NZSA Disclaimer
This article is based on a speech by Investors Associaton CEO, Oliver Mander, made at Investor Conference 2026 on October 22nd 2026.
The launch of Investors Association New Zealand at Investor Conference 2026 marks an important development for our Association. Our new name reflects the changing ways New Zealanders invest, and our ambition to ensure that more of them benefit from independent insight, constructive advocacy and a community of fellow investors.
Our Association must respond to the changes around us.
We do so with a strong foundation. Our members, branch committees, directors, volunteers and staff, past and present, have built an organisation that gives individual investors a voice. Their work has established the credibility that allows us to question companies, engage with decision-makers and advocate for better outcomes. Our responsibility now is to consider who else needs that voice.
Behind our new identity is a straightforward idea: the experience we have built representing shareholders can serve a wider group of people whose money is invested in businesses and markets.
Many of us enjoy selecting companies, following their progress and exercising our rights as shareholders. That remains a valuable way to invest. Increasingly, however, people also participate through KiwiSaver, managed funds, exchange traded funds or discretionary investment management services (DIMS). An individual may use several of these approaches alongside a direct share portfolio.
Those investment lives are broader than any single label suggests. Whether someone owns a few shares through an online platform or a substantial KiwiSaver balance, both have a stake in the quality of our markets. Our name needs to give us the scope to represent them. That is why we have chosen Investors Association New Zealand. It recognises the people we want to reach and the choices they already make, while carrying forward the purpose that brought our members together in the first place.
A growing base of investment
New Zealand has ranked highly in international wealth comparisons, despite falls in many housing markets. The median wealth comparison presented at the conference provides useful perspective on the resources held by New Zealanders and the opportunity to help people become more confident owners of that wealth.
That does not mean everyone has substantial investments or feels financially secure. Nor should we confuse total wealth, which includes housing, with money available for financial investment. Cost of living pressures remain very real for many families. These qualifications matter when we consider what national comparisons tell us about individual circumstances.
Even so, the growth in financial investment opens up a conversation that would have been difficult to imagine a generation ago. Alongside the immediate pressures of costs and incomes, we can increasingly talk about how New Zealanders build wealth over time.
For our Association, the opportunity is to help people understand their part in that story. Someone making a first KiwiSaver decision may appear to have little in common with a person who has managed shares for thirty years. Yet both have real dollars at risk, depend on decisions made by others, and benefit from clear information and fair treatment.
How we invest is changing
Our estimates suggest that traditional DIY investing accounted for about 38 per cent of the investment pool in 2015. By March 2026, its share was around 21 per cent.
That falling share needs careful interpretation. It does not mean that nearly half the money in direct investment has disappeared. The amount invested through traditional DIY approaches has been relatively stable, while the wider pool has grown. More money is coming through other channels, particularly KiwiSaver.
We welcome that growth. More New Zealanders now have a stake in the success of businesses around the world, whether or not they think of themselves as investors.
Access has improved enormously. A person with a phone can invest in global markets with a convenience that would once have seemed extraordinary. KiwiSaver has made regular investing part of working life, bringing in people who might otherwise never have started. Competition and a broader range of products have created more ways to participate.
Greater choice also brings more decisions. People need to understand what they own, the risks they are taking and whose judgement they are relying on. Our role is to help build that understanding. Understanding builds confidence.
Our purpose and the work ahead
Our core purpose continues: championing the rights of retail investors and encouraging fair and efficient markets in New Zealand. Independent company assessments, engagement with boards and management, and advocacy for shareholder rights remain essential.
We will build on that work as our scope broadens.
Members who value our existing services should continue to see them as central to the Association. The knowledge developed through those activities is part of what makes a wider role possible. Our track record rests on constructive engagement that produces practical outcomes and supports improvements over time. That approach will remain important as we engage with a broader investment industry.
There is a clear accountability issue in this broader investment landscape. Direct shareholders can attend a company meeting and question its board. Fund investors depend on an intermediary to exercise those ownership responsibilities. The need for scrutiny remains, and extends to how that intermediary acts on their behalf. Our experience of asking questions and representing investors gives us a strong foundation for that work.
The work ahead centres on advocacy, insight and community. Advocacy means representing retail investors in discussions with companies, market participants and government. As people invest through different approaches, those discussions need to reflect their wider interests and support a level playing field for investment opportunity.
Insight means helping people understand their investments and recognise the questions worth asking. The discipline behind our company assessments has value beyond direct share ownership. It can help a wider group of investors make sense of information and consider the decisions others make with their money.
Community means investors helping other investors. That already happens in our branches, at conferences and through conversations between members. Experienced investors bring knowledge built over many years. People starting out bring questions and perspectives that can help us improve. We want both to feel at home in the Association.
Our new identity brings these ambitions together in a simple statement: understanding builds confidence. Confidence grows when people understand their choices, recognise the risks and know where to find reliable information. It also grows when they know someone is prepared to represent their interests.
The name and brand give us a clearer way to introduce ourselves. The work we do, and the experience people have as members, will give that identity its meaning. We will continue to care deeply about New Zealand’s capital markets while recognising that investors have global choices.
I hope members will help shape what comes next. Keep contributing and keep challenging us. Think, too, of someone you know who invests but has never thought the Association was for them. We would love them to feel welcome here.
Oliver Mander