KiwiSaver

KiwiSaver providers want more clarity on how total remuneration packages will be treated with any move towards compulsion.

National said on Sunday that, if re-elected, it would make KiwiSaver contributions compulsory from 2028, and move to a 12% contribution by 2032.

Koura founder Rupert Carlyon said that would be a significant increased burden on people with total remuneration packages, who are currently funding contributions of 7%.

“Personally I think total rem has got to go.”

Pie Funds chief executive Ana-Marie Lockyer had a similar concern.

“As KiwiSaver moves toward a compulsory model understanding how employer contributions will be treated within remuneration packages will be important for both employers and employees.  In addition, the principle of helping more people save is sound, but the implementation details around hardship exemptions, contribution suspensions and support for lower-income households will be important to get right.”

Booster cheif executive Diana Papadopoulos says "proposed higher contributions from both employees and employers would make an even bigger difference to grow the future wealth of New Zealanders, but the issue of total remuneration arrangements needs to be addressed."

"If they’re not used appropriately it can have a really negative impact on people who will miss out on the contributions they deserve."

The Retirement Commission estimates 45% of employers use a total rem arrangement for at least some of its employees.

Kernel founder Dean Anderson agreed the government needed to look at total remuneration agreements. He said it would not be practical for people to lose up to 12 percent of their salary in contributions.

Matt Mackpherson, Sharesies general manager of funds, said it was not clear whether National’s plans included an end to total rem. “These packages go against the spirit of KiwiSaver and employees who receive these packages are not protected by law when minimum contribution levels increase.”

Polling for Simplicity had shown support for compulsion, but economist Shamubeel Eaqub said that was on the basis that it was the employer contributions that were made compulsory.

“My preference would be to make the employer contribution compulsory, keep the employee contribution voluntary and unlink the two.”

National is proposing a range of changes to KiwiSaver if it returns to power, including making the scheme compulsory.

Leader Christopher Luxon said on Sunday that the party was proposing to enrol every child born in New Zealand into KiwiSaver from birth, as of July next year, with a $1,500 kickstart.

Everyone would be required to be contributing to KiwiSaver or an equivalent scheme from July 2028 and would only be able to suspend contributions if they met the criteria currently used for a hardship withdrawal.

It would also make an employer contribution for people on paid parental leave, whether they contribute or not. At the moment, people must contribute to qualify.

“For a stay-at-home mum or dad with two kids, their retirement savings could be around $15,000 larger by the time they reach 65, thanks to this change in policy,” Luxon said.

He said the party would also require employers to continue to make contributions for employees who are over 65.

“Right now, the day you turn 65, your employer can stop contributing to your KiwiSaver. That’s not right, and it’s out of step with how Kiwis actually live and work today. So, that’s why National will require employers to keep contributing to KiwiSaver for workers over 65. Just because you’re 65 doesn’t mean it’s time to stop saving for your future, and it doesn’t mean it’s time for your employer to stop supporting you in that mission either.”

The party would also lift contribution rates to 12% by 2032.

The Financial Services Council welcomed the announcement. It said it would strengthen New Zealanders’ long-term financial resilience and close gaps in the system.

"KiwiSaver is one of the most practical tools New Zealanders have to build long-term financial resilience," chief executive Kirk Hope said.

"These proposals recognise that saving needs to start earlier, reach more people and continue through the life stages where people can otherwise fall behind."

Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub said it was a positive direction for the conversation about KiwiSaver to take. He said earlier research by Simplicity showed that people were supportive of these sorts of changes.

Eaqub said it was clear that KiwiSaver was shaping up to be a key issue in this year’s election. NZ First has already revealed it would make the scheme compulsory.  “It feels like it’s a KiwiSaver election in the sense that it’s not just National. Everybody’s got some ideas on KiwiSaver. In the past it was the left wanting to improve KiwiSaver and the right wanting to denude KiwiSaver. Now it’s kind of become a more universal thing that we want KiwiSaver to be stronger, so we have choices in the future.”

[UPDATED – ASB response] A financial adviser worried about ASB’s marketing campaign for its KiwiSaver schemes has taken his complaint to the Financial Markets Authority.

Gareth Dobson, founder and senior financial adviser at Finsol Financial Advisers, said he was concerned that the bank was advertising that its conservative and moderate funds were “number one” in the market, based on a 12-month period to the end of December.

“ASB defends this position as factually accurate because of fine-print disclaimers.”

But he said KiwiSaver was a long-term investment tool and the funds had not performed as well over three, five or 10-year periods.

“Being an investment and KiwiSaver adviser, you stay across historical returns from all the various providers, there’s consistent reports from Morningstar, there’s different sources for returns data. So when I saw this advertisement from ASB pop up on my screen, and I’m an ASB customer as well, I thought ‘oh that’s interesting’."

