Nov 21, 2017  -  The FMA has today published KiwiSaver data in an interactive format to prompt discussion, engagement and debate on the relationship between investment risk, returns and fees.  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 is part of the FMA’s ongoing focus on using disclosure to drive good conduct by providers and informed investor decision-making. The tracker complements other existing independent sources of KiwiSaver analysis, like Sorted’s Fundfinder.

The Tracker allows people to arrange and sort the data. It shows:

• The risk profile, returns and fees for each fund.
• A percentage figure for how much of the return is paid to the fund manager in fees (excluding fixed management fees) and how much is paid to investors.
• Data that currently covers the past year and average five-year returns.
• Funds that have been invested for less than a year and restricted schemes are excluded.

Paul Gregory, FMA Director of External Communications and Investor Capability 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.

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.” Mr Gregory added.

Investors involved in early tests of the tracker showed particular interest in the scatter plot of KiwiSaver fund fees and returns.

Mr Gregory said, “People like to see where their fund and other similar funds sit in a plot. Over 5 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.”

Investors are encouraged to talk to their provider if they have questions about KiwiSaver in general, or their specific fund. The contact details for each fund are provided in the Tracker.

The Tracker has been designed to enable users to embed it within their own website. The FMA also welcomes feedback, suggestions and comments on the Tracker.

The tracker can be found here. 

| A Financial Markets Authority release  ||  November 21,  2017   |||