ANZ tackles portability problems

Only about 20% of those who inquire about transferring their Australian superannuation savings to New Zealand KiwiSaver accounts do so – probably because of the hurdles involved, ANZ says.

Wednesday, August 6th 2014, 6:00AM

by Susan Edmunds

It announced yesterday that ANZ Investments is working with the trustee of ANZ Smart Choice Super, to help New Zealanders recover their Australian super savings. It has been possible to move super savings between the two countries since last July, but few people have done so.

ANZ says its new scheme will make it much easier.

OnePath Custodians Pty Limited (trustee of ANZ Smart Choice Super) has been granted an exemption that allows people in New Zealand to open an ANZ Smart Choice Super Account in Australia. Then, it identifies money held in super accounts in that customer’s name and moves it to a single account. The customer can then choose whether to transfer the money to an ANZ KiwiSaver scheme.

It can also access money held by the Australian Tax Office (ATO), which has been very difficult for New Zealanders to get to. People with “lost” super held by the ATO have to have an Australian account to transfer it into but New Zealanders have not previously been able to set up Australian super accounts from this country.

ANZ Wealth NZ managing director John Body said a lot of people had multiple Australian super accounts but they had disengaged with the process of tracking it down as it became harder.

Ana-Marie Lockyer, general manager wealth products and marketing, said the feedback from customers was that it was difficult dealing with the Australian providers, who all had different requirements and different forms to be processed.

Body said ANZ had helped more than 540 customers bring home more than $11.4 million so far. But it is estimated 10% of ANZ customers have Australian savings. He said the small numbers so far had been surprising. “We’re keen to make the process easier for people.”

Lockyer said only about 20% of the inquiries about transtasman portability resulted in funds arriving. “That indicates it’s a laborious process before you get the funds over.”

Body said it was important that people considered their tax position, where they were likely to spend the majority of their working and retirement lives and whether it was the right time from a currency perspective, before transferring their super.

If an ANZ KiwiSaver customer just wanted to find and consolidate their Australian accounts, they could do that and decide later whether to transfer the money to New Zealand, he said.

Lockyer said customers who had their savings in one account said they found it easier to manage. “There have been cases where they had balances in Australia they had not looked at for a long time and ended up paying insurance premiums and feeds they hadn’t realised and in some cases hadn’t even been covered by the insurance.”

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