David Seymour’s idea to divert KiwiSaver cash to train children to be lifelong investors
Thursday, 23 April 2026
Act leader David Seymour has raised the idea of shaving a few cents off KiwiSaver government contributions, and to give that money to children to teach them to invest.
Seymour, not speaking in his role as deputy prime minister, suggested diverting around $30 million each year from the roughly $600m in KiwiSaver subsidies paid into KiwiSaver accounts to put it into “controlled” accounts for Year 11 school students.
In a speech to workers at ANZ bank in Christchurch on Thursday, Seymour said: “Every fifth former, or year 11 if you’re under 40, is given $500 in a controlled investment account, with a structured pathway into real investing.”
“Over the year they graduate to higher levels of risk and reward, so long as they pass tests of their knowledge,” he said.
They would graduate through term deposits to managed funds to New Zealand company shares, to global shares.
There were options for what happened to the money, and any profit made on the money, at the end of the year.
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It could all be transferred into a KiwiSaver account for the children, or recorded as a credit on a student loan account, or “to sharpen incentives”, the children could be allowed to withdraw any gains they made as cash to spend, with the principal being transferred into KiwiSaver.
“That would send a powerful message that good decisions have rewards,” Seymour told the bankers.
The investment accounts could be provided by private companies like Sharesies, or Black Bull, with appropriate safeguards and curriculum support.
Seymour said New Zealanders needed higher levels of financial literacy to build a more prosperous future.
“We have too much of our wealth in housing compared with equity in productive business,” he said. “Productivity growth has been flat for nearly two decades, asset price growth, especially in property, is the main way people have gotten ahead. This dynamic is creating frustration and division.”
“If we are going to become a wealthier and more unified country, without crashing existing asset prices, then we need growth. We need more investment in productive assets,” he said.
Seymour didn’t think schools were currently doing a good job in teaching investment literacy, and most people only encountered the concepts of investing after they left school.
“Bluntly, I do not think our current education system is set up to teach this. If you are a teacher, your pay is negotiated collectively by a union, your resources are provided by the taxpayer, and if you lose customers, there is no commercial penalty,” he said.
“This isn’t a criticism of teachers, but an acknowledgement that the education system is not commercial. It is not a natural environment to teach about markets, investment, and competition.”
ACT has never been a keen supporter of KiwiSaver, or the government effectively borrowing to make contributions to people’s KiwiSaver account.
But the party has come to accept that KiwiSaver is a part of the landscape, and sees the financial literacy idea as a way of making KiwiSaver less of a passive experience for investors.
“For most New Zealanders their first and most prominent brush with investment is KiwiSaver. Most join via automatic enrolment when they get their first job after leaving school, their accounts accumulate over time and for many they won’t even look at it again until it’s time to buy their first home,” Seymour said.
“This policy would change how many people see the world. If you are an investor, even in a small way, you stop seeing yourself as a passenger in the global economy, and start seeing yourself as someone who can take the wheel,” he said.
The party says the idea hasn’t been properly costed out, as a full policy would be, and it had only done back of envelope calculations to indicate how it might work.
And, it was keen to point out that the $500 would not be “a handout”, but “an investment in young Kiwis to grow their own wealth”.