Investment Platforms - Frequently Asked Questions

Sharesies is usually cheapest for small, regular contributions. Its brokerage is percentage-based (1.9%, capped) rather than a flat fee, which suits small trade sizes better than Hatch's flat US$3 per trade - a $50 top-up on Hatch is a much bigger percentage hit than the same $50 through Sharesies.

Sharesies also offers optional monthly plans that reduce transaction costs further for people investing regularly. Once contribution sizes get larger, the comparison shifts toward Hatch and flat-fee platforms.

It depends on trade size. Hatch's flat US$3 per trade becomes proportionally cheaper as the trade gets bigger, so for larger, less frequent purchases of US-listed ETFs it usually works out cheaper than Sharesies' percentage-based brokerage.

For smaller or more frequent purchases, Sharesies' capped percentage fee can come out ahead. Run your actual contribution size and frequency through the platform comparison tool rather than assuming one platform wins outright.

For transactions, yes - both charge no fee to buy or sell units in their managed funds. What isn't free is the fund itself: every fund still charges an annual management fee, deducted from the fund's return rather than billed separately.

On Kernel's Global 100 fund, for example, that's 0.25% a year - $25 annually on a $10,000 holding. As a portfolio grows, that ongoing fund fee becomes the dominant cost, not the transaction fee, which is easy to miss if "no fees" gets read as "no cost at all."

Not directly - FIF is determined by what you hold and its total cost basis, not which platform you bought it through. What does matter is keeping track across platforms.

If you hold direct overseas shares or ETFs through both Hatch and Sharesies, for example, your FIF cost basis is the combined total across both, not each platform assessed separately. It's easy to lose track of the running total when it's split across more than one account.

NZX-listed PIE funds from Kernel or Smart, bought through InvestNow, Kernel directly, or a sharebroker, settle in NZD, sit inside the PIE tax structure, and never trigger FIF regardless of size.

Direct overseas ETFs, bought through a platform like Hatch, settle in USD (or another foreign currency), sit outside the PIE structure entirely, and do trigger FIF once your total offshore cost basis crosses the threshold. Same underlying idea - a fund holding a basket of shares - completely different platform, currency and tax mechanics depending on which route you take.

For NZX-listed PIE funds, generally yes structurally - nothing stops you buying Kernel's Global 100 fund through more than one broker - but it adds no real benefit and just fragments your holding across two statements.

For direct overseas ETFs bought through different brokers, splitting the same position doesn't reduce fees or risk in any way that matters, and only makes tracking your FIF cost basis harder. There's rarely a good reason to deliberately split one position across two platforms.

Yes, when the platform requires converting NZD to a foreign currency to buy. Hatch is the main example here, since it settles trades in USD.

That FX conversion has a cost, separate from the flat US$3 per-trade brokerage, and it applies both funding your account and converting proceeds back to NZD. InvestNow and Kernel's NZX-listed PIE funds avoid this entirely, since everything settles in NZD.