DIY Investing vs Using a Financial Adviser in NZ

DIY Investing vs Using a Financial Adviser in NZ

There is no official New Zealand-wide survey of what financial advisers charge. That single gap explains most of the confusion around this decision. Any article quoting you one tidy "average adviser fee" is making it up, and we would rather tell you that upfront than hand you a number that does not exist.

What we can give you is observed quoted pricing, the actual platform fee schedules, and the rules that govern who is allowed to call themselves an adviser. Between those three things, you can work out what advice would cost at your balance and whether it is worth it.

The most useful thing we found is not a fee figure at all. It is that a percentage means nothing until you convert it to dollars at your own portfolio size. One per cent on $50,000 is $500 a year. The same rate on $1 million is $10,000. Same headline, ten times the money.

How We Researched This Guide

We pulled the platform figures straight from each provider's own published pricing. Sharesies, Hatch and Stake all set out their brokerage, FX and plan fees in public schedules, so we used those rather than anyone's summary of them. The regulatory material comes from the FMA, MBIE, the Companies Office register and the Financial Markets Conduct Act itself, which is set out in full on legislation.govt.nz.

Adviser fees were harder. Search results kept returning a banned comparison site plus several advisory firms' own marketing pages, so we discarded all of it. What we kept are the ranges where three independent published sources converge — hourly rates in the region of $200 to $400, plans around $1,500 to $5,000, ongoing fees around 0.5% to 1.5% a year. Read those as observed quotes, never as market averages. We also confirmed the FMA's 2026/27 priority is commission-driven conflicts of interest, which tells you where the regulator sees the risk sitting.

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The Quick Summary (60-Second Version)

If you only read one part, read this.

• Adviser fees are quoted three ways: a fixed fee for defined work, an hourly rate, or an ongoing percentage of the money managed.
• An ongoing fee of 1% a year costs $500 on a $50,000 portfolio and $10,000 on $1 million — always convert the rate to dollars at your own balance.
• Adviser fees sit on top of fund fees. A 1% advice fee on a portfolio otherwise costing 0.4% roughly triples your total cost.
• Small US share trades cost a few dollars either way. At larger sizes the FX fee dominates and flat brokerage stops mattering.
• Being on the Financial Service Providers Register does not mean the adviser is licensed or FMA-regulated. Only limited criminal checks are done.
• All licensed advice providers must belong to a dispute resolution scheme, and taking a complaint there costs you nothing.

What Advice Actually Costs, and Why the Headline Rate Misleads

Advice is priced one of three ways, or a combination. A fixed fee buys a defined piece of work: a recommendation on a specific question, implementation of it, or a comprehensive plan covering your whole position. An hourly rate suits a discrete question or someone who wants expertise without an ongoing relationship. The third is an ongoing percentage of the money the adviser manages, charged for as long as they manage it.

Separately, an adviser may be paid by the product provider rather than by you. That is common for insurance, KiwiSaver and investments, and it is why a first meeting often costs nothing. It is also the arrangement the FMA is watching most closely.

The Ranges We Saw Quoted

Published adviser pricing commonly sits in the region of $200 to $400 an hour, with junior advisers quoted lower and specialists higher. Comprehensive plans were observed around $1,500 to $5,000, with more complex plans quoted above that. Ongoing percentage fees were observed around 0.5% to 1.5% a year, generally reducing as the portfolio gets larger.

Platform Fees: The DIY Side of the Ledger

DIY costs are not zero, and the cheapest platform depends entirely on your order size and how often you trade. There is no single winner. A flat minimum fee punishes small orders. A percentage fee with a cap means the cap only matters once you are trading large amounts.

Take a single US$500 US share trade. Hatch charges US$3 brokerage plus 0.5% FX on the amount exchanged, so about US$5.50 all in before any exchange spread. Stake charges US$3 brokerage plus a 1% FX fee with a US$2 minimum, so about US$8. Sharesies charges 1.9% capped at US$5, so US$5. The Sharesies cap is reached on US orders over US$264, a low threshold, so most small US trades pay the capped fee rather than the percentage.

