A member fee of $5 per month (incl. GST) is charged for any portfolios over the balance of $25,000. This includes any money invested in Kernel funds.
When your portfolio value is less than $25,000, then there is no member fee charged.
The member fee doesn’t apply to the Kernel KiwiSaver Plan or to savings accounts. It does apply to the Kernel Cash Plus Fund.
How is the fee paid?
We deduct the member fee, in arrears, at the beginning of each month for the month prior from your Kernel wallet.
If your balance was at or above $25,000 part way through a month, we may adjust the member fee deducted to reflect this.
If you don’t have enough funds in your wallet when we try to deduct the fee, then we will deduct the amount you owe us when funds are available. We might make more than one deduction if we can’t cover the member fee at once.
Note: If you have an auto-invest set up and at least $25,000 invested, you'll need to make sure member fees are covered in order for your auto-invest to successfully go through.
Why do we charge this fee?
The member fee covers our fixed administration costs (things like transaction costs, legal and compliance fees) and enables us to lower our annual fund management fee. This is important because low investment fund management fees mean more of your portfolio returns are left for you, rather than eaten up by high fees.
If you have any questions about our fees, contact us.