Search Results for: kiwisaver

The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has mopped-up the remaining spillover from a KiwiSaver technical glitch that saw payments to up to 750,000 members delayed during a system transition last year. In a note to providers last week, the IRD confirmed the final tranche of ‘ex gratia’ payments – approved by Cabinet this February – would… [Read More…]

Kōura Wealth is lining up to compete against the likes of Booster, Generate and NZ Funds in the hotly contested insurance and mortgage adviser KiwiSaver market with a new part-owner and ‘facilitator’ fee model. Launched in 2019 as the first pure robo-adviser KiwiSaver scheme, Kōura has added a 0.3 per cent “facilitator” fee option following… [Read More…]

The Medical Assurance Society (MAS) is poised to open up its close to $1 billion KiwiSaver scheme to the wider retail market after earning a managed investment scheme (MIS) licence this month. Mike Davey, MAS chief member advocacy officer, said the mutual organisation planned to “begin public promotion of our retail KiwiSaver scheme from mid-June”…. [Read More…]

First Sentier Investors has opened up its long-established global listed infrastructure fund to the NZ retail market with the launch of a new regulated product last week. The Australian-headquartered manager, previously known as Colonial First State Global Asset Management (CFSGAM), has offered the listed infrastructure strategy in the NZ institutional market in various forms for… [Read More…]

Mercer has increased the environmental, social and governance (ESG) ingredients across its $2.4 billion KiwiSaver following a similar recipe change in the manager’s conservative fund late last year. In a release, Mercer says as well as including the usual range of ‘sin stock’ exclusions, the enhanced ESG approach would give more weight to companies driving… [Read More…]

KiwiSaver providers and fund managers will have to review fee settings at least once a year under new provisions confirmed by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) this morning but the regulator has eased its previous hard line on embedded advice fees. The FMA ‘Managed fund fees and value for money’ final guidance released today puts… [Read More…]

The KiwiSaver sector verged on $80 billion at the end of last year, buoyed by bumper markets and regular drip-feed flows from members, data from research house Plan for Life (PFL) reveals. But while the total KiwiSaver market was up 7.6 per cent to more than $79 billion for the quarter only one of the… [Read More…]

Return dispersion among KiwiSaver funds has increased in line with risk exposure over the last 10 years, the latest Melville Jessup Weaver (MJW) investment survey found. According to the MJW December 2020 quarter survey, investment returns for conservative-to-moderate funds remained “tightly clustered” for the 10-year period with a much wider performance spread for those further… [Read More…]

The Consilium KiwiSaver scheme has squeaked into the 2020 launch zone after gaining formal approval from the regulator in December. In documents lodged with Disclose last week, a letter from the Financial Markets Authority says that regulator “certifies that it is satisfied that the KiwiWRAP KiwiSaver Scheme, as constituted by the trust deed dated 4… [Read More…]

Nikko Asset Management has added the high-flying Ark Disruptive Innovation Fund as a standalone option in its KiwiSaver scheme. George Carter, Nikko NZ chief, said the move provided more flexibility for KiwiSaver investors looking to build portfolios beyond the standard vanilla approach. Carter said the Ark fund was now the most popular offering on Nikko’s… [Read More…]

Another KiwiSaver provider is poised to enter the fray this week, bringing the population up to 35 schemes. To be offered via the Select Wealth brand, part of the Investment Services Group (ISG) family, the new scheme, however, will be issued under the NZX-owned Smartshares managed investment scheme (MIS) licence – a first-of-its-kind ‘hosting’ arrangement… [Read More…]

Kiwi Wealth has hired Gordon Pfeiffer as head of KiwiSaver. Pfeiffer took up the newly created role in July, joining the Wellington-based operation from the Todd Family Office, where he was head of product and service support for three years. Pfeiffer fills the spot at Kiwi Wealth that previously fell under the head of product… [Read More…]

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has highlighted its right to issue ‘stop orders’ to KiwiSaver schemes that breach fee standards in a new consultation document released this morning. In a follow-up to its ‘value for money’ report published earlier this year, the regulator says stop orders could, for example, “prevent schemes with unreasonable fees from… [Read More…]

Fisher Funds has moved significantly closer to claiming the title of fourth-largest KiwiSaver provider from AMP during the nine months to September 30 – just by staying still. According to the latest Morningstar report on the sector, Fisher saw its KiwiSaver market share dip just 0.1 per cent over the nine-month period ending September at… [Read More…]

The final shape of the new default KiwiSaver universe will emerge by May next year under a government timetable released last week. In a KiwiSaver provider briefing panel held last Friday, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) team running the default appointment process penciled in a final decision for late April 2021. With… [Read More…]

AMP has swallowed the passive pill, appointing BlackRock to manage its KiwiSaver and superannuation master trust schemes under index conditions. In a release this morning, AMP says it would replace its main incumbent manager – sister firm AMP Capital – “once preparatory activities have been completed”. “The transition to the new investment model is expected… [Read More…]

At least three bank-based KiwiSaver schemes will have to rehome billions of dollars of indexed investments as Vanguard exits the institutional market in Australasia. Early in October Vanguard revealed it would return about A$160 billion managed on behalf of a range of institutions in Australia and NZ as the business swings to the retail market… [Read More…]