Risk-taking pays off

The research house has released its latest quarterly KiwiSaver report, which covers the final three months of 2015.

It showed a big difference between conservative and more risky options: The average return over the quarter for conservative funds was 0.69%. For aggressive options, it hit 4.4%.

"Kiwis saving for their retirement benefitted from favourable market performance in the final quarter of last year, despite significant market turbulence, with growth-oriented funds doing particularly well," Morningstar Australasia manager research analyst Elliot Smith said. "Over the past year, every KiwiSaver fund on our database posted a positive return."

Many KiwiSavers benefitted from the performance of the New Zealand equity market, which fared much better than its global counterparts through the December quarter.