Kiwi Wealth hits $6 billion milestone

New Zealand investment manager and KiwiSaver scheme provider Kiwi Wealth now manages more than $6 billion in funds on behalf of New Zealanders, who stand to benefit further from lower fees and innovative new products and services.

Joe Bishop, Kiwi Wealth General Manager Customer, Product and Innovation, said the $6 billion milestone was important because it allowed Kiwi Wealth to return scale benefits to KiwiSaver members and private portfolio clients.

“We’ve added $3 billion in funds under management in just three years, with excellent member inflows and consistently good performance across all of our retail funds. We’ve now achieved a level of scale and efficiency that allowed us to push ahead with work to pass savings back to those who invest with us.”

Kiwi Wealth added 14,493 members to its KiwiSaver scheme and more than $500 million in funds from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019, consolidating its position as the largest, wholly New Zealand-owned KiwiSaver scheme provider.

With the Kiwi Wealth KiwiSaver Scheme continuing to grow strongly, Kiwi Wealth recently slashed fees for its Conservative fund from 1% to 0.83% per annum, with additional reductions for its Cash, Growth and Balanced funds.

Bishop challenged all at-scale KiwiSaver scheme providers to look to cut fees.

“We’ve done it, because we believe any provider that has the capacity to reduce fees has no reason not to. Fee structures should be assessed for every fund, every year. That’s what we’re doing to make sure our members are only charged the fairest fees for the investment expertise and services we provide.

“Many providers are only too happy to take members’ money and take the profits while doing very little to earn it,” said Bishop. “A barebones, passive approach might sound like a good idea, but members get much more from providers that provide access to a broad service proposition that helps members take control of their KiwiSaver investments.

“That’s why we have invested in providing access to quality financial advice and developed award-winning retirement income planning tools.”

© Scoop Media