Simplicity takes KiwiSaver's first-past-the-post honours in Dec Qtr
Passsive investing paid off big time for Simplicity in the December quarter with its growth, balanced and conservative funds all delivering the quarter's best returns in their category.
Monday, January 26th 2026, 10:13AM
The $2.85 billion Simplicity growth fund delivered 2.9% in the latest three months, significantly outpacing the 2% median return of the 14 growth funds in the MJW survey. The Simplicity fund ranked fifth for the year with a 12.1% return, first over three years with annual returns of 15.7% and second over five years with annual returns of 8.2% - Simplicity hasn't been around yet to figure in the 10-year performance table where first place was taken by Milford with annual returns averaging 10.2% over that decade out of 13 funds.
Runner-up was Westpac's $3.57 billion growth fund with a 2.5% quarterly return and it took first place for the year with a 12.8% return.
The quarter's worst performing growth fund was Fisher's $4.32 billion fund which produced a 0.8% return for the three months. This Fisher fund was also the worst performer for calendar 2025 with a 5.2% return. It was nineth over three years with 12.1% annual returns but in 14th place again over five years with average annual returns of 5.9%. Over 10 years, it was in sixth place with average annual returns of 8.5%.
Simplicity's $813 million balanced fund returned 2.1% in the latest quarter compared with the median 1.7% return from the 15 balanced funds in the MJW survey. However, for calendar 2025, Simplicity's fund ranked eighth with a 9.7% return.
Westpac's $2.39 billion balanced fund was the best performer of the 15 funds in 2025 with an 11% return.
Milford's $2.31 billion balanced fund was the quarter's worst performer in the category with a 0.3% return, but it was in ninth place with a 9.1% return – that was still below the median 9.7% return from the 15 balanced funds.
Simplicity's $189 million conservative fund achieved a 1% quarterly return, ahead of the median December quarter return from the 16 conservative funds of 0.7%. It was in sixth place for the year with a 5.9 return, while the year's best performer was ASB's $3.71 billion fund with a 7.6% return, well abover the 5.5% median result.
Milford's $411 million conservative fund was the worst performer of the 15 conservative funds with a return of just 0.1%, though it was in 10th place for the year with a 5.4% return.
There was better news for Fisher's $1 billion default fund, the former Kiwi Wealth default vehicle, which was the best performer for the latest quarter of the six default funds with a 2.5% return and it was also the best performer for the year with a 10.8% return.
The worst performing default fund in the quarter was $1.02 billion fund which returned 1.7%, although it was third best for the year with a 10.1% return.
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