Around the world: New Zealand's KiwiSaver

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With the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) coming, the NZ government illustrates a low-cost approach to distributing protection products. Greg Becker explains

KiwiSaver is the New Zealand government’s strategy to increase savings for retirement. The solution is voluntary, but has been designed with features that make it accessible. Enrolment is automatic, and although opt-outs are permissible, many customer focused features have been developed to increase take-up: ■ there is a NZ$1,000 kick-start payment from the government ■ it accepts employee and employer contributions directly from pay ■ it has simple contribution options (either 2%, 4% or 8% of salary) ■ employers are compelled to make a 2% contribution if you do ■ it is...

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