Simplicity Kiwisaver - seems good.

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Simplicity Kiwisaver - seems good.

canaletto

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#208929 5-Mar-2017 19:57

Hey all,

I'm considering switching to Simplicity Kiwisaver (simplicity.kiwi). The management fees for their growth fund is 0.31%, which is pretty damn cheap compared to other providers. I'm also a big fan of ETFs (exchange-traded funds), as opposed to stock-picking (or arguably, thumbsucks) by expensive fund managers. "You can't beat the market", and all that jazz.

Anyone used them? Any gripes?

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#1730526 5-Mar-2017 20:04

I swapped over about 4 months ago. The web page is good, nice and simple, fees are good, returns have been good so far

Received a call from the CEO about a month in asking if everything was good, did I have any suggestions, could they do anything :)

Clint

Edit: I am using their balanced fund for the first six months while seeing what their returns are in the growth fund

ANglEAUT

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#1730531 5-Mar-2017 20:12

What type of reports / dashboard do they offer? How oftern do they publish / update these?

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BlinkyBill

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#1730536 5-Mar-2017 20:25

clinty: Edit: I am using their balanced fund for the first six months while seeing what their returns are in the growth fund

This doesn't make sense. Simplicity use Vanguard to manage their funds, and Vanguard are huge with a long track record. Also, 6 months is nothing for their Growth fund, which is designed to be more volatile and risky than Balanced ('volatile' and 'risky' are relative terms); the Growth is more like a 10-year return period. All you are doing by taking this approach to decision-making is gambling.

I'm using provocative language to make a point - you should not make an important investment decision on a 6-month limited performance assessment.

Simplicity seem to be passive managers who rely on Vanguard. From that perspective, if you like the Simplicity model, are confident of the people involved, and are happy with Vanguard, then there is no reason not to go with Growth from the get-go.

Don't take investment advice from me.

nickb800

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#1730538 5-Mar-2017 20:30

clinty: I swapped over about 4 months ago. The web page is good, nice and simple, fees are good, returns have been good so far

Received a call from the CEO about a month in asking if everything was good, did I have any suggestions, could they do anything :)

Ditto here

clinty

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#1730555 5-Mar-2017 21:01

BlinkyBill:
clinty: Edit: I am using their balanced fund for the first six months while seeing what their returns are in the growth fund

This doesn't make sense. Simplicity use Vanguard to manage their funds, and Vanguard are huge with a long track record. Also, 6 months is nothing for their Growth fund, which is designed to be more volatile and risky than Balanced ('volatile' and 'risky' are relative terms); the Growth is more like a 10-year return period. All you are doing by taking this approach to decision-making is gambling.

I'm using provocative language to make a point - you should not make an important investment decision on a 6-month limited performance assessment.

Simplicity seem to be passive managers who rely on Vanguard. From that perspective, if you like the Simplicity model, are confident of the people involved, and are happy with Vanguard, then there is no reason not to go with Growth from the get-go.

Don't take investment advice from me.

I will not be making any decision based just on the 6 month returns, I am looking at the vanguard, historic returns, my employment situation, wether I will be withdrawing money in the next year or so, but felt that was a bit too much to included in the post script :) the 6 month period is the time frame I have given myself to investigate all the options as to wether to change to the growth fund

But we are going off-topic

I just checked and my fees so far have been around 2% of returns in total for the 4 month period

Clint

freitasm

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#1730563 5-Mar-2017 21:21

I am using Simplicity, happy with the reporting/dashboard.

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clinty

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#1730566 5-Mar-2017 21:37

IcI:
What type of reports / dashboard do they offer? How oftern do they publish / update these?

they report each quarter for each fund - you can access these from their webpages with out Logging in

I like their layout, much better than my previous provider AMP

Breaks down your total into components Inc returns since you joined. Plus a nice graph showing projected totals untill 65 based on your existing contributions

Clint

tripp

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#1730652 6-Mar-2017 08:48

Just joined up, their fees are very nice, i was playing my current provider over 3 times the fees these guys charge.

Shindig

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#1730683 6-Mar-2017 09:41

Is there any guarantee, backed by the government, ensuring you get your money if they fail?

The little things make the biggest difference.

jonathan18

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#1730685 6-Mar-2017 09:47

Shindig:

Is there any guarantee, backed by the government, ensuring you get your money if they fail?

"KiwiSaver is not guaranteed by the Government. This means you make your investment choices in a KiwiSaver scheme at your own risk."

http://www.kiwisaver.govt.nz/new/providers/

tripp

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#1730686 6-Mar-2017 09:48

Shindig:

Is there any guarantee, backed by the government, ensuring you get your money if they fail?

I don't think any kiwisaver has that.

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Shindig

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#1730696 6-Mar-2017 10:00

OK, cheers

The little things make the biggest difference.

canaletto

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#1731133 6-Mar-2017 18:48

Regarding Kiwisaver provider risk, read this: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11257813

In particular:
"Craigs Investment Partners' Jonas says the key protection for members is all investments in a KiwiSaver scheme are held by an independent custodian, in the name of the scheme trustee and are not available to creditors of the manager should the manager become insolvent."

Seems ok to me.

BlinkyBill

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#1732169 6-Mar-2017 21:53

clinty:
BlinkyBill:
clinty: Edit: I am using their balanced fund for the first six months while seeing what their returns are in the growth fund

This doesn't make sense. Simplicity use Vanguard to manage their funds, and Vanguard are huge with a long track record. Also, 6 months is nothing for their Growth fund, which is designed to be more volatile and risky than Balanced ('volatile' and 'risky' are relative terms); the Growth is more like a 10-year return period. All you are doing by taking this approach to decision-making is gambling.

I'm using provocative language to make a point - you should not make an important investment decision on a 6-month limited performance assessment.

Simplicity seem to be passive managers who rely on Vanguard. From that perspective, if you like the Simplicity model, are confident of the people involved, and are happy with Vanguard, then there is no reason not to go with Growth from the get-go.

Don't take investment advice from me.

I will not be making any decision based just on the 6 month returns, I am looking at the vanguard, historic returns, my employment situation, wether I will be withdrawing money in the next year or so, but felt that was a bit too much to included in the post script :) the 6 month period is the time frame I have given myself to investigate all the options as to wether to change to the growth fund

But we are going off-topic

I just checked and my fees so far have been around 2% of returns in total for the 4 month period

Clint

Fair enough.

rscole86

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#1732425 7-Mar-2017 12:34

Can someone please confirm the fund management fees for me? I can see on their faq that it is 0.30%, @canaletto mentions 0.31% and their disclosure statement mentions both 0.31%.

I am trying to get my head around understanding some of the different schemes out there, and Simplicity is the first one I have found that has extra fees in their disclosure statement that is not clear on their website. Ie, the faq states 0.30% yet the disclosure states 0.31%. Also can anyone confirm the fees still need GST applied to them? Ie $30pa+15% and 0.31%+15?

Thanks

EDIT: corrected GST figures; thanks jonathon18

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