Laura Marwick

Kia ora.

Welcome to Shared Lunch.

I'm Laura Marwick.

KiwiSaver is an issue that's gotten quite a lot of attention in the run-up to this year's general election.

And here at Sharesies, we've recently launched our Kids KiwiSaver scheme, including kids' contributions to try and make the most of the effect of compounding returns over decades.

Joining us today is Max Rashbrook, a political writer and researcher who has written a lot about the opportunities that we have to build a better KiwiSaver scheme for New Zealand, and our own Matt McPherson, head of Shezzy's KiwiSaver.

Before we get started, here's some important information.

Max and Matt, welcome to Shared Lunch.

First of all, just to set the scene, we know from Shazzy's own research that a lot of New Zealanders aren't quite on track for what's often termed a dignified retirement.

Matt, could you just walk us through what is in those Shazzy's findings?

Not a cheerful finding there.

Maybe the obvious response to this would be to kind of look at the people who are already in the workforce, which is us grownups.

But Max, you've argued that actually kids could be the key here.

So why start there?

Hmm.

And on a related note, Matt, Sharesies has recently launched the Sharesies KiwiSaverKey scheme for kids.

And as part of that, a contribution towards kids' accounts.

That's 25 cents for every dollar that is put into the kids' account up to the value of $100.

That's a pretty big commitment from Sharesies.

Why was it so important for Sharesies to do that?