Phil: What to make of the Kiwibank deal
Rumours had been circulating for a while that Gareth Morgan’s KiwiSaver business was on the market. Today we learnt that Kiwibank was the successful buyer of this business plus the other funds management and advice offerings from GMI.
The deal looks like a good one for Kiwibank – depending how much they paid for it. It may too have some pluses for advisers in the short term. Both brands push their New Zealand owned pedigree strongly. They too like to pitch themselves as standing up for the average Kiwi. Kiwibank’s proposition is about lowering the cost of banking for New Zealanders, while Morgan is pretty big on the philantrophy (think Happy Feat and the Blanket Man) as well as pushing issues like fishing...MORE»
Russell: Selling through employersFriday, January 13th, 9:47AM
I always thought selling insurance to people through their employers was the flimsiest of propositions - why would anyone talk to you about insurance in the work café, with their mates hanging around for the ‘convenience' of paying for the same thing they can buy in the plush, private, offices of the bank for the same price? MORE» |
Goldie: FATCAT. Opps I mean FATCAFriday, December 2nd, 6:05AM
I’m sure someone with a sense of humour thought up this acronym. Now some of you may be asking what an earth is FATCA? It is the: “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act” to be imposed by the United States of America in 2013. What does this mean for little ol’ New Zealanders in the financial industry? MORE» |
Phil: Greens KiwiSaver policy nice idea but...
The Green Party released its KiwiSaver policy yesterday which has all the hallmarks of a nice idea but probably not that realistic.
MORE»Phil: Forget about personality; Labour's policy has balls
I’ve said it before and yesterday’s savings policy announcement from Labour demonstrates it again. Labour understands savings issues far more than National. Its package is potentially a circuit breaker for this year’s election and will get people talking.
MORE»Phil: Where oh where are the KiwiSaver accounts?
Earlier this week we reported that a number of KiwiSaver funds had missed their deadline to prepare and send their annual reports to members. It has transpired that there is a common thread amongst the schemes that missed filing. That theme is the company which provides registry and accounting services to the providers. Yes another three letter name starting with A – AON.
MORE»Goldie: It's not ethical for managers to keep getting fees on frozen funds
Is it ethical for fund managers to continue to get management fees on funds that have been frozen?
MORE»Phil: Where are the regulators when you need them?
There are some things I don't get about the newly regulated world at the moment. One is the story we ran yesterday where to advisers with dishonesty convictions recently in Australia are allowed to be registered advisers.
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