The Association of Superannuation Funds, although supportive of most of the measures, queried the usefulness of the requirement for a statistical annual return.
ASFONZ “suggested that the potential inaccuracies in that return would make the information collected irrelevant. They did not believe, however, that there was any risk with the proposals”.
The matter of the return was the only measure specifically referred to by Cullen, who claims "pprovisions like the statistical annual return will also allow us to obtain accurate and complete information about KiwiSaver, without placing undue costs on providers.
“Having information on participation rates and the relevance and effectiveness of KiwiSaver features will also be valuable."
The Investment Savings and Insurance Association – the other industry body consulted by officials – has not voiced the same concerns.
Chief executive Vance Arkinstall told Good Returns he had not, as of yesterday afternoon, seen the final government announcement but that he was not expecting any surprises.
“We’ve been encouraged by meetings we’ve had with officials and with the Government Actuary,” he says.
On the matter of fees, the regulations simply set a few criteria: they are not to be unreasonable, and the Government Actuary will assess them on the basis of “whether the fee charged is similar to fees charged for like products.”
That means, says Arkinstall, “presumably if people are investing in a fund where there are a higher number of transactions, or the costs are higher, then they can charge higher fees.”
The Government Actuary is to release guidelines before Christmas on how his office plans to carry out these assessments.
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