Despite the introduction of Kiwisaver there are still 457 private or Employer Managed Superannuation Schemes, with 380,000 members in NZ. Between them they have funds of approximatley $20 billion and are a small, but significant, component of the New Zealand retirement income scene.

A handful of schemes have transferred into a Kiwisaver type, where funds are held in ‘lock-in’ accounts for individual members and have a similar degree of protection as Kiwisaver.
The majority of other schemes are based on commercial realities and, with a few exceptions (mainly from Government Service organisations such as Defence, Police, Local Government etc., have no mechanism for beneficiary’s or contributor’s views to influence investment or management of their funds.

The Financial Markets Authority has a statutory duty to oversee Employer and Private Superannuation schemes, and produces an excellent overview of the whole industry each year, including ensuring that a proper annual report is submitted. However FMA’s report does not identify individual scheme’s annual reports, which can only be accessed by going through the Companies Register “Superannuation’ subset search (tick superannuation and at next screen enter ‘Superannuation to the right of  ‘contains the words’).

There appears to be no public discussion of whether the Private or Employer Managed Superannuation Schemes are doing a good job and whether members are satisfied with their management.

I post this information to encourage those belonging to such schemes to give feedback on their experiences or thoughts.

Information sourced from the FMA site and interpretations and comments are my own.

Stephen Wealthall