A good quarter for KiwiSaver

Rebounding share markets in the March quarter helped all the multi-sector KiwiSaver funds produce positive returns.

Wednesday, May 10th 2023, 10:54AM

Rebounding share markets in the March quarter helped all the multi-sector KiwiSaver funds produce positive returns and total KiwiSaver assets rose 6.2%, or by $5.4 billion, to $91.9 billion compared with the December quarter, according to Morningstar's latest survey.

While the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank on March 10 dented confidence globally, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 Index still gained 3.58% in the latest quarter and the key US index, the S&P 500, was up 5.2%.

ANZ remained KiwiSaver market leader with assets of $18.7 billion but it grew at the slower pace of 5.6% in the latest three months – it lost its default status in December 2021 – but the top six providers retained their 69% share of the market.

Among the six default providers, Kiwi Wealth, which is now owned by Fisher Funds, produced the best quarterly return of 5.7%, followed by Simplicity with 5.4%, but both funds were the worst performers over year ended March with negative 3.5% returns.

The worst performing default fund in the quarter was SuperLife with 3.8% returns but it was the least worst peformer for the year with a negative 2% return.

Simplicity's conservative fund was the best performer among multi-sector funds in the quarter with a 3.7% return but it was the worst performer over a one-year and three-year periods with negative 3.5% and positive 0.3% respectively.

The opposite was true of QuayStreet's income fund which was the worst performer in the quarter with a 2% return but the best one-year performer at 2.7%.

Among balanced funds, Juno's was the best quarterly performer at 6.5%, though it ranked 10th out of 34 funds for the year with a negative 2.3% return.

The InvestNow Castle Point balanced fund was the worst performer with an 0.7% return and a negative 1.8% return for the year, ranking at fifth.

Juno's growth fund was the best performer in that category with an 8.2% return for the quarter, beating the best of the aggressive funds, FANZ Lifestages High Growth with 7.8%, but it ranked 17th out of 26 funds for the year with a negative 4.1% return.

Morningstar said the most appropriate measure of a KiwiSaver scheme's performance is its long-term returns and noted the aggressive category average has delivered annualised returns of 8.4% while the most conservative funds have delivered 4.1% a year.

Tags: KiwiSaver Morningstar