KiwiSaver providers have collected an estimated $724 million in fees over the 12 months to March 31, according to the latest Morningstar data, with ANZ reaping almost a quarter of the revenue.
In line with expectations, the Morningstar fee analysis – a new feature in the researcher’s quarterly KiwiSaver report – shows active-style managers tend to accrue a greater share of revenue compared to their respective share of assets under management (and vice-versa for passive schemes).
ANZ, for instance, pulled in an estimated 23.3 per cent of the total KiwiSaver fee pull over the 12-month period while managing 20.3 per cent of the almost $92 billion in the sector as at March 31.
Similarly, Milford Asset Management and Fisher Funds show a fee ratio of 9.2 and 10.2 per cent, respectively, against asset share of 6.5 and 8.4 per cent.
Passive-style operators, Simplicity and Smartshares, both collected about 1.3 per cent of fees during the annual period compared to respective market shares of 3.3 and 2.1 per cent, the Morningstar report shows.
But a trio of big banks – ASB, BNZ and Westpac/BT – also reported much lower fee revenue ratios versus their KiwiSaver funds under management. ASB and BNZ have a strong tilt to passive investment while Westpac/BT favours a more active multi-manager style.
However, AMP, which switched most of its KiwiSaver funds to passive BlackRock-managed portfolios almost two years ago, shows an estimated fee revenue share of 6.3 per cent – almost exactly in line with its 6.2 per cent slice of total assets under management.
Greg Bunkall, the Auckland-based Morningstar global fund data director, said the figures represent a “ballpark” estimate of KiwiSaver scheme fees based on point-in-time assets under management. Actual scheme fees may vary slightly based on cash flows and other factors such as performance-enhancers.
Furthermore, he said the scheme fee estimates are not measured against performance.
ANZ retains its number one ranking by KiwiSaver funds under management with $18.7 billion (spread across three schemes) as at March 31 followed by ASB with almost $14.5 billion.
However, a conjoined Fisher-Kiwi Wealth KiwiSaver business would sit just $55 million shy of ASB, according to the Morningstar analysis.
The March quarter saw a continued a run of good performance with all “multisector KiwiSaver funds produced positive returns over the March quarter”, the report says.
“The average multisector category returns ranged from 2.9% for the conservative category (including default options) to 5.6% for the aggressive category.”
During the quarter returns ranged from about 73 per cent for the tiny $1 million Kōura cryptocurrency fund to -4.8 per cent delivered by the SuperLife Australian property fund: over the 12-month period the InvestNow Antipodes long global equities fund reported the highest return of 13.8 per cent with the Nikko Ark Disruptive Innovation Fund bottoming out at almost -35 per cent.
The Morningstar survey covers more than 90 per cent of the KiwiSaver market with several providers – notably NZ Funds Management – absent from the count.