Advisor relationships on Sharesies' radar

Investment platform Sharesies is turning its mind to how it can work more closely with advisors now it has its latest KiwiSaver scheme options up and running.

The company this week began offering its KiwiSaver customers a base fund option with higher risk US exposure, in the form of its Sharesies US500 Fund. The fund invests directly into the Vanguard S&P 500 index fund. Waiting in the wings for launch is a US self-select option allowing customers to add specific companies and ETFs to their portfolio.

“We've got a 9 basis point management fee, which includes the underlying Vanguard cost as well, so it's giving us an entry into that low cost segment of the market that we haven't had before,” says Matt Macpherson, Sharesies GM of Super and Funds. 

With the work to build out the KiwiSaver offering almost complete, Macpherson says further consideration of how the platform can work with advisors is likely going to come up later this year.

“We're really keen to work with advisors.

“At this stage, one thing I think we all know is that there's a lot of informal advice that happens around people's finances, and people are always going to be talking to friends and family and things like that, as well, as, you know, formally through advisors.”

Higher-risk, low cost option rounds out offering

Macpherson says the new options were created as a response to demand from customers wanting access to US exposure.

“It really does kind of complete, I guess, a nice range of options for people to choose from, but also to combine, which we see a lot of.”

Initially asking customers to select just one base fund, Sharesies now allows multiple base funds requiring KiwiSaver members to apportion 50-100%, with the remaining able to be allocated from the self select options.

Macpherson says with the underlying S&P 500 index being 100% equities, investors will need to be thoughtful about how they allocate.

“This is an aggressive fund that comes with a risk indicator of six and we designed this scheme so people can add more than 5%.

“But we see this as being probably used in combination, rather than people putting all of their eggs into the S&P 500.”