Advice makes key difference to KiwiSaver

Even small amounts of advice are making the difference in getting KiwiSaver members into a suitable fund, Financial Markets Authority director of regulation Liam Mason says.

The FMA has today released its latest KiwiSaver report, showing total KiwiSaver assets rose by $7.8 billion to $48.6b in the year to March. Investment returns rose from $2.7b to $3.2b.

The number of members in default funds fell by 3% to 431,779. While people were still joining through the default mechanism, (64,220 this year), total default membership declined and was at its lowest level since 2011.

In the year, 28,603 default members made an active decision about the type of fund they wanted to be in, up from 16,902 a year earlier.