The latest data released for KiwiSaver performance as at September 30, 2012 is from Fidelity Life.
Fidelity Life (Fidelity) is more recognisable in NZ as an insurance company rather than a funds management business, however this has not stopped them from attracting over $270 mln in KiwiSaver money.
Members have the choice of seven schemes ranging from Capital Guaranteed through to an ultra-aggressive 'roulette style' Options strategy.
Surprisingly, to us at least, the Options scheme has attracted a substantial lick of money ($60 mln). The Options scheme is almost entirely invested in the Tyndall Option Fund.
As part of their KiwiSaver offering Fidelity outsource most of the management of the various strategies to external fund managers and advisers. Included in the mix of investment experts advising Fidelity are Tyndall, AMP and Devon. These fund managers are also paid performance fees ranging from 10% to 15% subject to a specific hurdle rate. For example, Tyndall will be paid 10% of the out-performance of the Options Fund if the return on the product exceeds 16% per annum.
The provider notes the Options Portfolio is geared through the use of options (put and call) and a relatively small movement in the market price of the underlying investment may result in a disproportionately large profit or loss. We should also point out to readers this strategy is subject to significant volatility and Fidelity states that during August 2011, the unit price of the Options Portfolio dropped 28% over a one-week period.
The last 12 months the only fund to stand-out from the crowd has been the Options scheme with a return of +22.7% per annum.
Over the last 5 years Fidelity has shown itself to be one of the better performing providers. They are especially prominent in the Moderate, Balanced and Aggressive peer groups. The manager's performance was also worthy of recognition by independent research house Morningstar in their latest return survey.
Below is a table of the longer term performance of the Fidelity funds. The return data is before tax and after fees and is as published by the managers. (No adjustments have been made to take into account those additional fees which scheme providers may charge and which are not included in calculating the fund performance. We do make such adjustments, but they will not be included until the full benchmarking is published.)
|
FidelityLife KiwiSaver Scheme |
1 year (p.a.) |
5 year* (p.a.) |
Since inception (1 Oct 2007) (p.a.) |
| Capital Guarantee** | 5.8% | n/a | 4.5% |
| Conservative | 9.2% | 5.1% | 5.1% |
| Balanced | 10.9% | 3.9% | 3.9% |
| Ethical** | 9.8% | n/a | 3.2% |
| Growth | 11.5% | 2.0% | 2.0% |
| Aggressive | 14.9% | 1.1% | 1.1% |
| Options | 22.7% | 8.9% | 8.9% |
* Fidelity has not reported 5year returns so this data has been calculated using monthly unit prices sourced from the manager.
** 5 year data is not yet available as the funds started in May 2008.
More detailed performance reporting can be found here ».
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