<i>David Chaplin:</i> KiwiSaver defaults face death sentence
Abolishing the KiwiSaver default scheme ...
Abolishing the KiwiSaver default scheme ...
When it comes to the nuts and bolts of lifting household savings, the saving group comes over all timid and tentative.
So much for stimulating public debate on NZ's hopelessly inadequate savings rate. The rather timid report produced by Bill English's savings working group has put paid to that.
The Government's Savings Work Group has taken aim at "distortions" in the tax system that fuelled the recent housing boom at the expense of other forms of saving and investment that would have promoted healthy economic growth.
While the deal is pitched as a "professional development partnership" this is really a good, old-fashioned sponsorship arrangement: the IFA needs money; NZ Funds needs financial advisers to feed it clients.
The first ANZ Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence survey of the new year has recorded a rise in consumer confidence, particularly in earthquake-hit Canterbury, but the survey's authors say households are still cautious.
What happens to New Zealander when AMP buys up the local assets of AXA?