Share performance boosts KiwiSaver returns over March quarter

Strongly performing shares helped offset natural disasters and economic uncertainty enabling KiwiSaver funds to post strong returns for the March quarter, according to the Morningstar KiwiSaver Performance Survey. “The strong returns from sharemarkets resulted in KiwiSaver funds with higher exposures to growth assets (shares and property) outperforming those with more invested in income assets (cash […]

Subsidies hampering KiwiSaver – OECD

KiwiSaver’s ability to raise overall savings and deepen capital markets is being hampered by “unfocused Government subsidies,” according to the OECD Economic Survey of New Zealand. In a wide ranging report on New Zealand, the OECD highlighted a number of reforms to KiwiSaver including changes to subsidies and the enrolment system as ways to boost […]

NZ Funds KiwiSaver gets thumbs up from Lonsec

NZ Funds Management has become the first KiwiSaver manager to have its KiwiSaver scheme portfolios researched by a third-party research house, and has called on all KiwiSaver schemes to undergo a qualitative review. Three portfolios in the NZ Funds KiwiSaver scheme earned recommendations from Australian research house Lonsec, with Income Strategy receiving a ‘Highly Recommended’ […]

Easier access to KiwiSaver cash for quake-affected Cantabrians

Commerce minister Simon Power has announced regulatory changes to make it easier for earthquake-affected Cantabrians to access their KiwiSaver cash. “The Government was concerned that some people may have been unable to make an early withdrawal of their KiwiSaver contributions under the significant financial hardship rules of the KiwiSaver regime,” he said. “So we have […]