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.
If you’d like to check your account performance, we have a dedicated section on accessing your Fisher Funds KiwiSaver Login.
Note: The following information is taken from Fisher Funds Two Kiwisaver Scheme’s own website, fund updates, and the product disclosure statement published as of July 2023.
Updated: 21st July 2023
Reviewed by: Raymond Hu
Fisher Funds KiwiSaver Scheme review
The Fisher Funds provider is among one of the largest KiwiSaver providers in New Zealand.
Fisher Funds Two offers five different KiwiSaver Funds, ranging from a lower-risk Preservation Fund to a higher-risk Equity fund. A useful service offered by the provider is GlidePath. The service automatically allocates and adjusts your savings annually to a fund or mix of funds based on your age at the time.
Fisher Funds uses active investment management across its funds and employs an analysis model that they refer to as the STEEPP process (Strength of the business, Track record, Earnings history, Earnings outlook, People and Price) to choose stocks. The provider also believes in responsible investing and avoids investing in oil and gas producers, coal miners, tobacco, weapons, or gambling companies.
Fisher Funds charges management fees between 0.62%-1.13%; there are currently no account fees. 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 Fisher Funds managed funds in the last 5 to 10 years have been similar to the average KiwiSaver returns.
Changes within the Fisher Funds KiwiSaver Scheme
Fisher Funds has stopped charging account and performance-based fees as of July 1st, 2023.
In closing
Based on past performance alone, for the past five years, Fisher Funds has continuously performed similar to the average KiwiSaver fund after fees and taxes. To see your actual account returns you can check our dedicated section on accessing your Fisher Funds KiwiSaver Login.
*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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Fisher Funds is a Fund Manager founded by Carmel Fisher in 1998 and since then has continually grown the fund to include 19 investment professionals, making it one of New Zealand’s largest investment teams. Collectively, the team has over 200 years of investing experience. In 2017, Carmel retired from the company, selling her 51% stake to TSB bank.
In 2018 Carmel Fisher was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her work in building the multi-billion dollar company from scratch. Fisher Funds has won numerous awards over the years, with the latest being the Fund Manager of the Year award in 2016.
TSB is a bank fully owned by New Zealanders and redistributes its income back to the New Zealand community. Founded in 1850, the bank has been around since New Zealand’s beginnings. It was one of the original twelve banks in New Zealand but has remained an independent institution after those eleven banks merged.
Fisher Funds provides a number of services, including KiwiSaver, managed funds, premium services tailored to wealthy individuals, workplace LifeSaver plans geared towards retirement, and financial advice.
Fisher Funds Two manages six funds under the KiwiSaver scheme and has an Asset Under Management (AUM) of $3.48 Billion with 82,802 members on board.
2019 INFINZ Awards – Fund Manager of the Year – Bonds
2016 FundSource Fund Manager of the Year.
Mark Brighouse – Chief Investment Strategist
Mark joined Fisher Funds in November 2011 and is responsible for oversight of the investment team and the asset allocation in portfolios. He has been working in the investment industry for 24 years, including five years in London.
Prior to joining Fisher Funds, Mark spent four years as Managing Director of Brook Asset Management. Before that, he was Chief Investment Officer for Arcus Investment Management, which was part of the AXA Group.
Ashley Gardyne – Chief Investment Officer
Ashley joined the international equities team in 2013 after spending 10 years working in the fast-paced world of mergers and acquisitions in both New Zealand and London. Ashley has been responsible for identifying and monitoring many of the technology and consumer investments globally.
Prior to Fisher Funds, Ashley spent 10 years advising infrastructure and private equity funds on acquisitions and divestments. Ashley started his career with ABN AMRO in New Zealand before moving to the UK, where he held a number of investment banking roles, including responsibility for the corporate finance group at RBS in London.
Sam Dickie – Senior Portfolio Manager
Fisher Funds welcomed Sam Dickie to the investment team in March 2017 as their new Senior Portfolio Manager for New Zealand Shares and Property & Infrastructure — as Ashley Gardyne moved into managing the International Shares portfolio.
Sam is an experienced investment professional and has recently returned to New Zealand with his family after living and working overseas for the past 13-plus years.
Having previously held roles at Moore Capital in Hong Kong and Bennelong Asset Management in London, Sam is excited to be back home and to be heading up Fisher Funds’ New Zealand equities.
