Morningstar names Milford Asset Management, OnePath and Westpac as finalists for KiwiSaver fund manager of the year awards

Auckland-based Milford Asset Management has been named as a finalist for the KiwiSaver fund manager year of the awards for 2011 along with Westpac and default provider OnePath, which is owned by ANZ.

Research house Morningstar, which will announce the winner at a March 1 awards ceremony, said finalists were selected from a pool of 16 providers on the basis of "fund research analyst conviction, risk adjusted medium to long-term track record, and performance for the 2011 calendar year.''

Chris Douglas, co-head of research for Morningstar, said the outfit also took into consideration the experience and assessment from a group of graduate students brought in to mystery shop KiwiSaver providers under view. (See Amanda Morrall's interview here with Chris Douglas explaining the selection process).

Milford Asset's Management's active growth fund (formerly known as its aggressive fund) has, according to Morningstar's Dec.2011 KiwiSaver report, delivered annual after tax and after fee returns of 8.1% per annum over four years. That's in contrast to the average -1.6% per annum four year return generated by its peer group.

OnePath's conservative default fund has delivered four year returns of 5.2% per annum making it the best performing default fund in the market.

On a peer relative basis, Douglas said Westpac was also a standout performance wise, not only for the past year but since inception, taking 3 and 4th place for balanced and moderate funds.

Douglas said Westpac also scored well around issues of transparency, disclosure and the "investor experience.''

The other categories and nominees are as follows.