Own the World in One Fund

As one of our most highly requested additions, the message has been clear: you want a simpler way to invest globally. Not a portfolio you have to piece together yourself from multiple regional funds, but one fund that gives you broad exposure to the world.

The Total World Fund is now available to Kernel Plus and Premium members - a single PIE fund that gives you exposure to the global developed and emerging share markets. By making it part of our subscription plans, we've kept the management fee at 0.12% p.a. and removed transaction fees entirely. No transaction fees when you invest, no transaction fees when you rebalance, and no transaction fees when it's time to enjoy your earnings.

With exposure to approximately 9,500+ companies across developed and emerging markets, the Total World Fund doesn’t just simplify your portfolio - it broadens it at a scale that’s hard to replicate any other way. You’re not relying on any one company, sector, or country. You’re investing across a broad cross-section of the global share market, all while keeping things simple with one fund.

And because it's held within a PIE structure, it's one of the most tax-efficient ways for New Zealanders to access global shares. The tax on your returns is capped at 28% (or your standard PIR rate if lower), and the fund handles all the offshore tax complexity for you.

Global diversification also helps correct home bias. Many Kiwis naturally end up overweight in New Zealand and Australian equities because they’re familiar. The Total World Fund gives you an efficient way to broaden that exposure and participate more fully in global growth.

With zero transaction fees, Kernel’s Total World Fund is designed for investors who are actively building wealth through regular contributions. If you're putting money to work on a regular schedule (weekly, fortnightly, or even monthly) you’ll see the benefits of this fund's fee structure reflected in your yearly balance.

Many investments charge a transaction fee each time you buy or sell, and for regular contributors those costs add up. Through Kernel's plans there are none - a single, fixed fee with no charges to buy, sell, or rebalance gives you both flexibility and fee certainty. You can build wealth freely, rebalance when it makes sense, and access your money at a scale and frequency that suits you. Over time, that certainty can mean more of your money stays invested and working for you.

To give you a sense of how the economics could compare against a transaction-fee model charging 0.50% per trade with a 0.06% management fee:

In this scenario, Kernel is already the lower-cost option - and the gap widens with every additional contribution or rebalance.

Cost comparison assumptions: The worked examples above compare Kernel Total World Fund (0.12% p.a. management fee, no transaction fees, $50 annual subscription via Kernel Plus) against the comparable InvestNow alternative with a 0.06% p.a. management fee and 0.50% fee on every buy and sell transaction. Contributions are assumed to be made in equal fortnightly instalments (26 per year). Management fees are estimated on the average annual balance, calculated as the starting balance plus half of the year's total contributions. This reflects that contributions made earlier in the year are in the fund longer than those made later. The comparison assumes a buy-and-hold scenario only; no withdrawal or rebalance transactions are included. If withdrawals or rebalances were factored in, the transaction-fee alternative would incur an additional 0.50% charge on each sell transaction, further increasing its cost relative to Kernel. Investment returns are excluded from both scenarios. Actual costs may vary.

The Total World Fund is built for active, regular investors - those who contribute consistently and want to make the most of everything a Kernel membership offers, from PIE Save to lower FX fees on Shares and ETFs. If you're investing regularly and want a simple, globally diversified core holding at the centre of a broader Kernel portfolio, the Total World Fund is designed for you.

But we’ll be upfront in saying this product is not the right fit for everyone. If you're making occasional or smaller contributions, our Core plan gives you access to a great range of diversified and single-sector funds that may suit you better. But if you're an active, regular investor - especially if you're currently paying a fee every time you buy or sell elsewhere - this is where a Kernel Plus or Premium membership earns its keep. Upgrading unlocks the Total World Fund with no buy or sell fees, alongside PIE Save, and lower FX fees on Shares and ETFs, so more of every contribution goes to work for you.

Kernel's membership model exists for a simple reason: it lets us keep fund fees low without recovering costs through transaction fees on the other end.

The funds unlocked with Kernel’s Plus and Premium membership keep things simple on fees: the Total World Fund carries a 0.12% p.a. management fee, PIE Save is a PIE-wrapped savings account with no management fee, and neither charges transaction fees. For the Total World Fund, that means every dollar you contribute goes straight to work - you're never charged to invest, rebalance, or withdraw, so nothing is clipped along the way.

That structure works because membership covers the platform cost. You pay a flat subscription, and in return you get funds with no hidden costs, which matters most if you're contributing regularly.

Membership also means we can keep building. The tools and features that make regular investing easier, Auto-Invest, Auto-Save, and goal tracking, are part of the same model. The subscription funds the platform, and the platform improves your outcomes over time.

If you're contributing $10,000 or more per year, a Plus membership typically pays for itself in transaction fee savings alone. Everything else, the funds, the automation, the features, come on top of that.

The Total World Fund is available now to Kernel Plus and Premium members. If you're already on one of these plans, you can find it on your Explore page and start investing today.

If you're on a free plan, you can upgrade to Plus or Premium to unlock the Total World Fund alongside PIE Save, lower FX fees on Shares and ETFs and additional benefits as available.

If you’ve been waiting for a simple, globally diversified fund that can act as a core long-term holding, this is it.

Membership means we can keep fund costs low rather than recovering them through fees elsewhere. If you're contributing regularly, the math tends to work in your favour quickly.

A few key differences. The Global 100 Fund tracks the S&P Global 100 Index, while excluding companies involved in controversial weapons - it's concentrated in the 100 biggest companies. The Global ESG and Clean Energy funds apply sustainability screens, so they hold a narrower subset of global companies. Total World is the broadest option - it holds approximately 9,500 underlying companies across both developed and emerging markets, with no sector or sustainability tilt. If you want greater diversification in a single fund, this is it.

Currency hedging, smoothing out the effect of NZD movements against the currencies of the companies you're invested in, adds cost and complexity. For a long-term, globally diversified fund, the evidence on whether hedging improves outcomes over time is mixed. Keeping the fund unhedged means lower costs and authentic global exposure. We don’t currently have a hedged variant on the roadmap.

Once you've opened a Total World position, you can set up Auto-Invest to contribute a fixed amount on a schedule that suits you - weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. The amount is drawn from your Kernel wallet automatically, so you don't have to think about it. It's the simplest way to put the regular-contributor strategy on autopilot.

Cancelling your membership doesn't affect the money you've already invested, and you can still sell units you own at any time. However, you’ll lose the ability to make new contributions, either through Auto-Invest or one-off buys.

For a lot of investors, Total World alone is a perfectly reasonable core holding - it's diversified across thousands of companies and dozens of countries. That said, it's 100% global equities, so there's no fixed income or cash buffer built in. If you want to soften volatility or hold a short-term buffer alongside your growth investment, pairing it with Kernel PIE Save (coming next week) gives you a simple two-fund setup that covers both bases. Whether you need anything beyond that depends on your goals, timeframe, and risk appetite - and if you're unsure, it's worth talking to a financial adviser.

Kernel Wealth Limited is the manager and issuer of the Kernel KiwiSaver Plan and Kernel Funds Scheme. A Product Disclosure Statement is available at Kernel Wealth | Resources & Documents. Investing involves risk including the possible loss of principal and there is no assurance that the investment will provide positive performance over any period of time. The information provided should not be relied upon as investment advice or recommendations and should not be considered specific legal, investment or tax advice.