Transparency coming for KiwiSaver fees

The Financial Markets Authority’s (FMA) KiwiSaver Annual report, tabled in Parliament today, provides a comprehensive snapshot of KiwiSaver engagement says Minister for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Paul Goldsmith.

“The report shows growth in people using KiwiSaver to help save for their first home and a continued increase in KiwiSaver membership. For the first time, the number of New Zealanders transferring between schemes was higher than the total number of people joining.

“Yet drawing non-contributing members back to KiwiSaver still poses a challenge. One way of doing this is to increase New Zealanders engagement with their annual statements.

“I have seen recent reports that only three default providers supply the total fees in their annual statement. This isn’t good enough,” says Mr Goldsmith.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, in conjunction with the Commission for Financial Capability and the FMA, is currently reviewing the content of the annual statements KiwiSaver schemes must provide to their investors.

“Consultation with KiwiSaver scheme providers has begun to ensure fee transparency is done in a way that is simple for the consumer to understand and easy for providers to implement,” says Mr Goldsmith.

“It is my expectation that any regulatory change required will be in place for the next annual statements and that KiwiSaver providers will already be working towards providing their members with the total fees they are paying. 

“In the meantime I would encourage consumers to use the KiwiSaver Fund Finder to find out more information about the fees they are paying,” says Mr Goldsmith.

The Fund Finder can be found here: www.sorted.org.nz/Fundfinder.