OneAnswer KiwiSaver scheme is run by ANZ. The management team and most funds are very similar to the other two schemes run by ANZ, which are the ANZ KiwiSaver scheme and the ANZ Default KiwiSaver scheme.
Why does ANZ run 3 different KiwiSaver schemes? That was an operational decision on their part a few years ago, and they have decided to stick with it. A bit confusing for the end users as most of the information is the same, but hopefully this page will help.
There's a lot more to selecting a KiwiSaver fund than just checking past returns and fees. If your hard-earned money is invested in KiwiSaver, you need to ask the important questions to understand where and how that money is invested.
Note: The following information is taken from OneAnswer Kiwisaver Scheme's own website, fund updates, and the product disclosure statement published in May 2023.
A short summary review of the KiwiSaver provider
Updated: 23th Aug 2023
Reviewed by: Erica Rodrigues
OneAnswer KiwiSaver Scheme review
The OneAnswer KiwiSaver Scheme is the KiwiSaver scheme that is fully owned and operated by ANZ Investments.
They offer six actively managed funds for investors with varying risk tolerance levels, overseen by external investment managers who undergo ongoing monitoring to maintain high standards. Investment strategies for each fund are monitored at least once every three years as part of ANZ's strategic allocation process. ANZ takes both financial and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into consideration as they believe it will help them deliver a more sustainable long-term performance.
OneAnswer KiwiSaver Scheme charges annual fund fees that range between 0.64%-1.03%. It is free to switch between different funds within the scheme. The scheme also offers a 'Lifetimes option', which moves your investments through different funds based on your age. As you get closer to retirement, OneAnswer will move your investments to lower-risk funds, reducing the risk of your investment losing value over time. Alternatively, you can go through the OneAnswer KiwiSaver Login and switch manually at any time.
Facts & History of the KiwiSaver provider
OneAnswer is a KiwiSaver scheme run by ANZ bank. It is run by ANZ Investments. The bank of ANZ itself was established in Sydney, Australia under the Royal Charter. It was established in New Zealand in 1840, making it New Zealand’s oldest bank. It has a strong heritage in Business Banking and offers a full range of banking options, including Personal, Rural, Corporate, Commercial, Institutional and Private Banking. In 1951, UBA and the Bank of Australasia merged to become Australia and New Zealand Bank (ANZ Bank).
ANZ moved its corporate headquarters to Melbourne, Australia in 1976, and three years later an Act of Parliament permitted ANZ to incorporate its branches in New Zealand as ANZ Banking Group (New Zealand) Ltd. ANZ sold 25% of the shares to the public.
In 1983, ANZ opened its New Zealand head office in Wellington. In December 2003, the ANZ Banking Group bought The National Bank from Lloyds TSB. The banks operated as separate brands until 2012 when they were brought together under the ANZ brand.
ANZ operates six funds within its OneAnswer KiwiSaver program, which boasts a total membership of 57,379 individuals and $2.7 billion in Assets Under Management (AUM).
- SuperRatings Gold Rating 2021
- Morningstar Awards - New Zealand Fund Manager of the Year 2020
- SuperRatings Platinum Rating 2019 & 2020
- Morningstar Kiwisaver Bronze Rating 2019
- Morningstar Default Kiwisaver Bronze rating 2019
The investment team, structure and their alignment with clients
Paul Huxford - Chief Investment Officer
Paul has overall investment responsibility for ANZ Investments across all asset classes, in addition to managing the investment team. He joined ANZ in 2018 with over 25 years of global capital markets risk experience in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Before joining ANZ, Paul held the following key roles: Managing Director - Europe Middle East and Africa Equities Research (JPMorgan), Managing Director - Australian Equities Research (JPMorgan) and Head of New Zealand Country Credit Risk (Bankers Trust/Deutsche).
