Broadly speaking, we've grouped our funds into three categories which are:
Core index funds
Specialty funds
Active funds
To help you understand how our pricing works and the way we grouped our funds, we’ve outlined where each fund fits in each group and how much they cost below.
Core index funds
The bulk of our funds are index funds, meaning they track an index with the aim of matching that respective index’s performance. Read more on how an index fund works.
Within our index fund range, we consider the following funds to be “core”, in other words, suitable to make up anywhere from 70-90% of your investment portfolio.
Our core index funds include:
NZ 20
NZ Commercial Property
NZ Small & Mid Cap Opportunities
Global 100
Global 100 (NZD Hedged)
Global Infrastructure
Global Infrastructure (NZD Hedged)
S&P Global Dividend Aristocrats
S&P 500 Unhedged
S&P 500 (NZD Hedged)
High Growth
NZ 50 ESG Tilted
Global Property (NZD Hedged)
Global ESG
Global ESG (NZD Hedged)
US Bond
All core funds have an annual management fee of 0.25%, with the exception of our latest addition, the Kernel US Bond Fund, which has an annual management fee of 0.30%.
Specialty index funds
Specialty funds are those intended to make up a smaller portion of your investment portfolio, generally around 5-10%. These can be thematic funds i.e. follow a specific theme or economic trend.
Our specialty index funds include:
S&P Global Clean Energy
S&P Kensho Moonshots Innovation
S&P Kensho Electric Vehicle Innovation
Emerging Markets
All specialty index funds have an annual management fee of 0.45%.
Active funds
As we have broadened our fund range, we have introduced new asset types, such as fixed income, and therefore added actively managed funds into the mix. These are funds that are managed by our in-house portfolio manager, Matthew Winton, with the aim of beating the fund’s corresponding benchmark index’s performance.
These funds can be used as “core” funds in the same way as mentioned above.
Our active funds include:
Cash Plus
Balanced
NZ Bond
March 2027 NZ Bond
March 2029 NZ Bond
Annual management fees of the funds are as follows:
Cash & Balanced - 0.25%
NZ Bond - 0.40%
March 2027 & March 2029 NZ Bond – 0.50%.
What about the diversified funds?
Throughout our website, we refer to three diversified funds:
Kernel High Growth
Kernel Balanced
Kernel Cash Plus
We have grouped these three funds to spotlight a range of broadly diversified funds, often used as a starting point for many investors.
The High Growth Fund is an index fund, whereas the Balanced and Cash Funds are active funds. This is because of the underlying fund assets - the High Growth Fund is made up of 98%+ equities, whereas the Balanced and Cash Plus Fund include fixed income assets and are therefore actively managed.
All three of these funds have an annual management fee of 0.25%.