NZ Funds’ WealthPlan software writes financial plans at the push of a button, and its myWealth tech passes $800m.

-

NZ Funds Media Release
1 May 2019

Auckland, New Zealand – NZ Funds announced today that its plan writing technology is now writing 71 plans a month and its myWealth technology was used by around 11,000 clients with over $800 million of assets. NZ Funds says its mission, to be the leader in wealth technology in New Zealand by 2020, is “well on track” according to Damon Murfitt, Chief Technology Officer at NZ Funds. To substantiate his claim, Murfitt pointed to two areas in which he believes NZ Funds leads.

“Six years ago we designed New Zealand’s first robo adviser. However, we found that, as is often the case, technology and innovation had outpaced the law. The regulation in New Zealand at that time did not contemplate the provision of electronic advice so we could not launch it, so we pivoted and launched myWealth as freeware instead” says Murfitt.

In March, NZ Funds’ myWealth software was used by 11,000 clients with over $800 million of assets. Murfitt says clients are using the technology to plan their retirement and that the fact that the software takes New Zealanders’ houses and mortgages into account is a big differentiator over more recently launched tech. “How can anyone plan if they don’t take their largest asset and liability into account?”.

“The big breakthrough for us occurred this year when we added automatic plan writing capability to our WealthPlan software for financial advisers. WealthPlan enables clients, in conjunction with their financial adviser, to automatically produce a full financial plan with only the click of a button.”

The plan “fully scripts” a writeup of who the client is: age, stage, risk profile, investment approach, current and future investment decisions and automatically models the effect of drawings in retirement without the adviser having to type anything.

The software is not AI – yet – as the adviser still oversees the process. “Just like Uber, and Google’s Waymo autonomous driving technology, we have stopped short of going full robot. The plans our technology is writing are still being overseen, reviewed and signed off by our nationwide network of AFAs.”

“Our take is that clients will continue to choose by adviser and not by technology for some time to come, but if that were ever to change we could offer them an unrivalled digital experience.” So for now NZ Funds is choosing not to go full robo.

***


***

Popular posts from this blog

COP26 - what does it mean for your finances?

-
Image
I wonder where we would be without acronyms; probably using more ink but perhaps better informed. The acronym of the moment has been, of course, COP26 – the trendy acronym for the United Nations (UN) climate change conference, recently held in Glasgow. It was the 26th annual UN 'Conference of Parties' which began in Berlin in 1995. In simple terms. the purpose of the series of conferences has been to collectively agree on the actions required to limit the impact of climate change. Cynics have suggested that the empty promises resulting from past conferences have exacerbated, rather than reduced, the 'hot air' problem. However, in the wake of the global and existential threat that is COVID-19, the global community is awakening to the reality that a collective response is the only way to deal with a truly global threat. Retreating to 'your corner' when you live on a sphere doesn't really work! The Glasgow conference set a number of objectives, but it i...
Read more

Investment Insight | Monthly Review | November 2021

-
Image
Investment performance update During the financial market rebound, NZ Funds acquired several positions which we expected to benefit from the world returning to normal. As the market rebounded these paid off and generated above index returns for the year ended 31 December 2020. Gains continued into 2021 with one of the strongest starts to the year NZ Funds has seen. However, from 1 April onwards positions became more volatile. This volatility led to most Portfolios giving up their gains from earlier in the year. While we have retained the capital gain over the index for 2020, to align the Portfolios more closely to their benchmark for the remainder of 2021, and for 2022, we have substantially reduced risk, acknowledging the current uncertainty around interest rates and Omicron. We remain strongly of the view that a well-diversified portfolio, which contains assets which profit from rising inflation and interest rates, will be more resilient throu...
Read more

Investment Insight | Backing BIRD to fly

-
Image
"At NZ Funds, we’re constantly looking for innovative companies to invest in, particularly at the IPO (Initial Public Offering) stage. Investing at the 'ground floor' level gives our clients the greatest chance of benefiting from long-term growth in company share prices. It’s rare to be presented with the opportunity to back a new NASDAQ listing that also has strong New Zealand connections. This is one of the reasons we were delighted to make a successful bid for shares in Allbirds (NASDAQ: BIRD), which has grown from a Kickstarter campaign by its Kiwi cofounder to a global footwear and apparel company with a US$3.1 billion market capitalisation..." Read the full story about NZ Funds' IPO investment in Allbirds below.
Read more