KiwiSaver members are quitting big bank providers and shifting their investments to independent and boutique operators.
Data for the most recent financial year, compiled from documents filed on the Disclose register, shows that Milford Asset Management was the biggest winner, with almost $1.5 billion of net funds transferred in.
In total, there is about $120b invested in KiwiSaver.
Generate was second, Simplicity third and Kernel fourth.
At the other end of the table, ANZ lost a net $728.7 million in transfers, ASB $476.6m and Westpac $353.2m.
ANZ still has the largest market share, at 17.5%, followed by ASB with 14.7%.
In 2015, ANZ had almost a quarter of the market, but since then it has suffered through a period of poor performance.
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In Morningstar’s March survey, ANZ’s conservative fund was bottom of the pack over 10 years, balanced was 15th out of 16, and its growth funds were 11th and 14th out of 14.
ANZ said the market was “extremely competitive”.
“Across the industry, a total of 163,000 KiwiSaver members transferred providers in the year to March 2025, up 22%.
“ANZ continues to focus on helping New Zealanders feel more confident and in control of their KiwiSaver investment.
“That means supporting better conversations, especially through our banking channels. We’re also proactively checking in and communicating with members, not just waiting for them to come to us.
“We’re continuing to invest in intuitive tools and digital experiences, such as our Fund Chooser Tool and government Contribution Tracker, to make managing KiwiSaver simpler for customers.
“Additionally, we’ve refreshed our investment beliefs and continued to reduce fees across several of our funds, benefiting our members and reinforcing our commitment to delivering strong, long-term value.”
Greg Bunkall, data director at Morningstar, said Milford and Generate were the only providers with more than $1b in net inflows in the year.
“Those two providers also feature heavily in the top of the league tables regularly. As a provider, you need to have strong brand awareness, marketing, and lead generation functions – but the performance would help.
“If you talk to some of the KiwiSaver providers that do well and receive earned media, they will typically see larger than normal switches in days that follow – so that would at least anecdotally support at least some degree of performance chasing in the KiwiSaver cohort.”
KiwiWrap topped the table on a measure of the number of dollars in versus the number out, followed by Kernel.
Kernel had the biggest percentage growth in funds under management.
Milford head of KiwiSaver Murray Harris said its long-term returns were helping to draw customers in.
Morningstar reports showed Milford among the top performers over three, five and 10-year periods.
He said there tended to be more interest in provider switching in the middle of the year, when people were encouraged to check their funds and ensure they had contributed enough to get the full government contribution.
“Members are quite focused on their KiwISaver and get a reminder to look at it. We often see a boost this time of year.”
He said KiwiSaver balances had become more significant for many members, and it made sense that they were looking at what options were available to them.
People considering switching should compare long-term returns, he said, not just the most recent quarter or year.
“We’ve seen some very specialist funds do very well, gold and crypto are doing well at the moment… don’t just look at the short-term returns but the long-term.
“How consistent are they at providing those market-leading returns throughout time? Five and ten years would be the minimum … These are very long-term investments, so the longer the track record you look at, the better.”
People were more likely to move when markets were performing well, he said.
“We’ve had strong market returns almost every day since the wobble in April, that makes people more confident to transfer. When markets are not doing well, they tend not to transfer because they think they’ll crystallise the loss with one provider.”
But as long as people were moving to a similar fund type, they would not be in a worse position for shifting providers.
“You might do better if you recover the fall in value driven by the market sooner.”
Kernel founder Dean Anderson said people were becoming more engaged and realising that KiwiSaver wasn’t just a bank product.
“Now that education and awareness is growing, people realise there are better solutions out there.”
But compared to the number of people who switched for a better deal on their power or phone, he said, switching activity was still very low.
“I think we should expect to see that increase. As balances get bigger, people think, ‘Am I better off elsewhere? Are there better fees, better service, better values that align with mine?”
The growth of smaller, newer providers showed people had confidence in the scheme, he said.
“There’s confidence that these players are good, stable, growing businesses. You don’t have to be with the bank.”
rnz.co.nz
