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The True Cost Index

What is your provider really costing you?

Every way to invest in New Zealand, ranked by what it really costs: fees, hidden FX, tax, and the cost to leave. No spin.

$NZD
$0$10M+

The list below updates as you type. Checked May 2026.

What you're comparing

Switch between shares/ETFs and crypto, then tap a type to show or hide it. DIY broker = you pick the shares; Managed fund = a fund picks them for you; Advised = a person manages it for a fee.

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Ranked cheapest-first by all-in cost: every fee, plus the tax you'll pay, minusthe interest each platform pays you on idle cash. It's the real yearly cost of having your money there. Prefer just the platform's charge? Switch to Provider fee. Tap any tag for what it means, or a row for the full breakdown.

#Provider

The fee funds don't put on the poster

The headline "management fee" isn't the real number. These are the gaps between what each fund advertises and the total annual fund charges in its official FMA Fund Update: performance fees, underlying-fund costs and admin the marketing page skips.

Milford Active Growth1.05% → 1.60%
Fisher Funds Growth1.20% → 1.39%
ANZ Growth Fund0.91% → 0.98%

How the Index is calculated

Every product is reduced to one number: all-in cost as a % of your capital, per year. So a DIY broker, a managed fund and an adviser compare on the same ruler:

  • + Per-buy costs: brokerage, FX spread, bid/ask, fund buy/sell spread
  • + Ongoing: total fund charges, platform, advice fee, flat membership
  • + Tax drag: FIF for direct holders (lower of FDR & CV), PIE (capped 28%), or company (28%)
  • + Cost to exit/switch (amortised over your horizon)

Fees are measured on capital deployed. FIF tax is averaged over the horizon: self-directed holders pay FDR in up years but ~$0 in down years (CV election), so more down years lowers their tax. PIE funds pay every year. The 0–100 score is just the all-in %: 0% → 100, 2.5% → 50, 5%+ → 0.

The tax most pricing pages hide

For New Zealanders this is usually the biggest cost of all:

  • Direct foreign shares (self-directed) → FIF only over a $100k cost basis (raised from $50k in Budget 2026). You pay the lower of FDR (5% of value) and CV (your actual gain). So a flat or down year is ~$0 tax.
  • PIE funds (Kernel, Simplicity, Smartshares) → taxed in-fund, capped at 28% PIR, but FDR-locked, no CV relief in down years.
  • Investment company → 28%, FDR-locked.

See the maths on eccuity's FIF tax calculator. $100k threshold announced Budget 2026, not yet legislated.

General information only. Not personalised tax or financial advice. Tax depends on your circumstances; confirm with IRD or an accountant. Figures last verified May 2026; fees change. Always check the provider's current disclosure (linked in each row).

How the transparency score works

A separate 0–100 score (shown on each row, not folded into the cost ranking) for how openly a platform prices and how easily you can leave. Every product starts at 100 and loses points for practices that hide cost or lock you in:

−30Lock-in: No in-specie transfer. You must sell (and trigger tax) to switch provider
−25Hidden FX: Charges an FX margin but bakes it into the rate instead of showing it as a fee
−20Securities lending: Lends out your shares and keeps the revenue
−15Cash drag: Keeps the interest on your idle cash instead of paying it to you
−10No W-8BEN: Direct foreign shares with no US tax form filed → 30% dividend withholding, not 15%

The score is deliberately kept out of the cost ranking. A cheap but opaque platform still ranks cheap, but you can see what it isn't telling you. Weightings are eccuity's judgement, not an external standard.

Sources & data references

Every fee comes from a primary source: the provider's own pricing/disclosure, the FMA's Sorted Smart Investor & Disclose Register, or IRD. Figures last verified May 2026; fees change, so always check the provider's current disclosure. "est." marks a figure we couldn't fully confirm from a primary page.

eccuity
Sharesies
Interactive Brokers
Tiger Brokers (NZ) · est.
Hatch · est.
Kernel (shares)
ASB Securities · est.
Kernel (funds)
Simplicity Growth
Smartshares US 500 ETF
Foundation Series US 500 (InvestNow)
SuperLife High Growth
Milford Active Growth
Fisher Funds Growth
Generate Focused Growth
ANZ Growth Fund
ASB Growth Fund
BNZ YouWealth Growth
Westpac Growth Trust
Craigs (MPS)
Forsyth Barr (PPM) · est.
Milford Private Wealth · est.
Independent adviser (wrap) · est.
eccuity (crypto) · est.
Sharesies (crypto)
Independent Reserve (crypto)
Swyftx (crypto) · est.
Kraken (crypto) · est.
Binance (crypto) · est.
Tax & regulatory: IRD: Foreign Investment Funds (FIF) · FMA Sorted Smart Investor · Disclose Register (Fund Updates) · Budget 2026: $100k FIF threshold · eccuity FIF calculator
Excluded (verified defunct/changed): Easy Crypto (Acquired by Swyftx; NZ customers transferring) · Superhero (NZ) (Exited NZ: transferred its NZ customers to Sharesies on 7 Nov 2025) · Jarden Direct → Invest Direct (Rebranded to 'Invest Direct' (now Hatch/FNZ)) · Kiwi-Coin (Closing: ceased crypto trading 01/01/2026; user agreement terminated, withdrawals by 24 Apr 2026) · Dasset (Collapsed: in liquidation since 15 Aug 2023, ~$6)

Built by eccuity. And yes, we put ourselves on the same leaderboard as everyone else.