How much income will your KiwiSaver deliver?

Savers are told what their total pot of money is but are left to their own devices to work out whether they are on track for retirement. Photo / Thinkstock

KiwiSaver members could see more information on what kind of income they would get in retirement included in their annual provider reports.

Australia's Government plans to push for superannuation providers to publish retirement income projections "where practicable and cost-effective" as part of a raft of changes to its A$2 trillion ($2.1 trillion) superannuation industry.

And New Zealand financial literacy advocates want the same information to be made available here.

At the moment, KiwiSaver providers must give members an annual statement showing how much has gone into their account and what the investment returns have been over the year.

Savers are told what their total pot of money is but are left to their own devices to work out whether they are on track for retirement.

The new data would aim to extrapolate current savings to show how much a person could save by age 65 and what kind of income that could generate for them in retirement depending on how long they lived for.

David Boyle, general manager investor education at the Commission for Financial Capability, said New Zealand could learn from Australia.

"They are addressing this after 25 years [of compulsory superannuation]. Wouldn't it be great to apply it sooner here? "

Boyle said he would talk to providers about putting the information into annual reports.

Bruce Kerr, executive director of Workplace Savings - an industry body for KiwiSaver providers - said the industry spent a lot of money on encouraging people to put more into their accounts and could do better when it came to talking about how much people would get out of their savings in retirement.

"We need to make it really easy for people. To remind them it's about producing an income in retirement, not about producing a massive pot of gold."

But Kerr said an industry-wide change would probably require Government to amend the legislation.

"Will people go the extra mile in the meanwhile? In my experience, probably not."

Kerr said the move would also require government involvement to set a standard on how the figures were worked out.

Malcolm Johnson, trustee of the Police Superannuation Scheme, said it decided to include personalised retirement income information on its member reports three years ago and feedback had been very positive.

"It helps someone understand if they are going to have enough to live on going forward."

Here's a sample copy of the report to see what it could look like.