All that was new in 2022
Sharesies turned five in 2022—and not only has the number of investors using the platform grown (to over half a million!), but also what’s offered to those investors.
Join us as we take stock of everything that’s been rolled out this year, and look ahead to what’s coming through the pipeline in 2023.
The full shareholder experience
2022 started out with a hiss and a roar here at Sharesies, tackling the task of facilitating Air New Zealand’s rights offer. Collectively, Sharesies investors are the second largest shareholder in Air New Zealand (behind the NZ Government)—so their rights offer gave us the opportunity to open up capital raises that’ve typically only been available to institutional investors.
The experience set us up well—now having facilitated rights offers for ANZ, Cannasouth, and Greenfern Industries to name a few.
Along with the ability to take part in capital raises, we also sought to give Sharesies investors a say by introducing voting for NZX-listed companies. Voting is a powerful way to have your voice heard as an investor, and help influence the future of a company.
Staff Shares
Sharesies investors weren’t the only people to get better access to the benefits of investing this year.
Staff Shares offers a new way for staff to invest in shares in their business—and their financial future. Through Staff Shares, companies can offer simplified schemes to recruit, reward, and retain their staff, whether they have an existing scheme or are keen to start one.
We’ll work with companies to tailor their scheme and give their staff the tools they need to feel confident and taken care of.
Auto-invest for all
Auto-invest is an important part of the Sharesies experience. Being able to pick an order, the amount you want to regularly invest, then letting auto-invest place the orders for you helps to dollar-cost average—an especially useful strategy for when the share market dips.
Until recently, auto-invest was only available for investments listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX). Now, it’s possible to auto-invest in over 8,000 investments across the NZ, Aussie, and US exchanges that are available on Sharesies—making it easy as to regularly invest in your favourites.
Making way for Milford funds
Milford Asset Management is a New Zealand-based and award-winning investment firm with over $16 billion of funds under management. They take an active and flexible approach to investing, using a wide range of strategies to take advantage of changing market conditions.
Their funds were highly requested by Sharesies investors—with over 60% of respondents to a poll in our Share Club Facebook Group wanting to see them.
And in September, we delivered. Our blog has a list of the funds added, as well as instructions on how to find them on Sharesies.
App updates galore
We haven’t just added to what’s offered on Sharesies—we’ve also been upgrading things under the hood, including:
Introducing face and fingerprint authentication, and PIN when logging in
Saying farewell to the hamburger menu, and hello to the nav bar
Helping you stay on the money with push notifications and an Activity Feed
Creating widgets, so you could check how your Portfolio is performing from the comfort of your home(screen).
If you haven’t already downloaded the Sharesies app, you can find it on the App Store or Google Play Store.
Lots to Learn about
Alongside all the new features launched throughout the year, we also made sure our educational content was keeping pace.
Shared Lunch (our weekly conversation with CEOs and experts) went gangbusters, becoming the #1 business and investing podcast in New Zealand on Apple Podcasts. 2022 also saw the launch of our new Go-to Guide, which breaks down broad investing topics into five easy-to-read emails.
Our co-CEOs Brooke, Leighton, and Sonya put pen to paper to share their founders’ story and teach you how to invest in their new book The Sharesies Guide to Investing. Through easy-to-digest information, jargon-busting investing speak, and stories from Sharesies investors, you'll discover how investing can help you secure your financial future.
The Sharesies KiwiSaver Scheme
Perhaps the biggest update of them all—we announced the Sharesies KiwiSaver scheme coming in 2023. We’re shaking up the investment industry again, with a more loveable way to save for retirement or your first home!
Creating a KiwiSaver scheme is a natural step in Sharesies’ evolution. We’ve helped to build a more confident, experienced community of investors by removing the barriers that priced and jargoned people out of the share market. Now, we want to do the same for KiwiSaver members.
After all, KiwiSaver is where most New Zealanders are regularly investing!
What’s coming next?
Even after all of that, we’re not resting on our laurels. There’s a lot on the horizon for 2023:
Giving investors more control over how they buy and sell shares, with the introduction of live data, stop-loss orders, and the ability to have multiple auto-invest orders
Introducing dividend reinvestment plans and auto-dividend reinvestment
Launching a savings account
Expanding shareholder voting into other share markets
Allowing the transfer of Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) shares
Increasing top-up options through Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Let us know what you think!
We’re really keen to hear what you think about these changes! You can let us know your feedback, or ideas for how we can improve Sharesies, by flicking us an email at help@sharesies.co.nz.
Ok, now for the legal bit
Investing involves risk. You aren’t guaranteed to make money, and you might lose the money you start with. We don’t provide personalised advice or recommendations. Any information we provide is general only and current at the time written. You should consider seeking independent legal, financial, taxation or other advice when considering whether an investment is appropriate for your objectives, financial situation or needs.
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