Another new KiwiSaver provider is poised to enter the market in a joint venture between Hobson Wealth and former KPMG consultant, Rupert Carlyon.
It is understood that the Kōura Wealth scheme, once launched, would have a robo-advice-like front-end that feeds into portfolios managed by Hobson.
Carlyon owns about half of Kōura while stock broking house Hobson (previously Macquarie NZ) owns most of the remainder.
Kōura Wealth listed on the Financial Services Providers Register (FSPR) in March but has yet to gain it managed investment scheme (MIS) licence – the regulatory precursor to setting up a KiwiSaver scheme.
Carlyon says on his LinkedIn page that Kōura is in the “process of building a different KiwiSaver scheme”.
“Using smart technology and best in class investment strategies, we will help people make the most out of their KiwiSavers to help them achieve their financial objectives,” he says.
In a recruitment video on YouTube, Carlyon says Kōura aims to “change the way people think about KiwiSaver”.
He says the scheme will have a “unique, differentiated product structure that technology allows us to deliver”.
If approved, Kōura would be the fourth new asset manager-linked KiwiSaver scheme to launch in the last year or so following closely on the heels of the Pathfinder-backed, CareSaver last month.
Both Nikko Asset Management and the Pie Funds (under the Juno brand) opened up new KiwiSaver schemes last year.
Including Kōura, the entrance of the new boutique brands would bring the KiwiSaver scheme count up to 33 after the population slumped to 29 in 2017 from a peak above 50.
KiwiSaver total funds under management is closing in on $60 billion.
Prior to founding Kōura, Carlyon spent over two years as merger and acquisitions specialist at KPMG in Auckland. He also worked in strategy roles in NZ for Tower Insurance and Vector after an almost eight-year investment banking career with UBS in the UK.
Hobson Wealth is headed by Warren Couillault, who was involved with launch of both the Fisher Funds and Generate KiwiSaver schemes. Couillault left Fisher Funds in 2008 but was a minor shareholder of Generate until this March.
Kōura is the Māori word for NZ’s native freshwater crayfish but it also has the broader meaning of abundance.