Raising our money smarts

Financial high-flyer Sam Stubbs is on a mission to help more Kiwis learn how to build wealth.

- PAUL LITTLE

Sam Stubbs, co-founder and public face of Simplicity, the not-for-profit KiwiSaver and fund manager, is in Oslo. He is not there to research possible investment opportunities for the fast-growing company, nor to examine how a socially progressive country tends its citizens’ finances. He’s there because he told his 18-year-old son, Ben, that if Ben applied himself to his studies, he would take him on a trip anywhere in the world. Consequently, the early morning Zoom call is backgrounded by Ben’s hunt for socks and a charger as he prepares to amble out for breakfast.

Stubbs and his partner, journalist Amanda Morrall, have a blended family made up of his two – Emma, 21, and Ben – and her two – Connor, 20, and Liam, 19. All are students. Morrall is one of Simplicity’s other co-founders, along with Andrew Lance and Amir Bashir.

It will probably reassure Simplicity’s 126,000 investors to know that the man overseeing their $4.3 billion in investments has their interests in mind, even on the other side of the world.

“Every single cent of it is someone else’s money and it’s a very big responsibility,” says Stubbs, “but I don’t consider it a burden. When you have 3000 investments in 23 countries, on any one day something’s going up and something’s going down. If you have diversified risk, nothing can hurt you too much. You tend to sleep well at night.”

Simplicity is run as a close-knit team including the founders, 30 staff and a changing roster of volunteers.