Guarantees and Morgan

Friday, June 1st 2007, 10:37AM

Gareth Morgan isn't too pleased with my comments in the previous Blog giving some initial reaction to the Budget.

His comments are below, but essentially he says he wasn't calling for a government guarantee on KiwiSaver funds.

Thanks to the beauty of the net the recent development of some of the larger media sites the interview is available online.

I listened to the interview with John Campbell on TV3's Campbell Live, and these are the comments which made me react.

Morgan said: "What really concerns me about KiwiSaver John, is that your savings and my savings are not government guaranteed."

"There is no guarantee here.

He went on to say that Cullen has "not really addressed that issue."

"I think that area of KiwiSaver has a hell of a lot of work to be done (on it) in terms of making peoples' money safe in this thing."

"That part of KiwiSaver is work to do."

The full interview is here http://www.tv3.co.nz/VideoBrowseAll/CampbellLive/tabid/367/articleID/27222/Default.aspx

On my reading of it is that you have two options a guarantee or none at all, especially in the light of no other options being put forward. Therefore the conclusions I drew at the time of writing were fair.

I suspect Gareth was trying to articulate his concerns re reserving and fund managers' fidicuary duties. For more on this see here and here.

Gareth's comments.

Phillip

It's been drawn to my attention that you have said I'm advocating a government guarantee for KiwiSaver. Wrong.

What I said on Campbell Live was that KiwiSaver has no government guarantee - it was a point of information for public knowledge. Campbell had said to me off air he thought it was government guaranteed. I'm just completing a public speaking circuit of 15,000 people where it has been clear that people are under the impression it was government guaranteed- quite logical given it is a government initiative.

Sometimes those of us in this sector get so close to the trees we lose perspective. I too had thought everybody knew it wasn't guaranteed until I started these speaking engagements. Quite the opposite was the reality - people saw it just as an extension of the Cullen Fund.

Maybe you should get out more. I also notice your industry-funded magazine has so far failed to grasp what is inherently wrong with KiwiSaver - that it gives the industry carte blanche to dodge fiduciary duty and to continue its old tricks of creating and manipulating reserves for its own ends and at the expense of the NZ public. Have you never even thought why people who come out the other end of these long term savings products do so very poorly. It would be great if you had public rather than sector interest as part of your value set.

Probably too much to ask.

Gareth

WHAT DO YOU THINK? If you would like to comment on this Blog send your thoughts to blog@goodreturns.co.nz

Responses

Gareth Morgan certainly succeeds in fanning the flames of fear. He has spent some time criticising the essence of Kiwisaver and now he is setting up a scheme himself. This latest rant on Government guarantee is another publicity stunt that Richard Branson would be proud off. Is he going to guarantee the funds in his scheme? I think not. Fiduciary duty is expected for all participants in an investment programme which includes investors, trustees, fund mangers, stockbrokers, advisors etc. Ultimately it is buyer beware and it is up to the government to start educating the public what fund managers and advisors (including Gareth Morgan) actually do and teach them how to monitor their performance and control fees etc. It's a brave new world to protect and manage the billions that will flow into these schemes in the next decade or so. Steve Joynes

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