KiwiSaver funds under management increased $3.4 billion in the December 2024 quarter, according to research firm Morningstar, and rose around $24 billion for the whole year.
Greg Bunkall, data director at Morningstar, said KiwiSaver assets ended the December quarter at $121.9 billion, up from $117.6 billion in the September 2024 quarter.
ANZ is still on top when it comes to market share, with $21.9 billion in KiwiSaver funds under management and 18% market share. ASB is in second position, with a market share of 15% and $18.3 billion.
Fisher Funds is close behind ASB with $18 billion funds under management, and 14.8% market share. Westpac and Milford make up the fourth and fifth largest KiwiSaver providers respectively.
Bunkall said these five providers account for approximately 66% of assets in Morningstar’s database – currently $81 billion dollars under management.
“We estimate these five providers will deduct more than $650 million in fees in 2025 from KiwiSaver members, at an average fee of around 0.80 of a cent per dollar invested. This mirrors the overall market fee levels in terms of average dollar invested,” he said.
Morningstar reported an estimated $980 million in annual fees for the 12 months ending in the December 2024 quarter across all 21 KiwiSaver providers. This was up 6.7% from the $918 million estimated annual fees for the 12 months ending in the September 2024 quarter.
Bunkall said Westpac had “noticeably” struggled on the default funds front compared to the performances of other default funds in the December quarter, while Simplicity had performed strongly across all time frames.
Morningstar measures KiwiSaver fund performance in its reports across three-month, one-year and three-year time frames.
There are six default KiwiSaver funds in NZ, provided by BNZ, Booster, Westpac, Fisher Funds, Simplicity and SuperLife.
Average multisector category returns for the December quarter “ranged significantly” from 1% for the conservative category and 5% for the aggressive category, Bunkall said.
“Quay Street continues to perform well across many time periods in the conservative and balanced categories. Milford has consistently high performance within the moderate, balanced and growth categories over the long term, albeit struggling a little recently. Generate is putting up strong numbers across many time periods,” he said.
On an individual funds performance level, QuayStreet Conservative was the best performing fund in the conservative category during the December 2024 quarter, up 2.4%.
In the moderate category, Generate Moderate was up the most, up 2.9% and QuayStreet Socially Responsible Investment Fund was the best performer in the balanced category, rising 8.1%.
QuayStreet Growth had the best performance in the growth category for the second quarter in a row, and was up 7.9% across the quarter.
In the aggressive category, QuayStreet High Growth Fund was the top performing fund, up 11.2%.
Across a 10-years benchmark, which is Morningstar’s preferred long-term performance measurement, Bunkall said the aggressive category average has given investors an annualized return of 9.3%.
Next in line came the growth category, giving an average return of 8.3%, followed by the balanced category at 6.7%, the moderate category at 4.7%, and the conservative category at 4.3%.
‘Mixed bag’
Bunkall said the final quarter of 2024 had presented a “mixed bag” for NZ’s economy.
“While some indicators pointed towards a potential upswing, others suggested continued headwinds,” he said.
“Globally, economic uncertainty persisted, with geopolitical tensions and varying growth trajectories across major economies.”
Bunkall said NZ inflation had continued its downward trend during the December quarter, nearing the upper band of the Reserve Bank's target range of 2%. Headline inflation is currently sitting at 2.2%.
“This easing of inflationary pressures provides some relief for households and businesses, but vigilance remains crucial to ensure price stability,” he said.
5 Comments
Given that most of the costly managed funds don't perform as well as much cheaper index trackers, do you get the feeling that too much in the way of fees is being extracted?
We'd suggest yes..
Interesting how little thought many give to fees and KiwiSaver in general. Can anyone tell me where else 24 billion of capital was invested last year in NZ?
Even allowing for market ups and downs this machine is starting to speed up and is the key to NZs future prosperity and wealth. At say 7% per annum that’s around 9 billion in earnings per annum on average and compounding along with more funds added in.
Thank you Michael Cullen.
And no thanks to National for reversing the original requirement for employers to pay the tax on employer contributions, forcing employees to pay the tax. National also cut the employee annual contribution incentive to invest by 50% (John Key). National also stopped the intended increases in contributions from 3% + 3% to 4% +4% (which would have meant a total of 8% contributions pa). The overall Cullen requirement that Kiwisaver Funds pay 28% income tax is also an abomination crippling the growth in people's retirement funds and setting NZ as an outlier (a negative) versus Oz, Canada and US superior retirement savings programs. Generally, NZ's super savings schemes are skewed against a prosperous retirement.
I agree but this is NZ ……I’ve given up and just am just grateful the kids of today have something.
I just hope it isn’t raided again at the exit end by some nasty politician one day but being NZ nothing would surprise me anymore.
You get who you vote for and it’s a reflection on the whole society and its mentality.
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