Lifetime Group gears up for mortgages - Good Returns
Lifetime Group gears up for mortgages - Good Returns
It has formed a strategic partnership with the Rothbury Group which see it take over Rothbury’s life insurance and mortgage businesses. Rothbury gets Lifetime’s general insurance business and it is also is taking a cornerstone shareholding in Lifetime.
Rothbury, which is the fourth largest general broker in New Zealand and part of the ASX-listed Steadfast Group, has bought a 19.5% stake in the business for $8 million.
Lifetime’s mortgage business will get another eight brokers, bringing the total to 19, and it will generate around $400 million in loans a year.
Lifetime chief executive Mike Jones says that he sees “real potential for growth in the mortgage business”
Market & Portfolio Update - April 2022
Global share markets continued their choppy start to 2022 during April.For New Zealand based investors, a fall in the NZ dollar played an important role in helping offset the volatility global share markets experienced. The NZ dollar fell against most major currencies supporting the returns of unhedged overseas assets (assets that are free to move with exchange rates). As a result, ‘unhedged’ overseas investments fell by only 1.8% for NZ based investors.
The KiwiSaver Gender Divide – Why are women saving less and what can be done to combat this?
Recent data shows that, on average, women have 20% less in their KiwiSavers than men. The gap being at its largest between men and women in their 40s and 50s. There are a few factors that come into play causing this divide and although it will take years to achieve equality, there are ways in which we can be proactive to help close the gap. As of August 2021, the gender pay gap is at 9.1% in New Zealand, a decrease of about 0.4% from 2020’s stats.