May 22, 2018

The risk of many New Zealanders reaching retirement with little or nothing will be addressed at the New Zealand Financial Capability Summit on June 12.

The Commission for Financial Capability (CFFC) will hold the biennial summit in Auckland, bringing together experts and those working at the front line of financial education.

“Future retirees face savings headwinds with declining home ownership, increased debt, and low interest rates,” says the head of the CFFC, Retirement Commissioner Diane Maxwell.

In the CFFC’s latest quarterly Financial Capability Barometer survey of 2000 New Zealanders aged 18+, the percentage of people who felt they were ‘just treading water’ or ‘sinking’ financially had increased from 48% to 52%.

“Navigating financial choices across a lifetime has become ever more important in avoiding the jeopardy of reaching retirement with little or nothing.”

The summit, which is free and open to the public, will be opened by the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Kris Faafoi. The day will focus on topics such as the impact of high-cost consumer debt on vulnerable groups, how KiwiSaver could be improved to ensure more New Zealanders benefit from it, and who should have the right to share our financial data. Experts will also discuss why it’s important for people to have an emergency savings account and what other countries are doing to enable workers to build them, and the devastating effect of the rising tide of frauds and scams on people’s savings, and New Zealand’s economy. Increasingly, people are working past 65 by choice or necessity, and the summit will look at how Kiwis can equip themselves to stay in the workforce.

Maxwell says the summit presents a rare opportunity for the public and people working in the field to come together to confront the barriers to building wealth in New Zealand, and find possible solutions.

“The big picture around the Summit is that our population is ageing as we live longer and have fewer babies – by 2050 one in four people will be 65-plus,” says Maxwell. “That presents a mountain of challenges we need to traverse to secure a decent financial future for all New Zealanders. This summit will be an important step on that journey.”

The New Zealand Financial Capability Summit 2018, organised by the Commission for Financial Capability (CFFC), will be held on June 11-12 at the Cordis Hotel in Auckland. It is free and open to the public. Find out more and register at cffc.org.nz

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