KiwiSaver selling practices investigated

Under the Securities Act, house-to-house selling of securities is illegal unless they are life insurance contracts, Building Society or Co-operative securities. The Securities Commission uses the term house-to-house as oppose to door-to-door, as the restriction only refers to residential houses - distributors can go from business to business. Cold calling on the telephone is also permissible in New Zealand.

An Inland Revenue spokesperson said it had received calls expressing concerns about the way some KiwiSaver products were being marketed or distributed, such as house-to-house. While it was not able to comment on individual schemes or providers, it confirmed that it had passed some complaints onto the Securities Commission to look into.

Securities Commission general counsel Liam Mason confirmed it had been referred complaints around house-to-house KiwiSaver selling which it was currently investigating. He too was unable to provide further details of those involved and could not yet confirm a timeframe for the investigation.

NZF chief operating officer Adrienne Smith says that while it has not experienced any problems with its distributors, she had heard of concerns in the wider marketplace several months ago.