Why did the Kiwi cross the road? Over the 12 months to June 30 2014, just over 150,000 KiwiSaver members changed schemes. Photo / Thinkstock
Due to technical issues (children), my annual KiwiSaver scheme survey, which collates data from 35 annual reports, failed to beat the official government version of events into print.
As reported last week, the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) made a big deal about the increase
in inter-scheme transfers in its annual KiwiSaver report.
Although my study only identifies about $1.1 billion in scheme transfers over the 12 months to March 31 compared to the $1.4 billion in the FMA report, this does represent a year-on-year increase of $400 million or so.
By my reckoning, scheme transfers (disregarding mergers) accounted for about 6.2 per cent of total KiwiSaver funds under management (FUM) as at March 31, 2014, compared to 4.2 per cent the previous year.
However, figures from the IRD provide an alternative view of the transfer trend as measured by member numbers. Over the 12 months to June 30, 2014, the IRD records just over 150,000 KiwiSaver members (the FMA reports 170,000) changed schemes, up 23,000 over the last year.