Maaike Van Tol - Head of Asset Allocation
Maaike is jointly responsible for the management of the Diversified Funds across ANZ Investments, which includes KiwiSaver, retail, wholesale, and private bank portfolios. In addition to diversified portfolio management responsibilities, Maaike is focused on the asset allocation process, which includes both strategic and tactical asset allocation.
Maaike has over 13 years’ industry experience and started at ANZ in 2015. Before ANZ, she worked as a Strategic Advice Specialist at ING Investment Management advising large Dutch pension fund clients on asset allocation, and Structured Products Portfolio Manager for IMC Asset Management in the Netherlands.
Mathew Young - Head of Foreign Exchange Strategy and Investment Implementation
Mathew is responsible for the implementation of investment decisions across our KiwiSaver, retail, private bank, and wholesale portfolios. He also leads the research for setting the strategic direction of foreign exchange positions for our portfolios and is involved in the wider strategy discussions.
Mat has been involved in the fund’s management industry for over 18 years and joined ANZ in 2002. Prior to that, he worked for a variety of firms in London including Old Mutual Fund Management and Hemscott.net.
Max Lesser - Head of Equities
Max is a co-manager at ANZ Investments, overseeing internal research. Previously, he was a Founding Partner at Worsley Associates and an Investment Manager at Guinness Peat Group plc. Max holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Canterbury University.
Iain Cox - Head of Australasian Fixed Interest and Cash
Iain has specialist knowledge and experience of both the domestic and global credit and interest rate markets. Formerly a portfolio manager at a privately owned and Auckland-based retail fund manager, Iain has also held roles involving product and operations control for Salomon Bros, Citigroup, Barclays Capital and Credit Suisse First Boston, supporting fixed income cash and emerging market and derivative businesses in London and Milan.
The investment team monitors the attractiveness of each asset class and adjusts the allocation depending on how they believe each will perform. The funds invest in underlying funds that ANZ manages. ANZ believes this management structure is a benefit because it creates efficiencies and we have greater control of the overall cost.
Their investment management team selects the assets for most of the underlying funds investing in Australasian assets. For the underlying funds investing in international assets, they are selected by a small number of external fund managers who they believe are among the best in their class.
ANZ is responsible for the investment of the Scheme’s assets, in accordance with legislative requirements, the Trust Deed, the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS), and the SIPO.
Their responsibilities include:
ANZ is responsible for reviewing the performance of its investment managers and that is undertaken on a regular basis.
Governance & Compliance processes
All KiwiSaver Scheme Providers must ensure they meet regulatory standards and act with customer interests in mind.
KiwiSaver Scheme Managers must exercise care, diligence and skill in the investment of scheme assets, and act in accordance with the stated investment policy and objectives. The FMA monitors that KiwiSaver Schemes are compliant with their obligations. Additionally, KiwiSaver Scheme Trustees also have a responsibility as front-line supervisors for monitoring the management and administration of these schemes.
A custodian plays a key role in protecting your investments. They hold your money and investments (i.e. keep custody of them) on your behalf. So they are the legal holder of your assets while you are the beneficial and ultimate owner.
A supervisor is a licensed entity independent of the KiwiSaver scheme provider that supervises the provider’s management of the scheme. KiwiSaver schemes are trusts, and (except for restricted KiwiSaver schemes) the terms of the trust deed states that the supervisor (or another custodian) must hold all contributions and investments in trust for the investors.
The Custodian and Supervisor are the New Zealand Guardian Trust Company Ltd. Guardian Trust is the corporate trustee for many of New Zealand's leading corporations, financial institutions, fund managers, and banks. Their clients span a broad range of business activities and the quality of their client portfolio reflects our status as a provider of corporate trustee services in New Zealand. As of June 2018, they manage funds in excess of NZ$ 120 billion.
ANZ’s Board is composed of eight Non-Executive, independent Directors (including an independent Chair, David Gonski, AC), and one Executive Director — ANZ’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Shayne Elliott.
