InvestNow Review: New Zealand's Best Platform for Buy-and-Hold Investors

If you value low costs above everything else and plan to hold for years rather than trade for weeks, InvestNow is probably the best investment platform in New Zealand.

Zero platform fees. Zero transaction fees on most funds. Zero withdrawal fees. InvestNow generates revenue through rebates from the fund managers whose products are listed on the platform. You pay only the underlying fund's management fee. No markup, no hidden charges, no monthly subscription.

What You Get Access To

Every Smartshares ETF is available on InvestNow with zero commission. Over 150 managed funds from 30+ fund managers — Vanguard, Russell, AMP, Devon, Harbour, Milford, and others. InvestNow's own Foundation Series offers low-cost Vanguard ETF exposure in a PIE wrapper with a buy transaction fee of 0.50% and a sell fee of 0.50%. Term deposits from multiple NZ banks are available through the same login.

The minimum investment is NZ$50 per fund on a regular investment plan or NZ$250 for a lump sum. The platform accepts KiwiSaver and non-KiwiSaver accounts. The KiwiSaver scheme has no annual administration fee — a significant saving compared to providers charging NZ$30 to NZ$45 per year.

The fund manager list is genuinely impressive. Vanguard funds offer global equity and bond exposure at institutional wholesale pricing. Milford funds offer active NZ and global equity management. Harbour offers active Australian equity. Russell offers multi-manager solutions. The breadth means you can build an entire portfolio from a single account, mixing passive index funds with active funds depending on your conviction in each approach.

The Foundation Series Detail

InvestNow's own Foundation Series funds deserve a closer look. They invest in underlying Vanguard ETFs — the Vanguard US 500 Index ETF, Vanguard International Shares Select Exclusions Index ETF, and others — wrapped in a NZ PIE structure. The buy-sell spread of 0.50% each way means the round-trip transaction cost is 1.00%. For a buy-and-hold investor who contributes monthly and rebalances once a year, the transaction cost is a modest drag. For an active trader, the spread makes Foundation Series expensive.

On the non-Foundation funds — the wholesale managed funds from Vanguard, Milford, Harbour, and others — there are zero transaction fees. You pay only the underlying fund's management fee. This makes InvestNow the cheapest way to access most of these funds, because you are not paying a platform fee on top of the manager fee.

The Trade-Off

The interface is dated. It works perfectly well — orders process, statements download, tax documents are clear — but the design is not trying to compete with Sharesies or Kernel on aesthetics. It is a functional tool, not a lifestyle app.

There is no mobile app. The range is large enough to be overwhelming for beginners — over 200 funds with varying fee structures, performance records, and investment strategies requires research. InvestNow suits the investor who knows what they want and wants the cheapest way to buy it.

Term deposit management through InvestNow is a hidden strength. You can access term deposits from multiple banks through the same login, with competitive rates displayed alongside the managed fund options. The NZ$5,000 minimum for term deposits is standard. Having term deposits and managed funds in one dashboard is convenient for investors who use both cash and growth assets in their portfolio.

The Bottom Line

For a buy-and-hold investor building a portfolio of low-cost index funds, InvestNow is the most cost-effective platform in New Zealand bar none. The zero platform fee on a NZ$100,000 portfolio saves NZ$200 to NZ$600 per year compared to platforms with annual membership fees. Over twenty years, compounded, that gap is material.

The main reason not to use InvestNow is that you value the user experience, mobile app, or simplicity of a platform like Sharesies or Kernel. If those matter more than the annual cost saving, InvestNow is not the right choice. But if your priority is maximising net returns through minimising costs, InvestNow is the clear winner in the New Zealand market.

Practical Portfolio Building

A typical InvestNow portfolio might look like this: 70% in the Vanguard International Shares Select Exclusions Index Fund via the Foundation Series, 20% in the Smartshares NZ Top 50 Fund, and 10% in the Smartshares International Bond Fund. The Foundation Series component costs 0.50% each way on the buy-sell spread but the ongoing management fee is low. The Smartshares components cost nothing to buy on InvestNow and have transparent ETF fees.

The regular investment plan is how InvestNow works best. Set up an automatic monthly contribution of NZ$500 split across your chosen funds. The NZ$50 minimum per fund means even small contributions can be spread across three or four funds. Over time, the zero platform fee on a growing portfolio compounded over decades creates a meaningful gap compared to platforms that charge a percentage or flat annual fee.