Methodology & Data Sources

What MoneyGuru is

MoneyGuru is a comparison and lead-referral service for New Zealand financial products — life insurance, health insurance, income protection, funeral insurance, car and travel and pet insurance, credit cards, personal loans, mortgages, KiwiSaver and investment products. We help Kiwis cut through the marketing, then connect them with a licensed adviser who can give regulated financial advice and arrange the policy or loan.

What MoneyGuru is NOT

• Not an insurer, lender or fund manager — we do not issue policies, hold premiums or manage money.
• Not a Financial Advice Provider (FAP) — we do not give personalised financial advice ourselves. We refer you to a licensed FAP who does.
• Not the quote engine — quotes come from the licensed adviser and their panel of product providers, not from MoneyGuru.
• Not a ratings or rankings provider — we do not publish our own league tables, awards or star ratings. Where we describe products, those descriptions come from the provider's own published material and the relevant regulator.

Our referral panel

When you submit a quote request through MoneyGuru, we share your details with one of the licensed New Zealand advisers below, depending on the product you have asked about. Each adviser is registered on the Financial Service Providers Register (FSPR) and operates under its own FAP licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA).

How we source statistical claims

Every quantitative claim about KiwiSaver thresholds, tax rates, statutory insurance caps, government cash rates, regulator-published commission ranges or any other fact about New Zealand consumers, lenders, insurers or the regulatory environment resolves to an entry in a versioned source registry. Each entry names the publisher, links the primary-source URL, and records the date of publication and the date we last verified the figure. The full list is published at /sources and updates automatically when the registry changes.

A statistic is rejected at build time if its source is older than 36 months, or if it has not yet been verified against the primary source. If you see a number on this site without an attached citation, treat it as illustrative (e.g. a worked loan-repayment example or a typical premium range) and confirm the real figure with the licensed adviser before relying on it.

Primary sources we use

• Inland Revenue (IRD) — KiwiSaver member tax credit, contribution thresholds, Prescribed Investor Rate (PIR) tiers, FIF and PIE rules.
• Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) — Official Cash Rate, household debt and lending statistics, register of licensed insurers.
• Financial Markets Authority (FMA) — Life and Family Protection Policy Brief (initial and ongoing commission ranges), Conduct of Financial Institutions Act guidance.
• Toka Tū Ake — Natural Hazards Commission — Statutory NHCover caps for residential building and contents under the Natural Hazards Insurance Act 2023.
• Kāinga Ora — Homes and Communities — First Home Grant status (discontinued 22 May 2024) and KiwiSaver First Home Withdrawal scheme.
• Stats NZ — Household income, debt-to-GDP and consumer price data.
• Financial Service Providers Register (FSPR) — FAP licences, FSP numbers, financial adviser registrations.
• Direct from product providers — Product disclosure statements (PDS), policy wordings, rate cards and fee schedules published by the relevant insurer, lender or fund manager.

Illustrative figures and worked examples

Some pages include indicative premium ranges (e.g. typical car or life insurance premium bands), worked loan-repayment scenarios, or KiwiSaver projection examples. These are educational illustrations, not insurer-specific quotes or lender-specific offers. They depend on personal factors — age, health, claims history, deposit size, credit profile and the provider's appetite for your risk — that we do not know at the comparison stage. Always rely on the quote you receive from the licensed adviser, not the ranges shown on this site.

Commission disclosure

MoneyGuru receives a referral fee from the licensed adviser when a quote we refer results in a policy or loan being put in place. This fee does not increase the premium or rate you pay. The adviser may in turn receive commission from the product provider. Under the FMA's Life and Family Protection Policy Brief, life and health insurance initial commission in New Zealand ranges from 0% to 220% of the first year's premium, with ongoing servicing commission from 0% to 30% of the annual premium for the life of the policy. Mortgage adviser commissions, commercial insurance brokerage and other product-class arrangements differ — your licensed adviser will disclose the exact figures relevant to your product in their FAP disclosure statement before any advice is given.

Update cadence

Source registry: re-verified at least quarterly, or whenever a new statutory update is released (Budget changes, IRD rate updates, RBNZ Monetary Policy Statement, etc.). Page copy: reviewed when a referenced statistic changes, when an adviser on our panel changes its FAP licence or trading arrangements, or when the regulatory environment shifts.

Reporting a factual error

If you spot an inaccurate number, an outdated source, or a description of a product or provider that you can correct from primary evidence, please get in touch via our contact page. We aim to update or remove disputed claims within five working days of confirming the correction.