Average KiwiSaver balance $2650: Study

If you have more than $3000 in your KiwiSaver fund you are doing better than the average saver.

A survey by personal finance website www.goodreturns.co.nz has revealed the average balance was $2650 as of March 31.

KiwiSaver was launched in July 2007 and now has more than one million members but the research also shows there are vast differences in account balances between the providers.

Macquarie-owned Brook Asset Management had the highest average balance at over $7045 per person but its scheme is tiny at $1.55 million.

Huljich Wealth Management, in the spotlight for the door-to-door tactics of former salespeople, had the lowest at just $670 per person.

Philip Macalister, managing director of Tarawera Publishing which runs the goodreturns website, said Huljich appeared to have focused on growing its membership at the expense of higher contributors.

"Huljich has got out there and sold it pretty aggressively.

"But from a business perspective it is not that profitable."

Huljich had the fastest growing membership of all providers in the last year, growing from just 112 members as of March 2008 to 26,389 at March 2009.

Macalister said having a strong distribution or salesforce appeared to be key to the growth of members and funds under management.

ING had the largest membership at 212,732 through its links with the ANZ and National Banks, despite negative fallout from its frozen credit funds.

One provider that bucked the trend with no distribution network was Gareth Morgan KiwiSaver, which had 35,095 members and $142 million in funds under management as of March 31. Only two KiwiSaver funds - the union-backed IRIS scheme and Australian-run eosaver - had closed down during the year but Macalister said he expected to see more consolidation, especially around smaller and more niche operations.

Macalister said the $2650 was lower than what he had expected but he tipped average balances to grow faster now that equity markets were recovering.

Average balances would be a key figure to watch as those providers who managed to attract savers with higher balances would be able to run a profitable business much faster, he said.