Questions We
Hear Before Every
First Meeting.

$1 million in investable assets is the threshold for our investment management fee model — the point at which a fully discretionary portfolio mandate is both warranted and cost-effective. It is not an absolute minimum. Clients below that threshold can still access Private Office advice under our advisory retainer structure, which provides the same coordinated financial planning, tax, and estate guidance on a fixed annual fee basis rather than tied to portfolio size. You can review both fee structures on our Fees page before we meet.

The $1M threshold defines the investment management fee model — not who we work with. High-income earners whose financial complexity has outgrown standard advice (equity compensation, business interests, trust structuring, tax and cashflow strategy) are well-suited to Private Office regardless of current investable assets. In those cases, we would typically engage on an advisory retainer basis rather than a portfolio management fee. See our Fees page for the full breakdown, and book a call to discuss what structure makes sense for your situation.

Private Office is our fully integrated, high-touch advisory service for clients with significant wealth and complexity. It covers investment management, financial planning, tax structuring, estate and succession planning, and protection — coordinated by a dedicated adviser team. LiftOff is our accessible service for New Zealanders building wealth, with a personalised investment portfolio, KiwiSaver strategy, and goal-based planning at a cost appropriate for an earlier stage of the wealth journey. Both offer genuine, adviser-led guidance — the right fit depends on your financial complexity and where you are.

Forsyth Barr, JBWere, and Craigs are broking and investment management firms — they are very good at what they do, but their core function is securities execution and portfolio management. My Net Worth is a holistic planning firm that operates as a full family office: investment management, financial planning, tax structuring, estate and succession advice, and protection — coordinated under one team rather than referred across multiple unconnected specialists. We are also independently owned and receive no commissions from product providers, which removes the most common source of conflict in the advice industry. The result is advice built entirely around your financial architecture, not around a product or platform.

My Net Worth Private Office is a fee-for-service firm. We do not receive commissions, product rebates, or payments from third parties in exchange for recommendations. Our fees come directly from you, tied to the scope and quality of the advice we provide. This eliminates the most common source of conflict in the financial advice industry. Our full fee schedule is published on the Fees page — you can review it before we meet.

Yes — our complete fee schedule is published on the Private Office Fees page. Investment management fees are tiered from 1.00% on the first $500,000 down to 0.25% above $5 million, billed quarterly in arrears. Planning and strategy work is charged at $400 per hour with a minimum engagement of 8 hours. An advisory retainer is available from $10,000 per annum for clients who prefer a fixed annual arrangement. There are no hidden fees and no surprises.

The first conversation is a 45–60 minute discussion focused entirely on understanding your situation — where you are today, what you have built, what you want to protect, and the future you are working toward. There is no agenda, no product presentation, and no obligation. You do not need to prepare anything other than a willingness to talk openly about your financial life. We will ask questions. You should ask them too. The goal is to establish whether we are the right firm for you — and whether you are the right client for us.

Not in a Private Office mandate. We treat your KiwiSaver as one component of your total financial architecture — positioned alongside your investment portfolio, your tax structure, and your retirement income strategy. We advise on fund selection, contribution rate, and the role KiwiSaver plays in your overall retirement plan rather than treating it as a separate product. This integration is one of the clearest examples of what coordinated advice produces that isolated advice cannot.

DIMS stands for Discretionary Investment Management Service — an FMA-regulated service that authorises an investment manager to make portfolio decisions on your behalf without requiring your approval for each individual transaction. This matters because it allows your investment mandate to be managed with the discipline and speed that institutional portfolios require, without requiring you to approve every rebalancing decision. Our investment portfolios are managed under a DIMS framework, which means your adviser can act in accordance with your agreed strategy without the delays that come from seeking approval for routine portfolio actions.

Yes. My Net Worth Ltd is a licensed Financial Advice Provider (FAP) under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013, regulated by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Our FSP number is FSP1012016, verifiable on the Financial Service Providers Register at fsp.govt.nz. We are also a member of Financial Services Complaints Limited (FSCL), an independent dispute resolution scheme. Our full regulatory and compliance disclosures are available in the Transparency & Disclosure statement.

In most cases, you will not know — until someone reviews the whole picture at once. The most common inefficiencies we find are: a trust structure that was not updated for the 39% trustee rate; KiwiSaver accounts in the wrong fund for the client's time horizon; life and income protection insurance that has not kept pace with what the client has built; and investment portfolios that are overlapping, under-diversified, or carrying unnecessary tax drag. If you have not had a comprehensive review of your financial architecture in the last two to three years, the answer is probably that something has been missed.

Yes — and it is often the most effective arrangement. The Private Office advisory team regularly coordinates with clients' existing accountants, solicitors, and other professional advisers. Our role is not to replace those relationships but to ensure that investment strategy, financial planning, tax structuring, and estate advice are all aligned — which is rarely the case when each professional works in isolation. We are experienced at operating as the coordinating layer across a client's professional team.

We advise on the financial and structural dimensions of property as part of a client's overall wealth picture — including mortgage structure, financing strategy, trust ownership, tax implications (including the bright-line test), and how property sits alongside a broader investment portfolio. We do not act as property agents or advise on specific property selection. Where a client's situation involves significant investment property, we work alongside specialist property advisers as required.

You are not locked in. Our advisory relationships are based on value — if you do not find the advice we provide worth the fee, you should not stay. We ask for 30 days' written notice to wind down an ongoing mandate in an orderly way: transferring records, coordinating any outstanding positions, and ensuring continuity is maintained. We will never retain assets or create friction around a departure. A client who leaves because their situation changed is not a failure. A client who stays because switching feels too complicated — that is what we work to avoid.