From 1st December 2016 the ability to access 30% of the funds at 55 will be significantly reduced. Currently when someone transfers their UK pension to New Zealand, the amount that they can withdraw is determined by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). This means that the earliest you can withdraw transferred UK pension funds is age 55 and the amount that you can withdraw is essentially 30%. However, on 1 December 2016 new legislation being introduced under the Financial...

Graeme has over 30 years of experience in auditing, consulting and forensic accounting, gained in New Zealand, United Kingdom and Asia. He has been an auditor of many publically listed companies and is often retained as an expert witness in forensic and litigation support cases that focus on director duties associated with offers of securities to the public. This expertise extends to accounting roles relating to securities law, capital markets and capital raising including occasional appointments by the Securities Commission...

I-SHARES CONSUMER STAPLES ETF – IXI The aim of an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) or Tracker Fund is to track the performance of a specified index (like the FTSE 100) and to provide you with the same return as that index, less fees. As a fund, your ETF investment gives you access to a portfolio of companies (shares), bonds or other asset types (such as commodities or property). Like a share, an ETF is bought and sold on a stock...

Vector Limited is a New Zealand infrastructure group that owns and manages a portfolio of energy and fibre optic infrastructure networks in New Zealand. The primary operations of the group are electricity distribution, gas transportation, natural gas, LPG sales, gas processing, metering and telecommunications. Vector’s main operational segments include: Electricity, Gas Transportation, Gas Wholesale and Technology. Vector exhibits reasonably predictable earnings as a result of the vast majority of their revenue being generated by regulated assets. While electricity and gas...

New Zealand has been warming to the potential of many high growth companies over the last few years. One such company is Pushpay. Pushpay provides mobile commerce tools that facilitate fast, secure and easy non point of sale payments between consumers and merchants. Pushpay services three target markets: the faith sector; non-profit organisations and enterprises (both small medium enterprises and corporate organisations). Those who invested $10,000 NZD in to the IPO in 2014 would be sitting on the tidy sum...

WIDER ECONOMY Many asset classes, both at home and overseas, ran into heavy weather over the past month, principally because markets started to confront the reality rather than the distant prospect of more-normal monetary policy in the United States. Many asset valuations had made sense only when interest rates looked likely to remain very low, and thus were vulnerable when the tide started to turn. There are likely to be further episodes of valuation reassessment in coming months as investors...

Grant Davies talks to Sunday Business with Andrew Patterson. This week Grant Davies talks to Andrew Patterson about the general mood of the share market, noting that low interest rates are still supporting valuations. He also looks at Tower Insurance and the increase in provisions for the Christchurch earthquake, the proposed merger of NZME and Fairfax, and agreement between brewer Moa and smaller craft beer producer ParrotDog. Grant Davies Investment Advisor Phone: 03 353 0795 Send an Email View Bio ...

Investors yearning higher yields while keeping a lid on risks have had a hard time of late. One investor says New Zealand debt may come to the rescue. U.S. Treasurys have long been a safe haven asset, but a sharp plunge in yields has pushed investors to search elsewhere. Recent Treasury International Capital (TIC) data revealed foreign investors dumped nearly $33 billion dollars in U.S. paper for the third straight month in June, begging the question of where market players...

New Zealand’s stock market continues to rally ahead of tomorrow morning’s much-anticipated official cash rate (OCR) announcement. The S&P NZX 50 is up 0.3% this week, with the gross index gaining 5.07% in the last 31 days and more than 21% so far this year. Hamilton Hindin Greene investment adviser Jeremy Sullivan says the gains have been, in large part, because of the Reserve Bank lowering the OCR and changing its sentiment at the end of last year. The market...

The Internet is a wonderful source of information but it also allows for a lot of misinformation and half truths to flourish! This includes what is said about transferring UK pensions to New Zealand. So I thought it time to try and dispel some of the more common myths about UK pension Transfers. Myth 1: Since Kiwi Saver Schemes have lost their QROPS status I can't transfer my UK Pensions to New Zealand? Wrong, there are a number of schemes in...