"Flying the flag of number one KiwiSaver scheme and I was like what’s the justification or this?"

Then I looked at the small print…. Conservative and moderate fund, one-year return. That’s how you’re able to position yourself as a market leader with KiwiSaver.”

He said he asked his network to see whether others shared his concerns and found they did. “Everyone was like ‘no this is not right’. And I challenged them on it. They didn’t even treat it like a complaint, I went through customer service, I got the same email back about five times.”

He said the final response was the bank could not give him what he was looking for.

“I thought well you know what? I’ll go to the FMA.”

He said the FMA had sent a fairly generic email saying it had received the complaint.

“ASB heavily promotes the convenience of tracking KiwiSaver balances directly inside their everyday banking app. There is a deep irony here: a disciplined long-term investor should not be checking their balance daily. Promoting short-term tracking and celebrating a temporary 12-month upswing encourages return-chasing behaviour, which fund managers and advisers consistently warn against. Fine-print disclaimers do not erase the misleading impression created for everyday consumers.”

He said more generally he had concerns about the way banks were treated when dealing with KiwiSaver compared to advisers.

He said while independent advisers were held to rigorous CoFI and FSLAA standards with regulatory pressure to service, document and review client portfolios, the banks were allowed to manage hundreds of thousands of clients based only on mass-produced, automated communication.

Dobson said he recently reviewed a client’s situation where there was $1.7 million in a bank KiwiSaver scheme.

“She was left entirely on autopilot in a moderate fund without any custom asset allocation or short-term cash facility advice. Furthermore, her prescribed investor rate was left incorrect at 28 percent instead of 17.5 percent for three consecutive years.”

He said his complaint was not a commercial dispute between independent advisers and banks but was about whether the regulator would hold major institutions to the same standard of fair conduct, ethical marketing and proactive client care that was expected of independent financial advisers.

ASB says: "All ASB advertising is subject to regular, comprehensive reviews to ensure it is consistent and accurate. Our number one claim is underpinned by the fact that the ASB KiwiSaver Scheme ranked first for 12 month returns in Conservative and Moderate fund categories for the 12 months to 31st December 2025. This has been substantiated by independent Morningstar data, with the basis of the claims, sources used, as well as the limitations all explained or disclaimed within the adverts or on the ASB webpage. This data is publicly available and outlines ASB's KiwiSaver performance across the different time periods."

"We are proud of the work we are delivering to achieve excellent outcomes for our nearly half a million KiwiSaver customers, with our strong returns seeing ASB named KiwiSaver Fund Manager of the Year for 2026 by Morningstar. Since partnering with global fund manager BlackRock nearly five years ago, we have achieved strong investment performance for our investors, with all the diversified ASB KiwiSaver Scheme funds delivering first or second quartile performance in their category, over the 10-year period – this is in the same Morningstar December 2025 KiwiSaver survey. We agree that long-term performance really matters for Kiwi and continue to work on improving customer outcomes over the long-run."

A new fund finder tool is designed to offer a more user-friendly way for people to compare their KiwiSaver options.

Hugo Kidd is developing Find My Fund to offer a comparison of fund performance after fees.

He said the idea came about when he was studying his Level 5 qualification investment strand.

“I kind of came to the realisation that a lot of people are worse off with their retirement at the moment… people in the wrong fund types or wrong actual fund itself.

“Searching online, I couldn’t really find a platform that can first of all be independent and also just user-friendly to track all the KiwiSaver funds.”

He said the tool would act as a sort of leaderboard to see how funds were performing over various time periods and against their category average.

“I've done a proven performer [measure], which is a time period, but then against their fund type, and then the average or the category average. And then has that fund hit the category average every year?… Then the category average over five years, and then the fund's performance over the five years, and it can show the difference. And it’s something quite staggering, really, because it could be, 30%, and then this one's 60%.

“So, it's really important for people to talk to an adviser or provider and make those changes, make sure they're in the right funds, because it does add up over the long term.”

He said people were often not getting enough financial advice around their decisions.

“People in New Zealand don’t really get financial advice and there isn’t really an advisory hub where people can go and search for advisers and filter it out… that’s another component to the platform. Then another main part of the business is just providing content through social media and marketing to make Kiwis take action, essentially, with KiwiSaver.”

He said advisers had a role to play in KiwiSaver providing consistent advice. “People get advisers so they can have that human touch… I’ve got an adviser and I like it because I can text or call them any time. It’s the same person instead of if you’re with a provider – unless you’re with an adviser from the provider – you’re just talking to someone new every time… it’s just having that personal touch and reassurance.”

He said he had been building the platform alongside his full-time job and hoped to have it ready to take to market in a month or so.

Kidd said he planned to expand it into managed funds beyond KiwiSaver in future.