David McLeish – Senior Portfolio Manager
David joined Fisher Funds in January 2011 as the Senior Portfolio Manager responsible for managing fixed-income and cash portfolios. David began his career in 1999 as an equity broker before moving to London in 2002, where he specialized in fixed-income investments. His previous work experience includes senior fixed-income trading and sales roles at Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Goldman Sachs.
Robbie Urquhart – Senior Portfolio Manager
Robbie is responsible for managing the Australian portfolio. Robbie has worked as a portfolio manager and analyst since 2001 in both New Zealand and London, where he held various roles with Trafalgar Copley, Copenhagen Capital and FNZC. He holds a Master of Business Studies in Finance (First Class Honours) from Massey University, and prior to this, completed a BComm (cum laude) at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Robbie grew up on a dairy farm in South Africa before moving to New Zealand, is an avid sports fan (participant & spectator) and enjoys hanging out with family and friends.
Angela Quirk – Head of Trading
Angela joined Fisher Funds in July 2013 as Fixed Income Manager. Angela has 11 years industry experience having most recently spent three years at Grosvenor Financial Services managing a range of fixed income portfolios. Angela has an in-depth knowledge of government and corporate bonds, interest rate swaps and cash management products. Angela is a keen sportswoman with an avid interest in hockey. She is also a CFA charterholder.
Fisher Funds manages its funds with a combined management team. Mark Brighthouse, the Chief Investment Strategist, controls the overall management and direction of the funds. The other members, Sam Dickie, David McLeish, and Brent Buchanan, are tasked with managing and providing advice to the chief strategist in their areas of expertise.
Mark Brighthouse (Chief Investment Strategist) is responsible for the oversight of the fund and asset allocation. Sam Dickie, David McLeish, and Brent Buchanan are responsible for the analysis and management of specific assets within that portfolio, such as fixed income (David McLeish), property (Brent Buchanan), and NZ equities (Sam Dickie). They work together to advise Mark Brighthouse on the optimal asset allocations of the Growth Fund.
Since all staff of Fisher Funds are part of their Kiwisaver scheme, they are personally invested in the success and growth of the fund. Here’s a statement directly from the Chief Executive Officer, Bruce McLachlan, about the alignment of the investment team in regard to ensuring the success of obtaining returns for customers.
“Our investment team has a very significant component of their total remuneration at stake each and every year, that is tied to their investment performance. The quantum of bonus they receive is directly correlated to their degree of out-performance of the market. We call this alpha generation. No alpha generation, no out-performance, no bonus. Having said this, the motivation to outperform is not just a monetary one. This goes to personal reputation, peer pressure, and a very strong desire to do the right thing by our clients. Many of our team have also invested personally in our own Fisher Funds products”
All KiwiSaver 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 Trustees also have a responsibility as front-line supervisors for monitoring the management and administration of these schemes.
A custodian plays a key role in protecting your investments. They hold your money and KiwiSaver investment (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.
TEA Custodians Limited (a subsidiary of Trustees Executors Limited) acts as Custodian for the funds’ assets and settling agent for the funds’ transactions. In international markets where TEA Custodians Limited does not have a presence, they use Citibank or State Street as their custodial agent. They regularly reconcile all bank accounts and investment holdings back to the underlying share registries, so that they know all the assets are real and are held in their name.
A supervisor is a licensed entity independent of a KiwiSaver scheme that supervises the provider’s management of the scheme. KiwiSaver schemes are trusts, and (except for restricted 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.
Trustees Executors Limited acts as Supervisor for the funds’ investors. Their sole function is to protect the interests of investors. They are responsible for ensuring that Fisher Funds meets its obligations to investors including checking that the funds’ investments comply with the SIPO for each fund. Fisher Funds must also provide regular reporting to the supervisor confirming that we have acted in accordance with the relevant Governing Document. Trustees Executors Limited administers and supervises over $100 billion of investors’ assets.
Compliance with the benchmark asset allocations and prudential limits imposed by the Statement of Investment Policy and Objective (SIPO) is taken into consideration before trades are executed and monitored post-trade. The pre-trade compliance consists of using models that show the resulting asset allocation of the Fund assuming the planned trade is executed.
Portfolio Managers fully understand the prudential limits of the portfolios and take this into account when determining appropriate trades. Each day monitoring is undertaken to ensure the investments of the Fund remain within the limits of the SIPO.