Under ANZ’s Constitution, the Board may delegate any of its powers to committees of the Board. ANZ has five principal Board Committees — the Audit Committee (chaired by Paula Dwyer), the Ethics, Environment, Social and Governance (EESG) Committee (chaired by David Gonski, AC), the Risk Committee (chaired by Graeme Liebelt), the Human Resources Committee (chaired by Ilana Atlas) and the Digital Business and Technology Committee (chaired by Lee Hsien Yang). Each Committee has its own Charter setting out its roles and responsibilities.
At the management level, the Group Executive Committee (ExCo) comprises ANZ’s most senior executives. ANZ has a delegation of authority framework that clearly outlines those matters delegated to the CEO and other members of senior management.
ANZ also has a number of formally established management committees that deal with particular sets of ongoing issues. They operate in accordance with Group Guidelines that define their decision making authority.
The investment processes followed by the manager
ANZ Investments is an active manager and is committed to its philosophy of active investment management. ANZ considers itself as long term investors with a preference for holding quality investments, ones that are well diversified, and which are highly liquid.
Underpinning this approach, there are six basic elements to ANZ’s investment philosophy:
ANZ focuses on selecting Investment Managers who are specialists within their particular investment markets and who have demonstrated the capability and conviction in portfolio construction and the execution of investment strategies.
ANZ has a process for selecting external fund managers, who manage some of the international assets in the underlying funds. They select external fund managers that ANZ believes are among the best in their class. They take into account both quantitative and qualitative aspects and look at a number of factors, including:
Once selected, an external fund manager is subject to a rigorous on-going monitoring process. Each external fund manager is regularly assessed against the above criteria. We also regularly compare our external fund managers against other managers we rate highly.
ANZ reviews the investment strategy for each fund as part of their strategic asset allocation process. This is done at least once every three years to set each fund’s target investment mix and ranges. ANZ forecasts how each asset class will perform over the long term, both in isolation and in relation to other asset classes. They then use the forecasts to construct the most effective target investment mix and ranges, with the aim of:
As part of the review, the metrics that may be monitored include:
Social and Ethical Considerations
Socially responsible investing (SRI) or Environmental, Social and Governance investing (ESG), also known as sustainable, socially conscious, “green” or ethical investing, is any investment strategy which seeks to consider both financial return and social/environmental good to bring about social change regarded as positive by society.
Basically, SRI investing is investing in companies that have a positive impact on society, based on a number of factors.
ANZ’s goal is to deliver sustainable performance in a sustainable way. That means assessing investments against both financial and non-financial criteria.
Traditional investment approaches focus mainly on financial criteria such as balance sheet strength and future earnings forecasts. ANZ also takes environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into account. As these factors are some of the drivers of long-term investment risks and returns, they believe that including them in their assessment criteria will help them identify investments that can deliver more sustainable long-term performance – which is in the best long-term interest of both their investors and wider.
As a signatory to the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment, ANZ abides by six principles which provide guidelines for institutions on incorporating environmental, social, and governance factors into their investment processes:
OneAnswer’s active investment management approach means they continually review their investments and prospective investments against both their financial and ESG criteria. These reviews consider some or all of the following:
OneAnswer currently excludes investments in companies that are involved in:
*Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future performance.
*List is of the highest 5-year returns A-rated funds as per our Investment Selection Process.
*All returns are after fees and tax (28% PIR) as of the quarter ended 31st December 2023.
*Source: National Capital Research February 2024
We’re here to help find the best KiwiSaver fund for you. Let’s start by providing you with a comparison report of your existing fund.
It's important to check the health of your KiwiSaver fund and understand its position within the market. Submit the form below to view a simple graphic report of your fund.
OneAnswer KiwiSaver Scheme Annual Report 2023
OneAnswer KiwiSaver Scheme Product Disclosure Statement 2023 (PDS)
OneAnswer KiwiSaver Scheme Statement of Investment Policy and Objectives 2023 (SIPO)
OneAnswer KiwiSaver Scheme Other Material Information 2023 (OMI)
OneAnswer KiwiSaver Scheme Guide 2023
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