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kōura Wealth KiwiSaver Review (2026)
Digital-advice KiwiSaver scheme that builds a personalised, multi-fund portfolio based on your salary, life stage and retirement goals.
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Brent Coleman
What is kōura Wealth?
kōura Wealth is a digital-advice KiwiSaver scheme that builds a personalised portfolio for each member based on their salary, life stage and retirement goals, and states expected retirement outcomes upfront. It uses index-based underlying funds. kōura is a relatively new and less-tested scheme compared with the country's longer-established KiwiSaver providers.
What can you invest in?
kōura takes a different approach to most KiwiSaver schemes. Instead of choosing a single "conservative," "balanced" or "growth" fund, members build a personalised portfolio from 10 single-asset-class funds. This includes five Core Growth funds, three Specialty Growth funds (sector specific), and two Core Income funds that chase yield.
They offer three ways to build your KiwiSaver portfolio:
- Digital Advice Tool: recommends a mix based on your goals and risk tolerance.
- Preset Strategies: mixes funds to align with a conservative, balanced, or growth risk level.
- Pick Your Own: choose your own mix from their ten funds. Only limit is that the Bitcoin fund is capped to a 20% weighting.
Fees
Fees are mid-range for an index-based provider, ranging from 0.63% p.a. to 1.10% p.a., plus a $30/year admin fee. This is higher than ultra-low-fee competitors like Simplicity, but paying for the multi-fund personalisation and advice tooling rather than active stock-picking. Members who want extra help can pay for kōura's Navigator Service, an adviser-assisted version of the self-build option.
| Fund tier | Annual fee |
|---|---|
| Cash, Fixed Interest, NZ Equities, US Equities, Rest of World Equities, Emerging Markets Equities | 0.63% p.a. |
| Strategic High Growth, NZ Property, Clean Energy, Bitcoin | 1.10% p.a. |
| Administration fee (members 18+) | $30/yr ($2.50/mo), waived under 18 |
| Kōura Navigator Service (optional, adviser-assisted) | Negotiated individually, % of balance |
| Digital advice tool | Free |
Performance
Morningstar KiwiSaver 360 (Q2 2026, as at 30 June 2026) corroborates kōura's own reported fees and figures: kōura Strategic High Growth ranked #1 in the Aggressive category for 1-year return (26.5%), and kōura Clean Energy posted the highest 3-month return of any KiwiSaver fund in the market that quarter (31.8%). Summing Morningstar's reported assets across kōura's 10 funds gives approximately $484 million in total funds under management as at 30 June 2026.
The bottom line
kōura is a comparatively young and smaller scheme (~$500m under management as of mid-2026), so it doesn't have the long track record of the bigger incumbents. It is best suited to members who want more control over their fund mix or specific thematic exposure (property, clean energy, Bitcoin) than what standard providers offer. It is less suited to anyone wanting the simplicity of a single set-and-forget fund.
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