Article written by InvestNow – November 2025

What happens to your investment if InvestNow goes under?

When it comes to investing, trust matters. You’re committing your hard-earned money, so it’s natural to wonder what would happen to your assets if your investment platform fell over.

It’s important to note there is nothing to suggest our business is anywhere near going under – in fact, InvestNow has never been stronger! However, we do get this question a lot, and rightly so. 

It’s an important thing to understand, and hopefully this guide gives you confidence that your portfolio will be protected in the event of anything unforeseen. 

Who holds your money?

When you invest through InvestNow, your money isn’t legally held with us. It never appears on our balance sheet and is totally separate from our business activities. 

Instead, your assets are held in ‘custody’ with a separate legal entity to safeguard on your behalf. Your assets are legally ringfenced from InvestNow, which means your portfolio is unaffected by anything that happens to InvestNow – including if our business was to fail. 

At InvestNow, we partner with a third party custodian, Adminis Custodial Nominees Limited (Adminis), to provide custody services to protect your investments.

These custody arrangements ensure there are strict guardrails on how your investments are administered. They effectively limit both InvestNow and Adminis from doing anything other than acting on your instructions (i.e. buying or selling investments at your direction).

This custodial structure is a fundamental protection built into New Zealand’s financial regulations, and it’s a key reason why the system is so robust.

What would happen if InvestNow went under?

Again, this is very much a hypothetical situation and in no way is it a foreshadowing of impending events. But, for the sake of clarity and transparency, this is the process. And it’s actually fairly simple.

If InvestNow was to fail, your portfolio would remain with our third party custodian, who would then administer it. Nobody else can benefit from your money other than you.

In practice, one of three things could happen:

1. Your investments could be transferred into your own name. You would effectively hold your assets “off platform” yourself i.e. directly rather than via InvestNow. 
2. Your investments could be transferred to another reputable platform and/or custodian, possibly as a result of another platform acquiring InvestNow’s business.The new platform and/or custodian would continue to hold your assets strictly for your benefit.
3. Your investments could be sold and the net proceeds returned to you as cash.

It’s worth stating again that your money can never be used to pay any of InvestNow’s business costs or obligations, and it can’t be accessed by any potential InvestNow creditor. 

What if the third party custodian falls over?

Good question. Effectively, the same investor protections still apply. 

Your portfolio is also ringfenced from the business activities of Adminis. If they failed, your money is protected in exactly the same way as if our business failed.

In that event, InvestNow would securely transition your assets into a new custodial arrangement, to ensure your assets continue to be protected and administered strictly for your benefit.

In this way, your portfolio is always held in custody by a registered financial services provider, without you ever taking on the risk of that company failing.

Checks, balances and oversight

Custodians in New Zealand must follow strict rules. 

They’re audited annually by external auditors to ensure they have accurate records, effective systems and appropriate controls in place to safeguard your assets.

Audits are reviewed by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA), which monitors how custodians and investment providers operate to ensure compliance and investor protection.

What about KiwiSaver?

As InvestNow is both an investment platform and also the investment manager for the InvestNow KiwiSaver Scheme, it’s worth noting there is a slightly different process with KiwiSaver.

If anything happens to InvestNow, any assets you have in the InvestNow KiwiSaver Scheme would still be protected and held on your behalf. 

However, your ability to cash out your KiwiSaver funds would be strictly limited.

This is because KiwiSaver is designed to be a retirement fund that investors can only access under strict conditions: at the age of 65, in the event of financial hardship, or to assist with the purchase of a first home.

So if InvestNow went under before you turned 65, you would need to meet that same withdrawal criteria in order to access your KiwiSaver. This just ensures the usual KiwiSaver rules continue to apply, and the (hypothetical) failure of our business doesn’t create a loophole.

So what would happen to your KiwiSaver?

As the scheme’s registered KiwiSaver Provider, FundRock NZ would take over responsibility and appoint a new investment manager to manage your KiwiSaver assets. Should anything happen to FundRock NZ, then the scheme’s supervisor and regulator (i.e. the FMA) would get involved and appoint a new KiwiSaver provider to manage the scheme and its assets.

At all times your KiwiSaver assets remain protected and you’ll still be able to make contributions into your KiwiSaver. It would effectively be like you changed KiwiSaver providers, and you can also choose to transfer to a different KiwiSaver scheme at any time.

The big picture

The New Zealand investment system is built to protect investors through layers of independence, regulation and oversight.

• Your money is held by a custodian for safekeeping and is totally separate to the business of the investment provider, and any legal claims against it.
• The custodian is subject to annual audits to ensure proper processes are being followed and that assets are being effectively safeguarded on behalf of investors.
• You are always the legal beneficiary of your investment assets, which must only be administered accordingly to your instructions and to your benefit.

Understanding how your money is protected is part of being a better investor. 

Because peace of mind isn’t just-a-nice to have; it helps you to make confident decisions without fear of what might happen.

Disclaimer:

This information is provided by InvestNow Saving and Investment Service Limited (“InvestNow”). The information and any opinions in this publication are based on sources that InvestNow believes are reliable and accurate. InvestNow, its directors, officers and employees make no representations or warranties of any kind as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this publication and disclaim liability for any loss, damage, cost or expense that may arise from any reliance on the information or any opinions, conclusions or recommendations contained in it, whether that loss or damage is caused by any fault or negligence on the part of InvestNow, or otherwise, except for any statutory liability which cannot be excluded. All opinions and market commentary reflect InvestNow’s judgment on the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice. This disclaimer extends to any entity that may distribute this publication. The information in this publication is not intended to be financial advice for the purposes of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013, as amended by the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Act 2019. In particular, in preparing this document, InvestNow did not take into account the investment objectives, financial situation and particular needs of any particular person. Professional investment advice from an appropriately qualified adviser is recommended before making any investment. All Investments involve risk.