Aussie providers slow to accept portability

Australian superannuation providers are still dragging their feet when it comes to accepting transfers of money from KiwiSaver.

Wednesday, October 29th 2014, 6:00AM

by Susan Edmunds

New Zealanders with superannuation in Australian schemes have been able to transfer it to schemes here - and vice versa - since the beginning of July last year.

It is compulsory for providers to allow savers to withdraw their accounts but they do not have to receive funds from across the ditch.

So far, few Australian advisers are playing ball.

WA Super announced this week that it would accept eligible contributions from KiwiSaver accounts as of October 23.

The transferred amount will be exempt from tax providing it falls within the contribution cap of $180,000 per annum.

WA Super said there were no Australian schemes promoting the ability to transfer New Zealand savings across the ditch.

Chief executive John McNally said it was good news for New Zealanders who wanted to settle in Australia.

“Feedback is clear, and the need for such action has certainly been identified by both New Zealanders migrating to Australia and within the industry’s media bodies. At WA Super, we pride ourselves on service offering, and as a result we are thrilled to offer this opportunity to support an already established Kiwi division of the market.”

ANZ’s head of wealth in New Zealand, John Body, said he was aware of a couple of other providers in Australia willing to accept funds but they were small operators. “To our knowledge, none of the bigger providers are advance and are certainly not publicising it. We continue to see very muted interest in transfers from New Zealand to Australia, which probably explains why the industry has not prioritised this ahead of the other reforms taking place in Australia.”

He said his personal view was that it would take another year before anything started to change.

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