sign up log in
Want to go ad-free? Find out how, here.

Fund types

There are literally scores of individual, separate KiwiSaver funds. A simple giant list of all of them is not helpful. This page enables you to focus and choose lists of funds based on investment criteria.

Which one is right for you will depend on your financial goals and personal circumstances (which includes your tolerance for risk).

There are basically 5 fund types.

- DEFAULT FUNDS: The Government appointed nine KiwiSaver providers to set up "default" funds for those people who went into KiwiSaver but never chose what sort of fund they wanted.  They are all "conservative" funds.

- MULTI SECTOR DIVERSIFIED FUNDS: The vast majority of funds invest in a range of assets - cash, bonds, shares, property. Funds that invest in assets looking for the highest growth are commonly called "aggressive" and will have the highest proportion of shares.  They will also usually have the most volatile returns.  At the other end of the spectrum are "conservative" funds, which try to avoid volatility and look for capital stability rather than growth. They will have higher proportions of cash and bonds.

Conservative Moderate Balanced  Growth Aggressive

- SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE FUNDS - We have carved out out the multi sector funds those funds that term themselves "socially responsible, ethical, or sustainable", so that if this is important to you, you can get to them easily.

- SINGLE SECTOR FUNDS - these only invest in one type of asset (e.g. shares, cash, bonds, property, etc).

- LIFE STAGES FUNDS - these automatically adjust the mix of assets as you age, reflecting the investment needs of different stages in your life.