Morningstar Releases KiwiSaver Performance Survey

Morningstar today released its KiwiSaver Performance Survey to 30 June 2012, designed to help New Zealand investors assess the performance of KiwiSaver superannuation options.

"Global economic and political concerns reasserted themselves strongly in the second quarter of 2012, ensuring that the mid-year point ended fretfully once again," said Morningstar Co-Head of Fund Research Chris Douglas. "While this again illustrates that volatility in investment markets is here to stay, this should not scare investors with longer-term savings timeframes away from seeking out the balanced or growth-oriented options."

Morningstar's KiwiSaver database is free for all fund managers to join, and this survey is made freely available to investors and financial services professionals alike.

Other Key Findings
• The major world sharemarkets fell in mid- to high single digits during the second quarter of 2012. New Zealand and global listed property were among the best-performing asset classes for the second quarter in a row, while fixed income again demonstrated its resilience in times of sharemarket stress.
• OnePath was the standout performer across the multi-sector KiwiSaver categories. The fund manager - also responsible for the ANZ, SIL, and The National Bank ranges - again produced strong results in volatile market conditions. Grosvenor and TOWER were other providers deserving mention for top results across a number of risk profiles.
• Aon KiwiSaver Russell Lifepoints, SIL KiwiSaver, and OnePath KiwiSaver have been the leading performers across a range of risk profiles over the four years since the launch of the KiwiSaver scheme, while Fisher Funds KiwiSaver Growth was the best-performing option across the combined Multi-Sector Growth and Aggressive categories.
• KiwiSaver assets on the Morningstar database have grown from NZ$954.10 million at 30 June 2008 to NZ$11.64 billion at 30 June 2012, a phenomenal growth rate. ASB and OnePath remain the dominant players with 46.0 percent of KiwiSaver assets between them.
• Morningstar analysis shows that just being invested in a KiwiSaver scheme is the most important decision for now, despite the dispersion in returns across the different categories. This will change as the risk profile an investor chooses will become increasingly important as their savings pool grows.
• Morningstar plans to release a one-off after-tax performance survey in the coming month to highlight how KiwiSaver funds have been performing on an after-tax basis.

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