NZ Funds KiwiSaver Review (2026)

What is NZ Funds?

New Zealand Funds Management Limited, better known as NZ Funds, is a New Zealand wealth manager that has been looking after New Zealanders’ money since 1988.

It is an advice-led business, working with financial advisers around the country as well as its own Private Wealth team for investors who want more tailored long-term financial planning.

What can you invest in?

NZ Funds offers a wider range of investment products than many KiwiSaver providers.

• NZ Funds KiwiSaver Scheme: its main KiwiSaver offering.
• Wealth Builder: a flexible, non-KiwiSaver long-term investment product. NZ Funds describes it as offering many of the investment benefits of KiwiSaver, but without the same withdrawal restrictions.
• Income Generator: an actively managed portfolio that primarily invests in dividend-paying New Zealand and Australian shares. It also uses investment strategies designed to reduce some of the volatility of the share market.
• UK Pension Transfer: allows eligible UK defined-contribution pensions to be transferred to New Zealand. NZ Funds does not charge a transfer fee for these transfers, although other costs may apply depending on the circumstances.
• Active Series: actively managed investment portfolios selected with the help of a financial adviser.
• Superannuation: NZ Funds also operates a separate non-KiwiSaver superannuation scheme.

How it invests

The NZ Funds KiwiSaver Scheme gives members a choice between passive and active investment approaches.

The Balanced Fund uses a passive investment strategy. It invests across shares and bonds and uses index-replicating investments, including futures, to gain exposure to global share markets.

NZ Funds also offers three actively managed Strategies:

• Income Strategy
• Inflation Strategy
• Growth Strategy

These Strategies invest across different mixes of assets depending on their risk level and investment objective.

NZ Funds also offers a Life Cycle option. Life Cycle is not a separate investment fund. Instead, it automatically allocates your money across the Income, Inflation and Growth Strategies based largely on your age.

Younger members are generally allocated more heavily towards the Growth Strategy, while the allocation gradually shifts towards the Inflation and Income Strategies as members get older.

Fees

Estimated annual fund charges in the NZ Funds KiwiSaver Scheme:

A performance fee may apply to the Growth Strategy if returns beat a set hurdle. The Balanced Fund, Income Strategy and Inflation Strategy have no performance fee.

Members 18 and over also pay an administration fee of $29.76 a year. It is rebated for under-18s.

Performance

NZ Funds doesn't provide its data to Morningstar's KiwiSaver survey, so it isn't included in the performance rankings used for most other providers on this site.

The bottom line

NZ Funds is a long-established, advice-led wealth manager with a broader product range than a typical standalone KiwiSaver provider.

Alongside KiwiSaver, it offers Wealth Builder, Income Generator, UK pension transfers, adviser-built portfolios and a separate superannuation scheme.

Its KiwiSaver Scheme also offers two distinct investment approaches.

The Balanced Fund uses a passive strategy and currently has estimated annual fund charges of 0.00%, while the Income, Inflation and Growth Strategies are actively managed and carry considerably higher fees.

The Life Cycle option automatically adjusts a member’s exposure to those actively managed Strategies as they get older.

That makes NZ Funds quite different from low-cost, self-directed KiwiSaver providers. It is primarily designed around active investment management and financial advice, with the passive Balanced Fund providing a lower-cost alternative.