Retirement commissioner re appointed for second term

Executive chair retirement commissioner, Jane Wrightson has been reappointed for a second term until February 2026.

Monday, December 19th 2022, 12:30PM

Wrightson says she is pleased to be reappointed and says there’ll be plenty to do, starting with her plan on recruiting a chief operating officer so she can reduce her executive hours to concentrate more on governance-level strategy and policy.

“I will also be creating an advisory board next year and want to work more on bedding in the National Strategy for Financial Capability – it needs to be the industry’s strategy as well as ours – and encouraging a principled and balanced discussion around NZ Super.

We’ll hopefully also be able to give Sorted a facelift. And I’ll be looking at the NZ Super settings, especially considering an increasing mobile population, to see if some aspects need to be updated.”

In her first term, Wrightson says it was a challenging time coming into the fincap sector with no prior experience but she is grateful for everyone who helped her navigate her way.

“It was very challenging indeed, especially when we went into full lockdown three weeks after I started. While I had experience of running Crown entities, the sector of course was new, and my organization was a bit wobbly. I remain very grateful to those who helped me and didn’t laugh too loudly (or at least not to my face) when I asked dumb questions.

I’ve since realized that basic financial capability isn’t as scary as I thought, and that the need for plain language and carefully tailored and ongoing comms to a wide variety of audiences is really the key. Of course, that’s not as easy as it sounds.”

During her first term Wrightson had some proud achievements and says having a fantastic and dedicated team that love what they do made it easier.

“I’m proud that we delivered a tightly focused Review of Retirement Income Policies concentrating on promoting equitable policy around NZ Super. Helping get a fairer solution for the pensioners stuck offshore, who got their pensions cut and repayment demands issued, when the MIQ system became overloaded.

Relaunching the National Strategy for Financial Capability with clear aspirations and goals for our stakeholders. Securing a government review to assess the retirement villages legislative framework. Restructuring the Commission so that our strategy and work streams are aligned.”

For her upcoming term she says it will be onwards and upwards, in the very choppy waters being navigated.

“We will continue to collectively work to empower people on their financial journeys to retirement.”

Tags: Retirement Commissioner