KiwiSaver

KiwiSaver provider AMP says its latest marketing campaign has encouraged more than 100,000 customers in its default fund to make an active choice about their investments.

The Is it Me campaign has reached 86% of its goal for AMP customer switches.

“By switching our customers into a potentially higher returning fund, we can make their money work harder for them,” says AMP general manager, product and marketing, Jeff Ruscoe.

“While we wanted to directly speak to AMP customers in the AMP default fund, we also wanted to encourage all New Zealanders to look at their KiwiSaver accounts to make sure they’re making the right choice for them.”

AMP has more than 224,000 members in its KiwiSaver funds.

The campaign addresses people via radio, outdoor and digital ads with questions such as “650 people in Auckland Central could be missing out, are you one of them? Visit isitme.co.nz to find out”, referring to the missing out on potentially higher returns in a more active fund.

Those people that confirm they are AMP customers are then redirected to an online form at amp.co.nz, enabling them to find out if they are in the AMP default fund, get a recommendation and make the switch.

No elements of the campaign are AMP-branded, which Ruscoe said led thousands of people to look online, no matter their provider, to discover if they were missing out.

NZ Funds was the top rated KiwiSaver Scheme in New Zealand for service with a score of 99% as ranked by Sorted.

Sorted is a website run by the Commission for Financial Capability and surveys KiwiSaver providers regularly to rank their commitment to service.

“NZ Funds believes service will be an important ingredient over the long term in determining the New Zealanders who will meet their retirement objectives and those who will not, so we have set an internal objective to deliver a level of service which ‘wows’ both clients and advisers. Being the top ranked scheme in New Zealand for service is a consequence of that philosophy” say Geoff Motion, Principal & Head of Service at NZ Funds.

“Most clients don’t realise what they are missing out on until they experience it. Many New Zealanders have not had their asset allocation optimised for their age and stage or had help determining what contribution rate they should select in order to meet their retirement objective. Both steps are incorporated into NZ Funds KiwiSaver Scheme, either via access to a financial adviser at no additional charge or through access to our wealth technology: myWealth; myNZFUNDS and WealthPlan.”

“Once clients have been appropriately onboarded with NZ Funds we believe they, and their financial advisers, should experience world class service to assist them on their journey. We offer text messaging, monthly video insights from the investment team, total portfolio transparency, news feeds, reminders,  webinars and much more. In the last year alone, we launched three significant initiatives, and we have more underway” says Motion.

"NZ Funds built what it believes to be the first 100% online digital service to enable clients of the NZ Funds KiwiSaver Scheme to change their contribution rates online without having to use paper-based forms. That followed NZ Funds being one of the first KiwiSaver schemes to model clients’ projected balances, almost two years ahead of the FMA’s directive for all KiwiSaver providers to do so. NZ Funds has also begun piloting an annual telephone call with an adviser to review and help better meet the needs of members of the NZ Funds KiwiSaver Scheme, all at no additional cost.”

NZ Funds is one of New Zealand’s long-standing wealth management specialists, with a 30-year investment track record. NZ Funds works with over 100 independent financial advisers throughout New Zealand from seven nationwide locations. It offers advisers and clients market-leading services in KiwiSaver, UK Pension transfer, cash management and cashflow planned retirement portfolios. NZ Funds’ service recognition doesn’t stop with KiwiSaver with the independent financial advisers who work with NZ Funds recently giving NZ Funds a strong net promoter score of +45. 

Kiwi Wealth is reducing its annual management fee for its conservative KiwiSaver fund from 1% to 0.83%.

The move is one of several changes to Kiwi Wealth’s fee structure for its KiwiSaver cash, conservative, balanced and growth funds. 

The fee reductions will result in estimated cumulative savings of approximately $2.5 million per year for the majority of Kiwi Wealth’s KiwiSaver Scheme members.

Joe Bishop, Kiwi Wealth general manager customer, product and innovation, said it was the right thing to do.

“The fees charged for our conservative fund hadn’t changed since Gareth Morgan Investments was originally acquired in 2012.  With sufficient scale and with greater efficiencies, the time was right to reduce our fees.

“In addition to a good rate of return, our members get to enjoy the benefits of the Kiwi Wealth KiwiSaver Scheme, which include their money being responsibly invested, access to quality financial advice and our industry-leading retirement incoming planning tools.

“We will be assessing the fee structure for every fund, every year.  Our promise to our members is that we will only charge a fair fee for managing their money and maximising potential returns.”

Fees overall have also been reduced for Kiwi Wealth’s growth, balanced and conservative funds by 0.02, 0.06 and 0.18 percentage points respectively.  The annual minimum fee of $50 has been reduced to $40 across all KiwiSaver funds managed by Kiwi Wealth.

 

Advisers can use new behavioural research to glean tips on how to drive new connections with clients and deepen existing ones, the Financial Markets Authority says.

It has released the results of the second phase of its KiwiSaver trial, run in conjunction with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and ANZ.

It focused on getting action from KiwiSaver members who were turning 56 and in the ANZ Lifetimes KiwiSaver fund.

The aim was to see if behavioural prompts would make them more likely to take financial advice, make an active choice and which fund they were in, or increase their contributions.

The trial had two phases, from June to October 2017 and January to July 2018.

The second phase found that a revised version of a letter sent in the first trial made members more likely to use online tools – but still no one contacted the advice service.

Follow-up phone calls were more successful, encouraging members to talk to an adviser.

Scott McMurray, FMA acting director of external communications and investor capability said there were clear messages for financial advisers from the research.

"A few simple things can make a reasonable difference."

While many AFAs saw KiwiSaver as a challenge, there was a big opportunity that would increase with time.

Making it easy for people to access information and advice would make them more likely to engage, he said.

If they could click on an emailed link they were more likely to follow through than if they were required to take part in a more complicated process.

But he said something as simple as picking up the phone at the right time in a client's life could help.

People seemed more open to advice conversations around significant milestone birthdays.

McMurray said a theme from the research was that people felt they lacked the time to talk to an adviser, they worried they would not be confident in the conversation, and were not sure of the value that would be offered.

But those who did get financial advice were much more confident about their financial prospects and had better outcomes.

McMurray said advisers needed to clearly demonstrate the value they could bring.

There would always be demand for advice, he said.