The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has published KiwiSaver data to prompt discussion, engagement and debate on the relationship between investment risk, returns and fees in a bid to raise awareness about the scheme.
The FMA KiwiSaver Tracker uses the information KiwiSaver providers give investors through their quarterly fund updates and via the Companies Office’s Disclose Register. These updates are a legal requirement and the Tracker will automatically incorporate the new information every three months.
The tracker complements other existing independent sources of KiwiSaver analysis, such as Sorted’s Fundfinder.
FMA director of investor capability Paul Gregory said, “We regularly encourage investors to look carefully at who is managing their money and what the results and costs are.
“As KiwiSaver matures, balances are increasing and more people are looking at what’s inside their KiwiSaver. This will increase demands for transparency. The market is also changing, with new lower-cost entrants, the potential impact of robo-advice and policy changes requiring fees to be disclosed in dollar amounts,” Gregory said.
The information in the KiwiSaver tracker about fees and return is an important factor in considering your investment, but it is not sufficient information to make an investment decision. This is why we link to providers and the Fund Finder tool to discover further information, Gregory added.
“People like to see where their fund and other similar funds sit in a plot. Over five years, there certainly seems to be a link between higher risk investments and higher returns. However, the link between higher fees and higher returns is, apart from in the case of a couple of standout funds, far less obvious,” Gregory said.