ANZ scales up, drops membership fees

ANZ New Zealand Investments has dropped its annual membership fee from all its managed KiwiSaver schemes.

ANZ Investments will remove the $18 annual membership fee from its ANZ KiwiSaver Scheme, ANZ Default KiwiSaver Scheme and its OneAnswer KiwiSaver Scheme.

It will also reduce management fees of its Conservative Funds (excluding the Default Fund) and Conservative Balanced Funds by 0.22% and 0.15% respectively.

Under the new structure, a person with $20,000 invested in the ANZ KiwiSaver Scheme Conservative Fund would have their fees reduced from $192 to $130 a year.

"These fees will ensure a simpler fee structure and provide greater value for money for our more than 650,000 KiwiSaver members, said ANZ’s acting managing director of funds management Stewart Taylor.

“We regularly review fees as we achieve greater economies of scale. This latest change particularly benefits members with lower balances or those just starting out,” Taylor says.

ANZ Investments has reduced the total fund fee for the ANZ KiwiSaver Scheme by approximately 25% since 2009.

In 2019 it removed the $24 membership fee for members aged under 18 and reduced it to $18 (from $24) for all other members.

The membership fee for over 65s was removed in 2020.

“Through its active management approach, ANZ Investments has delivered strong returns over the long run for our members and this with the reduction in fees is another step to helping our members grow their retirement savings,” Taylor says.

ANZ Investments is the largest private-sector funds management and KiwiSaver provider in the country with more than 650,000 customers and $35 billion under management.