Changing KiwiSaver schemes
Changing KiwiSaver schemes
Earlier this year, after a couple of years of procrastination, I finally decided to join KiwiSaver. The reduction of the minimum contribution to 2% clinched the deal for me.
But having to choose from so many schemes and providers was only going to lead to more delaying tactics, so I went for the easy option and let the government decide.
This meant my account was randomly allocated to one of the six default providers, which is fine, but by not making an active choice I also got put into a conservative investment fund by default.
Not so smart.
According to both the questionnaire in my provider’s investment statement, and Sorted’s Investment recommender – with almost 20 years to age 65 I’m a long-term investor so should be in a growth fund, not a conservative one.
So given that I’m updating our Investing booklet this week it was time to take some of my own medicine and make my money work harder for me.
First step was to visit my provider’s website to see what was involved. It said that I could change my investment fund anytime with two free changes a year.
Cool. So how do I do that?
I couldn’t find an online service on their site, so called them up on their 0800 number. After the obligatory five minutes on hold, I got through to a friendly support person who told me there was a form on their website which I could fax rather than post in.
Took me just a couple of minutes to fill in the form and change my fund from conservative to growth – the only hard thing was finding my IRD number, and remembering how to use a fax machine. Sent the form off and all sorted.
Except…
When I got back to my desk I realised I had forgotten to check our KiwiSaver fees calculator to see how my provider’s growth fund stacked up.
Oops – so I went to check it out. Well my new fund wasn’t the dearest, but it wasn’t anywhere near being the cheapest either. So maybe in a few months I’ll also have to blog about changing providers!
How about you? Have you thought about your KiwiSaver scheme since you joined? Are you in the right one?
User comments KiwiSaver fund performance
It's important to remember that short term historical returns (e.g. 3, 6 and 12 months) are not indicative of the future performance of your KiwiSaver fund or other types of investments. For more info. and help with changing KiwiSaver providers check this out: http://bit.ly/2tP7Ep
Posted at 02:22 pm on October 30, 2009 Fund performance
Now is an ideal time to be in a balanced or growth fund, in order to take advantage of the recovering share market. In addition to checking the fees charged by various providers, it is also a good idea to check their performance in terms of investment returns. Such information can be found at:
http://www.goodreturns.co.nz/article/976495789/kiwisaver-performance-sur...
Posted at 01:58 pm on October 30, 2009 
