining trust and confidence." The trend is upwards; a data review in March showed retailers had improved their crime reports. Police were now moving to change the way they assessed reports, including through a new initial assessment team that would be trialled. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Road user charges: AA backs shake-up but wants low admin costs
Photo: RNZ Private companies will need to keep the costs of running the government's new road user charges scheme as low as possible, the AA says. The government is inching closer to replacing petrol tax with electronic road user charges on all light vehicles, in what Transport Minister Chris Bishop calls [ the biggest shake-up of road funding in half a century]. He says it'll be fairer and will be like paying a power bill or Netflix each month and will be in place by 2027. The changes will put an end to the existing two-tier system, where petrol users pay a fuel excise duty of about 70 cents a litre at the pump, while diesel, electric and heavy vehicles pay paper-based road user charges based on distance travelled. However, Labour says the timing of the coalition's transition to a universal road user charges system risks "clobbering" motorists with more costs. AA's policy director Martin Glynn said his organisation is also worried about how much motorists would have to pay under the new scheme. He told Morning Report he was unsure if it would be more expensive. At present the minimum road user charge kicked in once a light vehicle had travelled 1000km. That was $76 and $12-$13 for an administration fee. With private providers being brought in to run the revised scheme they would need to be making money, Glynn said. "We really want to see the administration costs be as low as possible." He agreed with the Minister that with more vehicles becoming more fuel efficient, the current petrol tax penalised those with older vehicles. "It's become more unfair over time and it's going to become more unfair if we don't change." The current system of buying RUCs was "a bit clunky", he said. Those using diesel or a heavy vehicle purchased RUCs online from the NZ Transport Agency or they could go to an agent. Motorists needed to keep an eye on their odometer to ensure they stayed up to date. The other problem was the the RUC came in the mail and needed to be displayed on the dashboard. AA supported Bishop's plan to make the system fully electronic. Annual warrant of fitness checks were the main way to ensure compliance at present. "But it's fair to say it's difficult to enforce being an annual system so there's a fair degree of evasion and avoidance and that's something that will have to be addressed in the transition." Heavy vehicles already have an ERUC, a device in the trucks that monitors kilometres and location.
NZ Herald
an hour ago
- NZ Herald
The secret to being a good company director from Wayne Boyd, the man who's been on 167 boards
Speaking on the Money Talks podcast, we ask Boyd to explain what a company director does in a way a child (his grandchildren, perhaps) would understand. 'Well, you have to first persuade them that you're not the CEO of the company because that's their immediate default position,' he says. But his definition is very much to the point: 'Keeping an eye on managers, just as simple as that really.' Boyd grew up working-class in Wanganui. His father was a cooper (barrel maker) at the local freezing works. His mother worked at the hospital as a nurse's aide. It instilled a strong understanding of the value of money, which he carried with him as a director. 'I saw myself as a steward of other people's money. I made a decision to invest in the companies that I was chairing. And so I took that responsibility heavily. You want to get them an appropriate return for the investment they made.' Since stepping down from Vulcan Steel last November, Boyd, who was named a companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the King's Birthday Honours List, has been enjoying retirement. Boyd was never interested in management. His career started with a job as a lawyer in Hamilton for 16 years. A love of hockey led him to become the coach of the New Zealand women's team for the Olympics in 1984 and the World Cup in 1986. That experience inspired a career change to investment banking in Auckland in 1987 – not exactly the greatest timing. But he stuck with it and eventually his skills led to being offered board roles by the Government of the day. As an adviser first to the NZ Māori Council on the first major Treaty of Waitangi settlement, the 1992 'Sealord deal', he came to know Sir Tipene O'Regan and was a close adviser to Ngāi Tahu Holdings. Corporate roles followed. So what makes a good company director? 'You've got to have an open mind,' Boyd says. 'You don't learn the business by just reading the board papers.' You've got to get out and talk to the staff and ask them what keeps them awake, he says. 'You've got to have the ability to bring a diverse group of people at the board table together so that they're in a safe environment where they can actually say what they really do want to say about whatever the issue is of the day. 'I've always said you've got to have the courage to speak up.' Listen to the full episode to hear more from Wayne Boyd. Money Talks is a podcast run by the NZ Herald. It isn't about personal finance and isn't about economics – it's just well-known New Zealanders talking about money and sharing some stories about the impact it's had on their lives and how it has shaped them. The series is hosted by Liam Dann, business editor-at-large for the Herald. He is a senior writer and columnist, and also presents and produces videos and podcasts. He joined the Herald in 2003. Money Talks is available on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
