There’s a lot more to selecting a KiwiSaver fund than just checking past returns and fees. If your hard-earned money is invested in KiwiSaver, you need to ask the important questions to understand where and how that money is invested.
Note: The following information is taken from ASB Kiwisaver Scheme’s own website, fund updates, and the product disclosure statement published as of July 2023.
Updated: 10th July 2023
Reviewed by: Raymond Hu
ASB KiwiSaver Scheme review
The ASB KiwiSaver Scheme is one of the largest KiwiSaver providers, housing three of the ten most populous funds in 2022 (according to Canstar). The ASB KiwiSaver Scheme is managed by ASB Group Investments Limited.
The scheme offers six different KiwiSaver Funds, five standard funds ranging from a lower-risk cash fund to a higher-risk growth fund and an additional unique “Positive Impact Fund” which focuses on investing in assets that generate a positive and measurable social and/or environmental impact, alongside a financial return.
Its investing approach consists of a mixture of active management and index tracking management. Each of their funds contain multiple asset classes (excluding the Cash Fund) managed by investment managers. The Statement of Investment Policy and Objectives (SIPO) is reviewed at least once every two years.
ASB charges annual fund fees that range between 0.35%-1.00%. It is free to switch between different funds within the scheme and there are no joining or exit fees if you decide to switch providers. The provider does not charge any performance fees for any of its funds.
In general, the returns of ASB funds in the last 5 to 10 years have been close to the average KiwiSaver returns.
Changes within the ASB KiwiSaver Scheme
In Oct 2021, ASB removed the monthly administration fee from all its KiwiSaver schemes.
In closing
Based on past performance alone, over the past 5 years, ASB’s investing approach has led it to continuously perform similar to the average KiwiSaver fund after fees and taxes.
*Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future performance.
*List is of the highest 5-year returns A-rated funds as per our Investment Selection Process.
*All returns are after fees and tax (28% PIR) as of the quarter ended 30th June 2024.
*Source: National Capital Research August 2024
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In 1847, at 7 pm on Saturday 5 June the Auckland Savings Bank, New Zealand’s first savings bank, opened on Queen Street.
ASB pledged to serve the community, to grow, and to help Kiwis grow. Since then, ASB has been committed to bringing New Zealanders the best banking products and services possible.
Over the years, they have continued to rethink the way people bank and how they interact with their money and used these insights to develop innovative solutions that meet their customer’s needs.
As of 2023, the ASB KiwiSaver scheme has a total Assets Under Management (AUM) of over $14 billion and a total number of 495,305 KiwiSaver members.
ASB has received multiple awards in the past recent years:
Adam Boyd – Executive General Manager of Personal Banking
Before being appointed Executive General Manager of Personal Banking in 2022. Adam’s roles at ASB included Executive General Manager of Private Banking, Wealth and Insurance, General Manager of Global Markets, Strategy and Product, and General Manager of Worksmart.
Adam has over 25 years of experience in leading sales teams, with a specialist knowledge of global financial markets.
As a leader, Adam believes that similar to the notion that we are only custodians of a business for a short period, managers will only lead people for a short window of their career. With this in mind, Adam’s goal is to ensure that each person he leads goes away richer for their experiences at ASB.
Carl Ferguson – Chief Financial Officer
Carl has over 20 years of experience within the Financial Services Industry across Banking, Funds Management and Insurance. Prior to his role as Chief Financial Officer, Carl held the Chief Internal Auditor role, and then was appointed Chief Risk Officer.
As Chief Risk Officer, Carl oversees Risk Management, including Enterprise Risk, Financial Crime, Compliance, Credit Risk, and Customer Financial Assistance.
As a leader, Carl believes in the importance of supporting people to be successful by working together as a team and making everyone feel included. Carl believes diversity, in its broader sense, helps everyone achieve better solutions overall.
Amie Nilsson – Chief Risk Officer
Amie joined ASB in December 2017 as General Manager, Risk Transformation and was appointed Chief Risk Officer in August 2023.
She has almost 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry having worked across risk, customer experience, operations and front-line banking roles at HSBC and most recently Westpac Bank in New Zealand and Australia.
Throughout her career, Amie has also developed strong business acumen and experience in business side roles across retail banking, business banking and operations, as well as a track record of successfully delivering complex change programs.
The ASB Investment Funds (the Scheme) is registered under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 as a managed investment scheme.
ASB Group Investments Limited is the manager of the Scheme and is owned by ASB Bank Limited (ASB). The ASB investment committee has been established to be responsible for making investment decisions for the Scheme (the Investment Committee).
The Scheme is designed to help investors save for their retirement. Contributions made to each investor’s account and the returns of the investor’s chosen Funds will largely determine the amount that an investor receives when they withdraw their investment.
The investment strategy for each Fund is designed to achieve or exceed its investment objective and performance target. The investment strategy for each Fund is made up of asset allocation, currency hedging and decisions about how each asset class is managed.
All KiwiSaver Scheme Providers must ensure they meet regulatory standards and act with customer interests in mind.
KiwiSaver Scheme Managers must exercise care, diligence, and skill in the investment of scheme assets and act in accordance with the stated investment policy and objectives. The FMA monitors that KiwiSaver Schemes are compliant with their obligations. Additionally, KiwiSaver Scheme Trustees also have a responsibility as front-line supervisors for monitoring the management and administration of these schemes.
Each fund is a trust under a trust deed between the supervisor (Public Trust) and ASB (Trust Deed). The assets of the funds are held by a custodian appointed by the supervisor. The custodian is Newburg Nominees Ltd and BNP Paribas Fund Services Australasia Pty Ltd.
