Major KiwiSaver shake-up: Who s in, who s out among default providers?
13 May, 2021 08:47 PM
5 minutes to read
The government has announced a major shake-up of the KiwiSaver default providers. Photo / File
The Government has announced a major shake-up in the KiwiSaver default provider appointments with five providers not being reappointed.
There are currently nine default providers but this shrinks to six providers under a new seven-year contract with the government.
People are allocated to a default KiwiSaver fund when they are automatically enrolled through starting a new job and don t choose their own fund.
The newly appointed providers are Bank of New Zealand, Booster, BT Funds Management (Westpac), Kiwi Wealth, Simplicity and Smartshares (NZX).
Minister of
Commerce and Consumer Affairs
Hundreds of thousands
of New Zealanders will be significantly better off in
retirement following changes to the default KiwiSaver
scheme, Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Commerce and
Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark said today.
The
new default provider arrangements, which will take effect
once the terms of the current providers ends on 30 November
2021, mean those joining the scheme at 18 could have an
extra $143,000 at retirement through lower fees and higher
investment returns.
Around 381,000 members are
currently in the default fund they were automatically
allocated to when they started a new job, because they did
Despite losing its default status, AMP Wealth Management chief executive, Blair Vernon said the company was committed to KiwiSaver. “While we’re disappointed not to be reappointed, and we deeply value our default KiwiSaver clients, our current default portfolio represents less than 7 per cent of our total assets under management and around 3.5 per cent of total revenue so this decision doesn’t have a major impact on our business or our commitment to KiwiSaver.
Getty Images
AMP has lost its KiwiSaver default provider status. ANZ spokesman Stefan Herrick said: “While we’re disappointed we haven’t been appointed a default provider, we’re looking forward to continuing to make KiwiSaver a success and helping New Zealanders prepare for a more secure financial future.”
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