Milford Asset Management continued to front-run the KiwiSaver market in the June quarter, adding about $560 million to funds under management while pipping BNZ as the seventh-largest provider, according to new figures from Australian researcher Plan for Life (PFL).
The PFL survey shows Milford KiwiSaver ended the June 2021 quarter with almost $3.9 billion funds under management (FUM) – just $10 million ahead of BNZ, which started the period over $300 million in front of the Auckland-headquartered boutique.
Reporting quarterly growth of almost 17 per cent, Milford set the pace for the $1.9 billion Simplicity (14.4 per cent) and Generate, which expanded FUM by 10.5 per cent over the same period to reach $2.9 billion.
Only fellow NZ-owned scheme, Booster, came close to threatening double-digit growth during the three months to June 30, up 9.1 per cent and breaking through the $3 billion mark in the process.
However, Booster – ninth on the PFL list by size – ceded some ground to Generate as its close competitor moved to within $60 million by FUM.
Institutionally owned KiwiSaver providers, meanwhile, struggled to keep up with smaller, more nimble operators – although the statistical drag is mostly correlated with size.
ANZ, ASB and BT/Westpac – first, second and third in order, by KiwiSaver FUM – recorded respective quarterly growth of 3.5, 3.1 and 2.8 per cent, below the market average of 5 per cent.
But the three largest Australian bank-owned providers carry a lot of weight led by ANZ, which topped $18.5 billion by June 30, and the $14 billion ASB.
Elsewhere, Fisher Funds ($7.1 billion), Kiwi Wealth ($6.1 billion) and BNZ ($3.8 billion) all managed above-average quarterly growth ranging from 5.2 per cent to 6.3 per cent.
AMP stayed on-trend, growing at a sluggish 2.1 per cent as FUM rose above $6.6 billion followed by Mercer (up 3 per cent to $2.6 billion).
Outside the dozen named providers in the PFL survey, collective ‘other’ schemes grew at 6.2 per cent for the quarter in a group that includes notable challengers such as the Pie Funds’ Juno (now over $500 million) and the $1.3 billion NZX-owned SuperLife.
Overall KiwiSaver FUM jumped over $4 billion during the quarter to fall just shy of $86 billion as solid investment earnings of $2.8 billion more than exceeded the $1.3 billion of net inflows for the period.
The Melbourne-based actuarial consulting PFL, headed by Rael Solomon, is a subsidiary of global proxy voting firm Institutional Shareholder Services.