KiwiSaver calculator helps savers work out how much their provider is charging

Sam Stubbs, managing director of low-cost KiwiSaver provider Simplicity, has launched a new dollar based fee calculator.

KiwiSaver members can now find out how much their provider is charging them in dollars through a new calculator - more than six months ahead of legislative changes that will require the information to be on annual statements.

Low-cost provider Simplicity has launched the tool which allows savers to plug in their KiwiSaver account balance and find out exactly how much they are being charged and compare it to other providers.

Currently providers only have to give a dollar value for the annual member fee and a percentage amount for how much they charge for managing the funds in annual statements which are typically sent out around April and May.

But there are concerns many KiwiSaver members are unaware of exactly how much they are paying to have their retirement funds invested.

Some providers already give members the full dollar figure, but from next year all will have to do so under a change announced by the government.

Simplicity managing director Sam Stubbs said the calculator was designed to make it easier for people to work out what they were paying.

"Because that is how everybody thinks about how they pay bills - power bills, water, rates - it is the one language everybody understands."

Stubbs said percentage figures made the amount sound low when it could be as much as 20 per cent of the return an investor was getting.

KiwiSaver members have paid out more than a billion dollars in fees to providers since the scheme was launched in 2007.

The dollar amount is growing every year because it is a percentage of the funds invested and balances are growing.

Stubbs said based on the average fee for KiwiSaver being 1.2 per cent the 2.7 million members were collectively paying about $480 million this year to have the $40 billion investment managed.

Stubbs said the calculator showed there were some huge differences in fees with the highest fee for a $30k balance being seven times more than the lowest fee.

"If this was a properly competitive market I don't think there would be a 6.5 to seven times price difference," he said.

Simplicity, which launched last year, has 6000 members and $160m in funds under management.