Are KiwiSaver reporting standards high enough?
I’ve just received my first annual KiwiSaver statement from Mercer KiwiBank and I must say I am very disappointed with the reporting. There is a key gap in making the connection between money contributed and the conversion to units held. Whilst the statement clearly outlines the dollar contributions, it does not include the number of units purchased by each contribution, nor the unit price on date of conversion to units. This is fundamental reporting for managed funds.
Instead, all I received was effectively a ‘black box’ statement that I held x units at 31 March, and here was the value of the units on this date. This gives absolutely no accountability of the conversion process from contributions to units. For a Government imposed savings scheme we deserve far more transparency in investment transactions. This is less of an issue with conservative investments where unit prices won’t vary significantly, but with high-growth long term investments unit pricing will need proper and transparent reporting.
I called Mercer KiwiSaver this morning, and confirmed that this information is not accessible either on the statement, or via the website. As a result, I have emailed KiwiSaver to let them know about this oversight and my concerns. Only the current unit pricings are available.
I recently received my annual KiwiSaver statement from the Mercer KiwiBank scheme I am a member of, and I am concerned that the statement does not provide enough detail about investment transactions.
My concern is that there appears to be no record accessible by the member that details for each contribution how many units in the investment were purchased. The only reference that is given is the number of units held at the end of the period and their current value.
I feel that this is a critical gap in the reporting requirements of KiwiSaver – members should be able to see on their statement that if they contributed $100, how many units were purchased with that contribution, and the price that they were purchased at. This is more important for the high-growth investments that will see more variability in unit prices than it is with more conservative investments.
As someone that has invested in managed funds for the past 15 years or more, I am used to seeing this information reported on, and I am very concerned that this information is not being openly provided by the fund managers – either in the annual statement, or on their website. This was confirmed by a phone call to their call centre this morning.