The KiwiSaver universe has expanded to 32 following the launch of a new scheme managed by Pie Funds.
To be officially released under the Juno brand on August 1, a name it shares with the Pie in-house magazine, the new scheme features the standard three-choice set-up of conservative, balanced and growth funds.
All of the underlying funds, which will be heavily-weighted to offshore assets, have been expressed in the Juno KiwiSaver product disclosure statement (PDS) at an annual price of 0.42 per cent. However, in practice members will simply pay an all-in fixed dollar monthly fee under a unique tiered model.
According to the Juno KiwiSaver PDS, the monthly member fee ranges from: free for balances under $5,000; $5 for balances between $5,000 and under $25,000; $15 from $25,000-50,000; and, $50 for balances of $50,000 and above. Balances over a $1 million will incur a $100 monthly fee that increases by $100 each month for every extra $1 million thereafter.
“The fund charges are deducted from Members’ balances monthly. They cover fees of Pie Funds, the Supervisor and the custodian and expenses associated with the running of the Funds,” the PDS says. “The Funds may incur fees from investing in underlying ETFs. These fees are charged as expenses and may impact the net asset value of the relevant Fund. These underlying charges have been incorporated into the fund charges above.”
The scheme’s permitted investments include NZ cash, Australasian equities, global shares and offshore fixed income securities.
Juno’s share investments can include “equity-like listed and unlisted securities including ordinary, preference and partly paid shares, convertible securities, warrants, ETFs and options”, the offer document says.
In June this year, Pie said it would ditch the controversial performance fee model for the group’s range of 10 funds as of next April.
Pie chief, Mike Taylor, said at the time that the move to a all-in assets under management fee would underpin a “transparent” client-focused business approach.
“There’s been no one catalyst for change but it hasn’t always been easy to explain performance fees to clients – and many of them didn’t understand them,” Taylor said in June. “We’ve noticed that even more now we have an advice business.”
Pie manages about $800 million of retail funds.
Juno is the second KiwiSaver scheme to launch this year after Nikko went live in April. The Nikko scheme release came after a long lull in the KiwiSaver market dating back to launch of Simplicity late in 2016.
The Juno scheme features MMC as both custodian and administrator while Trustees Executors takes on the supervisor role.
Jacqueline Taylor, who runs the Pie-owned investment magazine of the same name, is also co-founder of the Juno KiwiSaver scheme, according to the scheme offer documents.