Public Trust of New Zealand was a government-appointed corporation sole providing trustee services to those unwilling to use private services or required by the courts or legislation to use the Public Trustee. From 2001 Public Trust ceased to be a corporation, adopting a structure similar to a company as a Crown entity, and was renamed Public Trust. It administers more than 50,000 estates, trusts, funds and agencies and currently supervise thirteen KiwiSaver Providers.
A supervisor is a licensed entity independent of a KiwiSaver scheme provider that supervises the provider’s management of the scheme. KiwiSaver schemes are trusts, and (except for restricted KiwiSaver schemes) the terms of the trust deed states that the supervisor (or another custodian) must hold all contributions and investments in trust for the investors.
A custodian plays a key role in protecting your investments. They hold your money and investments (i.e. keep custody of them) on your behalf. So they are the legal holder of your assets while you are the beneficial and ultimate owner.
The Banking Group is committed to the management of risk to achieve sustainability of service, employment and profits, and therefore takes on controlled amounts of risk when considered appropriate. The Risk management Framework provides the framework for how the Banking Group identifies, assesses, manages, and reports its material risks and risk-adjusted returns using a regulatory capital framework. This is targeted at ensuring that the Banking Group has sufficient capital to enable a strong credit rating relative to the overall market and its peers.
The primary risks are those of credit, market, liquidity/funding, operational and compliance, strategic, and reputational risk. The Banking Group’s risk and control functions are the responsibility of the Chief Risk Officer, who reports to the Chief Executive Officer. The Banking Group’s Risk Management Strategy is set by the Board through the BARC. All non-executive Directors are members of the BARC.
Formal executive committees are in place governing all primary risk types. The Chief Risk Officer is responsible for the implementation of Risk Management Strategy and all executives have responsibility for the day-to-day management of risk across the Banking Group. The Banking Group has management structures and information systems to manage individual risks.
Risk initiation and monitoring tasks are separated where feasible, and all material information systems are subjected to regular internal audits. The Banking Group’s external auditor also reviews parts of the Banking Group’s Risk Management Framework that impact on significant aspects of financial systems, but only to the extent necessary to form their review opinion on the Banking Group’s half-year financial statements or audit opinion on the Banking Group’s annual financial statements.
For more information please visit the link below:
ASB’s investment beliefs provide a framework for their investment decision-making. The investment beliefs are considered together when making decisions for the Scheme.
It is important that ASB’s customers can understand their investment strategies and policies, including how ASB takes into account environmental, social and governance considerations.
The management of each asset class is formally reviewed at least once every two years. This review is in addition to the review processes described in sections 4 (Investment Strategy and 5 (Investment Policies) of their SIPO.
The review considers the following:
ASB regularly monitors the performance of the investment strategies, policies and the underlying investment managers appointed to carry these out.
This monitoring looks at whether:
Asset allocation has a significant influence on investment returns. Each Fund is invested in line with a target asset allocation.
The target asset allocation is reviewed annually (or sooner if market conditions warrant) and measured against a long-term benchmark. They call this benchmark the reference portfolio, which they set every three years. The reference portfolio for each Fund is the lowest cost, lowest risk allocation of assets that is expected to achieve or exceed the investment objective and performance target.
The reference portfolio is the benchmark that they use to measure the success of their asset allocation process.
They manage asset classes in the same way across the multi-sector and single sector funds. This means that the investment management style, market index and underlying investment manager for each asset class is the same. They use either an active investment management style or an index tracking investment management style. An active investment management style means that investments are made with the goal of outperforming chosen
market indices.
An index tracking investment management style aims to deliver returns that closely track those of a market index (or a combination of market indices). Index tracking isn’t expected to exactly match the returns of the index because of transaction costs and cash flow and timing issues. Funds that are managed by index-tracking generally have lower fees than those managed by an active investment management style. This is important because fees reduce returns.
Socially responsible investing (SRI) or Environmental, Social and Governance investing (ESG), also known as sustainable, socially conscious, “green” or ethical investing, is any investment strategy which seeks to consider both financial return and social/environmental good to bring about social change regarded as positive by society.
Basically, SRI investing is investing in companies that have a positive impact on society, based on a number of factors.
Everyone’s definition of responsible investing is different. Some people want to avoid doing harm. Others want to avoid industries that don’t align with their values. And some want to use their funds to actively make the world a better place. At the same time, everyone wants a strong return on their investment.
At ASB, they believe being responsible means two things. First, they invest your money to achieve the best possible financial outcome for you. That could be achieving a strong return, preserving your capital, or a balance of the two. Second, they need to choose investments that are legal and that align with the ethical and environmental values of the community.
To achieve these two priorities, they will use these principles:
But responsible investing is about more than just keeping away from certain sectors. It’s also about looking to the future and making rigorous decisions on the basis of a range of environmental (E), social (S) and corporate governance (G) factors.
Responsible investing means bringing together both financial and values-based considerations when making investment decisions.
In saying that, they exclude some investments, regardless of their financial performance, based on the ASB exclusion framework. Some of the considerations they take into account when deciding to exclude an investment are:
ASB KiwiSaver Scheme Statement of Investment Policy and Objectives
ASB KiwiSaver Scheme Other Material Information
ASB KiwiSaver Scheme Product Disclosure Statement
ASB KiwiSaver Scheme Annual Report (2023)
ASB KiwiSaver Scheme Document Library
New Zealand’s Top 10 KiwiSaver Funds | Canstar
Your KiwiSaver fees are going down | YouMoney
KiwiSaver crawls towards its nuclear-free moment | Stuff.co.nz
