SHOWING FEES IN THE KIWISAVER ANNUAL STATEMENTS
Every year KiwiSaver providers are required to send all KiwiSaver members an annual statement. There is a requirement to include fees in dollar terms in these statements and the below provides more information on how the fees work and how they are calculated.
Fees in the New Zealand Defence Force KiwiSaver Scheme
The Scheme has two main fee types, fund charges and other charges (an administration fee of $2.25 per member per month). Fund charges include the manager’s basic fee, fees for the custodian and supervisor, scheme expenses and in-fund costs. The fund charges vary depending on the fund you invest in and the estimated range for the 2021 annual statement is from 0.54% for the Cash fund to 1.16% for the High Growth fund. These, combined with the administration fee, result in the total fee shown on the annual statement.
You can read more about fees in the product disclosure statement.
Methodology for calculating dollar fees on annual member statements
The annual fund charge estimate included in the total dollar fees in the Scheme annual member statements are calculated using the cents per unit methodology which is based on your daily balance.
In addition, other charges in the form of an administration fee which are charged monthly to your account, are calculated separately and these combined with the annual fund charge estimate give your total fee in dollars for the year.
The fee shown in the statement is the total estimated fee paid by you during the year to 31 March. The reason it is an estimate is because some fee information is finalised after the statements need to be prepared. The main fund charge is the manager’s basic fee which is not estimated.
The total estimated fee is comprised as follows:
Annual Fund Charges
(Estimated) |
Manager’s Basic Fee |
Fee charged by Mercer for services such as investment management. |
Other Expenses |
These have been estimated and are comprised of supervisor/custodian fees, Mercer and New-Zealand Defence Force scheme expenses, as well costs associated with the underlying funds which can be deducted from the returns received from those managers. Performance based fees are charged by some underlying managers when good performance is achieved. |
|
Other Charges |
Administration Fee |
This is a dollar based fee of $27 for the year ended 31 March 2021 and is charged at $2.25 per member per month. Members who are under 18 or have a balance of less than $1,000 were not charged the dollar based fee for the year. |
Estimates for external performance based fees are based on actual data to 31 December 2020 or 30 September 2020 depending on the underlying fund, while other scheme expenses have been estimated based on data available at the time the statement is prepared. The estimates will vary depending on the size of your balance.
Here is an example of the estimated total fees for the Conservative Fund:
Balance |
Total fees (including estimates) / |
$10,000 |
$105 |
$20,000 |
$183 |
$30,000 |
$261 |
$40,000 |
$339 |
$50,000 |
$417 |
$75,000 |
$612 |
$100,000 |
$807 |
*the total fee includes the annual membership fee and the estimated fund charges.
Where can I find fees charged by Mercer in previous years?
You can download copies of your previous annual statements on the https://www.nzdfsavings.mil.nz/ website, once you sign in to your account.
13 May 2021