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KiwiSaver

Is more better, or just confusing?

Wednesday 6th of June 2018

Most New Zealanders know that the sums invested in KiwiSaver have snowballed over the last 10 years. A lesser known fact is that the number of KiwiSaver investment funds being offered to the public has also multiplied.

KiwiSaver investment funds should not be confused with KiwiSaver schemes. These are the options each scheme offers. In fact, the number of KiwiSaver schemes has declined over the same period. The number of schemes peaked in 2010 at 52 and as at March 2017, stood at 30. And this included one which was closed to new members.

Why then do the number of funds continue to grow? An increasingly small number of schemes are offering an increasingly large number of funds. In total, the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) data lists over 240 underlying KiwiSaver funds.

AMP, for example, offers its clients a choice of 33 KiwiSaver funds. AMP is not alone in pursuing a menu based approach. Collectively, the top five organisations, ranked by number of funds on offer, offer 140 different funds.

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