The Manager’s role is to select investments that best achieve the aims of the Statement of Investment Policy and Objective ( SIPO), to exercise voting powers where appropriate in respect of these investments, to select external managers, to execute transactions to implement the investment strategy, monitoring adherence to this SIPO and reporting on this to the Fisher Funds Investment Policy Committee and the Supervisor, and to make recommendations as to how the SIPO could be improved.
The Manager is also responsible for appointing any external managers, ensuring they are competent to manage the asset class they are responsible for, and for monitoring their performance on a quarterly basis once they have been appointed. The performance of any external managers is reported to, and recommendations to appoint, or change an external manager are made to, the Investment Policy Committee.
Fisher Funds believes superior investment returns can be achieved over time through adopting an active management approach. The principles that underpin this are:
The investment philosophy behind this KiwiSaver investment strategy is the belief that broadly diversified fixed-interest securities along with a modest weighting to growth assets can provide stable returns over time.
Generally speaking they expect the fund to be actively managed; however they may use passive vehicles to gain broad market exposure. Where they do actively choose stocks they look to invest only in businesses and industries that they know and understand. They invest only after fully researching a stock, and tend to be long-term investors. They understand that the market gets valuations wrong from time to time and they rely on their own assessment of value rather than the market’s view of exploiting opportunities.
They give each potential investment a score using the following criteria to choose stocks: Strength of the business, Track record, Earnings history, Earnings outlook, People and Price.
Fisher Funds employs an investment analysis model that they call the STEEPP process to analyze existing and potential portfolio companies. This analysis gives each company a score against a number of criteria that we believe need to be present in a successful portfolio company. All companies are then ranked according to their STEEPP score to broadly determine their portfolio weighting (or indeed whether they make the grade to be a portfolio company in the first place).
See below for the breakdown of the STEEPP process.
Strength of Business
A strong business is one that can maintain its profit margins by employing a unique strategy.
Track Record
Fisher Funds prefers to buy established companies that have executed well in the past.
Earnings History
Fisher Funds prefer to buy companies that exhibit secular growth characteristics where they have proven the ability to provide a high or improving return on invested capital.
Future Earning Growth Forecast
Fisher Funds notice that too many analysts focus on short-term earnings. As long-term growth investors, Fisher Funds think about where the company’s earnings could be in three to five years. That is also important to keep in mind when checking results through your Fisher Funds KiwiSaver login.
People/Management
For Fisher Funds, the quality of the company management and its corporate governance is of paramount importance.
Price/Valuation
A company will generate a higher score where the market price currently reflects little of that company’s upside potential.
For more information about their STEEPP process, please see the link below.
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. In fact, you can check the top companies your fund is invested in through your Fisher Funds KiwiSaver login.
According to Fisher Funds’ Responsible Investment Policy, investing capital in a way that recognises Fisher Funds Management Limited’s (including Kiwi Wealth Investment Limited Partnership) (collectively “Fisher Funds”) fiduciary duty to act in the best economic interests of their clients but also encompasses Responsible Investing considerations, including taking into account environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns, is an important consideration for Fisher Funds.
Fisher Funds aims to invest responsibly in three ways:
The first is by maintaining a Prohibited Companies List (the List) that identifies companies that do not meet Fisher Funds ESG standards. Fisher Funds will not invest in companies on the List.
Secondly, Fisher Funds incorporate ESG considerations in our fundamental research and in our investment decisions. This also feeds into our engagement with companies which may be undertaken directly by our team or through external advisors as required.
Lastly, as another key part of their active approach to ownership, Fisher Funds exercises their voting rights in a way which takes into account their ESG standards. This includes exercising our voting rights directly through our custodian, or through a proxy voting service. Fisher Funds retains full discretion over all voting decisions.
The list of companies that have been excluded by Fisher Funds can be accessed through their Responsible Investing Company Exclusions List, which is provided as a reference below.
Fisher Funds TWO KiwiSaver Scheme Annual Report
Fisher Fund TWO KiwiSaver Financial Statement
Fisher Funds TWO KiwiSaver Scheme Statement of Investment Policy and Objectives (SIPO)
Fisher Funds TWO KiwiSaver Scheme Product Disclosure Statement (PDS)
Fisher Funds TWO KiwiSaver Scheme Other Material Information (OMI)
Fisher Funds KiwiSaver Scheme Responsible Investment Policy