At small order sizes the differences are a few dollars. At large order sizes the FX fee on a percentage basis dominates and the flat brokerage becomes irrelevant, which is when Stake's US$30,000 threshold rate and Hatch's scaling tiers start to matter. We have deliberately not attempted an all-in comparison including exchange rate spreads, because none of the three publishes its spread and any figure would be invented.

What the Fund Charges on Top

Fund fees are separate from both advice fees and platform fees. A fund fee is paid whether or not you have an adviser. This is where the additive cost of advice becomes clear: an adviser fee sits on top of the underlying fund fees, so a 1% advice fee on a portfolio otherwise costing 0.4% roughly triples the total. The FMA has also found no systematic relationship between fees charged and returns received.

Vetting an Adviser Before You Hand Over Anything

The Companies Office keeps the Financial Service Providers Register, where you can find licensed Financial Advice Providers and the advisers who work for them. You can search by name or FSP number. It shows registration date and status, trading names, business address, the services the provider is registered or licensed to give, and the dispute resolution scheme they belong to.

Here is the part that catches people out. Registration alone does not mean the adviser or firm is licensed or regulated by the FMA. As part of the FSPR application process only limited criminal checks are done, and no other checks or assessments are made. Being on the register does not mean a business is licensed, regulated by the FMA, or even based in New Zealand. If you use an unlicensed provider, it is very unlikely you will recover your money if things go wrong.

The Duties That Protect You

Anyone giving regulated financial advice must give priority to your interests, exercise care, diligence and skill, and meet the Code's standards for ethical behaviour, conduct and client care. The Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services 2025 came into force on 1 November 2025, replacing the first version. Providers must also disclose fees, commissions and conflicts of interest that could impact the advice.

Note the design assumption: the regime manages conflicts through disclosure and duties rather than prohibiting them. That arms you with information rather than removing the conflict, which is why the disclosure document is the document that matters.

Questions You Might Have

Do I need an adviser if my portfolio is small?

Usually not for the investing itself. A minimum fee quoted in dollars can lift the effective percentage sharply on a smaller balance, so the maths works against you. A one-off hourly session on a specific question often gives you most of the value without an ongoing relationship.

How do I check whether an adviser is actually licensed?

Search the Financial Service Providers Register by name or FSP number, then confirm the provider holds a full FAP licence. The register will show which financial advice provider an adviser is engaged by. If they are not linked to a licensed provider, ask why before going further.

What happens if I'm unhappy with the advice?

Every licensed provider must belong to an approved dispute resolution scheme, and it costs you nothing to take a complaint there. It works like arbitration rather than a court hearing, and any resolution is confidential. Taking a complaint to a scheme does not close off other legal avenues.

Is commission-based advice always a bad deal?

No. A commission model means advice can be accessed without an upfront payment, which matters for people who would not otherwise pay a fee. What matters is whether the commission is disclosed, whether the amount is material, and whether the adviser can explain why the recommendation suits you.

Can I use an adviser for a plan and invest myself?

Yes, and plenty of people do. You pay for a defined piece of work, get a written plan, then implement it through a platform. It separates the thinking from the ongoing cost. Just check whether the plan locks you into particular products or an ongoing servicing arrangement.

What Matters Most

Neither path is inherently better. What decides it is whether you will actually do the work, and whether the cost of advice buys you something demonstrably useful. The FMA's own value-for-money framing is a good test: a service contributes value if it demonstrably helps you make better investment decisions, or demonstrably benefits the account.

So run the numbers at your balance, not someone else's. Convert every percentage into dollars. Ask any adviser for the effective rate, the total fee and a written estimate before you commit. Then check the register.

If you will panic-sell in a downturn, the cost of advice may well be money well spent. If you won't, a low-cost platform and a plan you wrote yourself is a perfectly respectable answer.