Meet Andrew! One of the experienced Facilitators we partner with and is featured in our Facilitator spotlight for May!
We asked him a couple of questions about his experience with conducting reviews, and what it is like working with us. See what he had to say!
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?
We're Mortgage Advisers. We help guide people through the lending process. It's really as simple as that. I've worked in this role ever since I graduated from university and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. We try to stay in our lane and stick to just mortgages but people inevitably need help with other financial services as well.
What made you decide to include a kōura KiwiSaver review for your clients?
I have been a huge fan of investing in globally diversified low-cost index funds ever since I opened my first book on investing. Before kōura, I was reluctant to recommend other KiwiSaver providers to my clients knowing that I wouldn't trust them with my own money with the exception of my current KiwiSaver provider, Simplicity.
In the past, I would simply tell my clients to check out Simplicity and leave it at that. I don't think many of my clients actually did anything with that though. The problem with Simplicity is that they don't really offer any advice and you can only choose between a limited number of set funds. If you don't know what to choose or if you don't suit one of their set funds, you're a bit out of luck. They also haven't released an aggressive option yet which might suit someone who has just bought their first home using their KiwiSaver and wouldn't be able to touch it again for the next 30 or 40 years.
kōura addresses a lot of these problems. They offer their digital advice tool which provides quick, easy, and personalised recommendations. They can build custom portfolios suited to each individual client based on their personalised recommendations, including both 'aggressive' and 'defensive'-type portfolios. Their digital advice tool can also provide useful projections as well as comparisons to other funds and providers to help clients better evaluate their options and decide if making the switch is worthwhile.
Knowing this, I have become a lot more comfortable recommending a KiwiSaver provider like kōura to my clients. They really have nothing to lose by going through the digital advice tool and seeing what their options are even if they don't end up switching providers. I'm hopeful that kōura will start to reduce their fees when they obtain greater economies of scale to make them an even more attractive option.
How do your clients respond to checking in on their KiwiSaver?
I was surprised to find out how few people have ever spoken to anyone about their KiwiSaver before. Not to mention the number of people who don't even know who their current KiwiSaver provider is or what type of fund they are in. A lot of people are interested in talking about their KiwiSaver, they just don't know what to do or where to start. I would say that the majority of my clients have been receptive to reviewing their options with kōura to date.
What is it like working with kōura?
I've had a great experience working with kōura so far. The team at kōura are very helpful and quick to respond. It's easy to get the ball rolling with the digital advice tool. If my clients have any questions that I can't answer, I know I can rely on kōura to pick up the phone and help them.
