Staffing cuts helped Fisher Funds lift annual net profit 21.7%
Fisher Funds Management has reported a 21.7% jump in annual net profit, mostly reflecting a drop in operating expenses as its staffing numbers fell following the integration of the Kiwi Wealth business.
Monday, August 3rd 2026, 7:06AM
by Jenny Ruth
Net profit increased by $13.6 million to $76.4 million for the year ended March with fee income rising 3.5% to $228.6 million while operating expenses dropped 11.2% to $104.2 million.
Employee benefits fell 9.3% to just over $53 million in the latest year.
“There was a decrease in average FTE [full-time-equivalents] as we recognised synergies in the prior yar from reducing duplicate systems and roles as we completed major migration projects,” a Fisher spokeswoman said.
For a second year, the company has paid more in dividends than earnings with this year’s payout up 23% at $86.5 million. The previous year, Fisher paid $70.4 million in dividends compared with the net profit of $62.8 million.
The improvement in profit is despite some of its funds performing poorly in the latest year after years of ranking among the better performers.
For example, The Fisher growth fund ranked last out of 15 growth funds with a negative 5.3% return for the March quarter and it was also the worst performer over the year ended March with a positive 3% return, according to the Mercer Jessup Weaver survey.
The $1.76 billion Fisher Two balanced fund ranked 17th out of 17 funds with a negative 3.9% return for the March quarter and it was also the worst performer for the year with a positive 3.4% return.
However, the default KiwiSaver fund it bought with the Kiwi Wealth business, worth $1.01 billion at March 31, was the best performer of the six default funds with a negative 0.9% return for the quarter.
The default fund was also in first place for the year with a positive 10.3% return, and first over three years with 10.2% annual returns.
The accounts showed that Fisher as of March 31 had earned no performance fees for the period ending June 30, 2026 after earning no such fees the previous year.
However, it did book $2.5 million of performance fees, down from $3.5 million the previous year.
In addition, the three listed Fisher funds, Kingfish, Barramundi and Marlin Global, all underperformed their benchmark, the NZX 90-day Bank Bill Index, and so forfeited fee income.
The amount of Kingfish fees to be refunded, the difference between the provisional management fee of 1.25% and the minimum fee of 0.85% is $1.9 million compared to no refund the previous year.
Similarly, the estimated refunds for Barramundi was $862,388, down from the $900,000 refunded the previous year, and for Marlin the estimated refund was $795,935, down from $840,000 the previous year.
Fisher Funds is 66% owned by the Toi Foundation which recently agreed to sell TSB Bank to Heartland Bank with settlement expected to settle in December.
Fisher has a referral arrangement with TSB and in the latest year paid the bank $15,270 in introductory fees, down from $21,000 the previous year, and commissions of nearly $1.4 million, up from $1.3 million the previous year. TSB was owed $365,000 in commissions at March 31.
The Fisher spokeswoman said the company will continue to work with TSB as the transition occurs and said that relationship “remains very important to Fisher Funds.”
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