Hatch Invest NZ: US Shares, Fees and How It Works

If you want to own a slice of Apple, Nvidia, Tesla or an S&P 500 index fund directly from New Zealand, Hatch is one of the most straightforward ways to do it. This guide explains, factually, what Hatch is, how it works, what it currently costs in 2026, the New Zealand tax you need to understand, how your money is protected, and how it stacks up against Sharesies and other platforms. It is general information only — not financial or tax advice, and not a recommendation to invest.

What Hatch is and how it works

Hatch is a New Zealand investment platform that gives everyday (retail) investors access to shares and exchange-traded funds listed on the United States share markets — the NYSE and NASDAQ. An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a single investment that holds a basket of many companies, so buying one unit spreads your money across a whole index such as the S&P 500. Hatch is a do-it-yourself platform: it is not a managed fund, a robo-adviser or a KiwiSaver scheme, so you choose every investment yourself.

Founded in 2018, Hatch was one of the first services to make US investing genuinely accessible to Kiwis. It is now the retail arm of FNZ, a Wellington-headquartered global wealth-technology company that acquired Hatch from Kiwi Wealth in 2021. Through Hatch you can invest in thousands of US-listed companies and more than 1,900 ETFs, from household names to broad index and megatrend funds.

The mechanics are simple. You open an account online, verify your identity, and transfer New Zealand dollars from your bank. When you place a buy order, Hatch converts your NZD to US dollars and executes the trade on the US market; when you sell, the proceeds are converted back to NZD. If you are new to markets in general, our guide on how to invest in New Zealand covers the basics of shares, funds and risk before you start.

One point of clarity, because older write-ups of Hatch sometimes get it wrong: Hatch is US-only. It does not offer New Zealand (NZX) or Australian (ASX) shares, so you cannot hold your NZ and US investments together in a single Hatch account. If you want local or Australian shares as well, you would use a different platform alongside it.

What Hatch costs in 2026

Fees are the crux of any platform comparison, and Hatch uses a flat per-trade fee rather than a percentage of the order. The current pricing, confirmed on the company’s own page at hatchinvest.nz/pricing, works like this:

• Brokerage: a flat US$3 to buy or sell up to 300 shares in a single order, then 1 US cent per additional share above 300.
• Currency conversion (FX): 0.5% each time money is converted between NZD and USD — so once on the way in and again on the way out.
• Auto-Invest: scheduled, automated orders are capped at 1% of the order value per stock, which makes small recurring buys far cheaper than placing them manually.
• US tax paperwork: a one-off US$1.50 fee from your first deposit and 50 US cents a year from your balance, which covers the US tax forms Hatch files on your behalf.
• Minimum: there is no minimum deposit and you can invest from as little as US$1; there is no monthly or ongoing account subscription.

The practical takeaway is that the flat fee makes Hatch relatively cost-effective on larger one-off orders and relatively expensive on very small manual trades. Place a US$100 manual order and the US$3 brokerage alone is about 3% before FX; place a US$2,000 order and it is well under 1%. The important nuance many summaries miss is that Auto-Invest’s 1% cap changes this picture for regular savers — if you drip-feed US$100 a fortnight through Auto-Invest, brokerage is capped at roughly US$1, not US$3. So the honest rule of thumb is: use Auto-Invest or batch into larger buys for small amounts, and the flat fee works in your favour on bigger trades.

Because the FX margin applies on each conversion, frequent switching in and out of USD also adds up. If you already hold US dollars, you can deposit them directly and skip the inbound FX fee; keeping an eye on the NZD to USD exchange rate can also help you judge timing, though no one can reliably predict currency moves.

Fractional shares and what you can buy

Hatch supports fractional investing — you can buy a slice of a share by dollar amount rather than having to afford a whole share. That matters in the US market, where a single share of some companies costs hundreds of US dollars; fractional investing lets you put, say, US$50 into a stock regardless of its share price. This resolves a point older reviews disagreed on: Hatch does offer fractional shares today, alongside whole shares and ETFs. You can confirm the current detail in the company’s help centre at hatchinvest.nz/faqs.

The investment universe covers thousands of US-listed companies plus a large range of ETFs — broad index funds that track the S&P 500 or Nasdaq-100, sector funds, and thematic (megatrend) funds covering areas such as clean energy or artificial intelligence. Spreading money across an index fund is one way to reduce the risk of any single company, and combined with regular contributions it lets compound interest do more of the work over time.

FIF tax — the key consideration for US shares

New Zealand’s Foreign Investment Fund (FIF) regime is the single most important tax point for anyone building a US share portfolio, and it catches many first-time investors off guard. If the total cost of your offshore investments (what you paid for them, not their current value) passes the de minimis threshold, you are generally taxed each year on a deemed return — income the rules assume you earned — even if you never sold anything and received no dividends.

The threshold is currently NZ$50,000 of cost across all your offshore holdings combined. Below it, FIF does not apply and you simply pay tax on any dividends as ordinary income. Above it, the common calculation method — the Fair Dividend Rate (FDR) — treats 5% of the opening market value on 1 April as taxable income. A US-share portfolio worth NZ$100,000 at the start of the tax year would therefore have NZ$5,000 treated as income, whether it rose or fell that year.

One 2026 development to be aware of: the Government has proposed lifting the FIF de minimis threshold from NZ$50,000 to NZ$100,000, to apply from 1 April 2026 if enacted. As of October 2026 this change is in a taxation bill before Parliament and is not yet law, so the NZ$50,000 threshold still stands for now — check the current position before relying on it. The official rules are set out by Inland Revenue at ird.govt.nz — FIF.

