Sharesies expands into advice – including for advisers
Sharesies is readying to expand its advice offering with ready-made portfolios of ETFs and managed funds, prepared for investors based on their investment timeframe, risk appetite and values.
Tuesday, January 27th 2026, 6:00AM
It told investors about its plans last week and co-founder Leighton Roberts said 8000 people had joined the waitlist on the first day, the highest number for any Sharesies product.
He said it would be a digital advice offering and was on the verge of being made widely available. Fees were likely to be based on a percentage of investments.
“For the last little bit we’ve been doing it through human advisers, for KiwiSaver only, and we’re taking the learnings from that and putting it into supporting people into building some investment portfolios. “
He said it would start “reasonably algorithmically” and Sharesies had been experimenting with LLMs and AI solutions to be able add more information.
“In parallel to that we’ve got an MOU with one of the large advice companies now so the tool could be used by people to self-serve or it could be used by advisers to support the conversations they’re having.”
He said the advice team was put in place 12 months ago and the new digital offering would run alongside the human advice channel.
“From now it’s just going to be like any other product at Sharesies, we’ll get something to market ,we’ll learn and we’ll just keep iterating.”
It would be offered to people who were signing up for the first time or throughout their investment journey.
Sharesies had been wanting to get into advice for years, he said.
“We originally got the robo-advice exemption several years ago, but didn't feel like we could really do anything that delivered the value and at the cost that we need to be able to do it as well. Often people have, by comparison, quite small average portfolios.
"So what's got us really excited with some of the tools we're working with in developing in the AI space is that it feels the first time that like genuinely good advice can be given and also at a price point which is super available to everyone well within our purpose and vision.”
He said Sharesies believed it was the first in New Zealand to provide digital advice on a range of investments.
“Existing digital advice is on either KiwiSaver funds or is from fund managers in their own funds. Another cool thing it is ongoing, not just at sign up. We can advise people in times of turmoil, for example, to stay with the plan or adjust accordingly.”
| « Ways to avoid the increasing S&P 500 concentration | Simplicity takes KiwiSaver's first-past-the-post honours in Dec Qtr » |
Special Offers
Comments from our readers
No comments yet
Sign In to add your comment
|
|
Printable version |
|
Email to a friend |
