Generate KiwiSaver Review (2026)

What is Generate?

Generate is a New Zealand fund manager with a reputation for strong long-term performance and responsible investment practices. Its main offering is the Generate KiwiSaver Scheme, today having over 200,000 members and $10 billion in funds under management.

What can you invest in?

The Generate KiwiSaver Scheme spans nine funds: CashPlus, Conservative, Moderate, Balanced, Growth, and Focused Growth, plus three newer single-sector-style options launched in April 2025: Australasian, Thematic and Global. Generate also offers two age-banded glide-path options, "Stepping Stones" and "Stepping Stones Growth," which automatically adjust a member's allocation across seven age bands, from 0–35 through to 76+.

Separately, outside KiwiSaver, Generate runs a Focused Growth Managed Fund distributed through the InvestNow platform, a different product from the KiwiSaver Focused Growth Fund despite the shared name, with its own distinct fee structure.

Responsible investing

Every fund in the Generate KiwiSaver Scheme is recognised as a Mindful Fund by Mindful Money, and Generate has been a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment since 2018. The scheme applies negative screening across its range, excluding direct and underlying-fund investments in controversial weapons (cluster munitions, anti-personnel mines, chemical and nuclear weapons) and tobacco. Rather than excluding fossil-fuel producers outright, Generate assesses fossil-fuel exposure against ESG criteria and favours what it calls the sector's "relative ESG leaders."

Fees

Estimated annual fund charge within the Generate KiwiSaver Scheme, per the scheme's own disclosure (checked September 2026):

Risk ratings run from 1 (lowest) to 7 (highest) on Generate's own scale, based on five-year return volatility.

CashPlus, Conservative and Balanced launched 16 May 2022; Moderate, Growth and Focused Growth launched 16 April 2013; Australasian, Thematic and Global launched April 2025. CashPlus's target allocation changed from 25% cash/75% fixed interest to 100% cash and cash equivalents in May 2025.

Other charges

The Focused Growth Managed Fund above is a different product from the KiwiSaver Focused Growth Fund, despite the shared name.

The bottom line

Generate offers one of the more built-out KiwiSaver fund lineups among independent providers, with nine funds plus age-banded glide-path options and a flat-fee-plus-percentage structure. Fees scale sensibly with risk, from 0.4% on CashPlus to around 1.2% on the growth-oriented funds, and one-year and since-inception returns to June 2026 have generally been strong, though newer funds like Thematic, Global and Australasian have limited track records.