Separately, the United States deducts a 15% withholding tax on dividends paid to New Zealand investors who have completed a W-8BEN form (Hatch handles this), and you can usually credit that against your New Zealand tax to avoid being taxed twice. FIF is complex, so if you are near or over the threshold it is worth engaging an accountant who knows the regime; our New Zealand tax rates guide covers the wider tax picture.

Is Hatch safe? Regulation and how your shares are held

Hatch operates under New Zealand’s financial-markets rules and is overseen by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA), the regulator you can check at fma.govt.nz. Your US shares are held through DriveWealth, a US broker-dealer and member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). SIPC protection covers your shares up to US$500,000 if the broker fails — importantly, this protects against the broker collapsing (custodial risk), not against your investments losing value (market risk).

That distinction matters. No platform, regulator or protection scheme can stop share prices falling; markets rise and fall, and you can get back less than you put in. What SIPC and FMA oversight give you is confidence that your holdings are properly segregated and recorded, and that the provider operates under enforceable rules. As with any investment, there is no guarantee of returns.

Hatch vs Sharesies and other platforms

Hatch and Sharesies are the two best-known names in New Zealand retail investing, and the choice usually comes down to how you invest rather than which is objectively better. The table below sets out the main platforms side by side on the points that affect cost and reach.

In short: Hatch is US-only with a flat US$3 trade fee that tends to be a little cheaper than Sharesies on larger US orders. Sharesies covers NZ, Australian and US markets, offers fractional investing, and — for its NZX Smartshares range — uses PIE-taxed funds that sidestep FIF. Many investors use both platforms for different jobs. Our full Sharesies review covers that platform in detail. If you do hold accounts on more than one service, remember that the FIF threshold is measured across all your offshore holdings combined, not per platform.

Who Hatch suits

Hatch tends to work well for:

• Investors building a US share or ETF portfolio with larger, less frequent orders, where the flat US$3 fee is cost-effective.
• Long-term, buy-and-hold investors who want direct ownership of US companies and funds.
• Regular savers using Auto-Invest, where the 1% cap keeps small recurring buys affordable.
• Confident DIY investors who are comfortable choosing their own investments without advice.

It is a weaker fit for:

• Frequent, small manual trades, where the flat fee is a high percentage of a tiny order.
• Beginners wanting guidance — Hatch offers no financial advice or managed option.
• Anyone wanting NZ, Australian or European shares in the same account, because Hatch is US-only.
• KiwiSaver-focused savers — Hatch has no KiwiSaver product, so it complements rather than replaces your scheme. See our KiwiSaver guide and our look at the best-performing KiwiSaver funds for that side of your money.

How to open a Hatch account

Signing up is entirely online and usually takes around 10 to 15 minutes. You will need:

• A photo ID (passport or driver licence) to verify your identity.
• Your IRD number, which Hatch uses for New Zealand tax reporting.
• An NZ bank account to fund your account.

There is no minimum deposit, and bank transfers typically clear within a business day. If you hold a US dollar account, you can deposit USD directly and avoid the inbound FX fee. Once your money has cleared, you can place your first order — and if you would rather start small and steady, setting up an Auto-Invest order is a common way to build a position over time.

The bottom line

For Kiwis who want direct ownership of US shares and ETFs at a transparent cost, Hatch is a solid, FMA-regulated option: a flat US$3 brokerage, a 0.5% FX margin on each conversion, no monthly subscription, and holdings kept with an SIPC-protected US broker. Its main constraints are that it is US-only and that the flat fee is a high percentage on very small manual trades — a limitation Auto-Invest’s 1% cap largely solves for regular savers. As always, match the platform to how you actually invest, plan for FIF tax if your offshore holdings grow past the threshold, and treat Hatch as a complement to — not a replacement for — your KiwiSaver and other savings.

Disclaimer

This article is general information about Hatch Invest and investing in New Zealand. It is not financial or tax advice, and not a recommendation to invest in any platform or product. Investing carries risk, including the loss of money you put in, and past performance does not predict future returns. Fees, features and tax rules change — the details here reflect 2026 and should be confirmed with Hatch and Inland Revenue before you act. For your own situation, consider advice from a licensed financial adviser or an accountant, and for free, independent guidance see Sorted at sorted.org.nz.

Frequently asked questions

What does Hatch cost?

A flat US$3 brokerage per order to buy or sell up to 300 shares (plus 1 US cent per share above 300), about 0.5% to convert currency each way, and no monthly account fee. Automated Auto-Invest orders are capped at 1% of the order value, and there is a small US tax-form fee of US$1.50 once plus 50 US cents a year. Because brokerage is a flat fee, Hatch is relatively cheaper on larger orders and dearer on very small manual ones.

Can I buy NZX (New Zealand) shares on Hatch?

No. Hatch is US-only — it offers shares and ETFs listed on the NYSE and NASDAQ. For New Zealand or Australian shares you would need a different platform, such as Sharesies, InvestNow or a traditional NZ broker.

Is my money safe with Hatch?

Hatch is regulated by New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority, and your US shares are held via DriveWealth, a US broker-dealer and SIPC member. SIPC protects your shares up to US$500,000 if the broker fails. That covers the broker collapsing, not market losses — investment values still rise and fall.

Do I pay tax on Hatch investments?

Yes. US dividends have 15% US withholding tax deducted (usually creditable against your NZ tax), and once the cost of your offshore holdings exceeds the FIF threshold — currently NZ$50,000, with a proposed increase to NZ$100,000 before Parliament in 2026 — the Foreign Investment Fund rules can tax you on a deemed return each year. Hatch provides tax statements but not tax advice.

Does Hatch offer fractional shares?

Yes. Hatch lets you buy fractions of shares by dollar amount, so you can invest a set sum into a company even when a single share costs hundreds of US dollars. You can also buy whole shares and ETFs. Confirm the current detail on Hatch’s own site if it matters to your plan.