Hatch Invest offers American exchange-traded index funds, as does Tiger Brokers (NZ), Stake and Sharesies.

Fund selection: Do you plan to invest in one fund, or many? Platforms like InvestNow have a range of local New Zealand and overseas-focused funds, whereas Kernel Wealth has many that focus on New Zealand, as well as global indexes.

When you’re choosing where to buy an index fund, consider, there are a few things to consider: Want to compare the pros and cons of index funds (passive) with actively managed funds? Our Passive Investing vs Active Investing guide has you covered. This means losses can be incurred while other investors sell off their poor-performing investments.

Also, if a company is performing poorly, the index fund will continue to hold it until it no longer meets the requirements of the fund - for example, the market capitalisation becomes too small.

Limited exposure to different investing strategies: Index funds simply follow an index, so if a new company lists on the sharemarket, it's unlikely any index fund will include it until it falls within the investment strategy.

No downside protection: Unlike an actively managed fund, index funds don't have the ability to buy/sell when markets are at a low point.

Index funds offer diversity: There are hundreds of investment options available from New Zealand platforms and fund managers.

in management fees, whereas some actively managed funds charge as much as 2% p.a.

The fees are low: Index funds charge as little as 0.03% p.a.

Research backs up the investment in index funds.

Research backs up the investment: It's well-accepted that investors are, in most instances, better off buying into an index than individual shares, given that markets out-perform the vast majority of individual shares in the long run.

Index funds make investing easy and remove the need to research individual companies: The index fund manager buys and sells the companies within the index fund that replicates the index.

Best index funds