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The Securities Commission is investigating complaints about KiwiSaver salespeople after a number of residents contacted the Inland Revenue about being pressured into the scheme at home.
It is against the law to sell investments by going door-to-door at residential properties although they are allowed to be sold door-to-door at businesses.
An Inland Revenue spokesperson said it had received calls over the course of the year about the way KiwiSaver was being marketed to homes and had reported them to the commission as they were a breach of the Securities Act.
She could not say how many complaints had been received on the issue as they were mixed in with other complaints but the calls had come from a variety of locations including Auckland.
A commission spokesperson confirmed it had received complaints about the practice and was investigating but could not comment about the investigation or whether complaints had been received from parties other than the tax department.
The spokeswoman said investments were prohibited from being sold door-to-door at houses to ensure people were not subject to high-pressure sales tactics at their own home.
However it was not breaking the law to market KiwiSaver via the phone or email as people could hang up or ignore it, she said.
Both the tax department and the Securities Commission would not disclose who was involved in the complaints.
Institute of Financial Advisers chief executive David Hutton said it had not received any complaints about institute members selling KiwiSaver schemes house-to-house.
"Our people wouldn't do that," he said.
Hutton said there was so little money in getting people to sign up to KiwiSaver that it was seen as incidental to most financial advisers and he could not see why any would bother going door-to-door to sell it.
"You would have to be really desperate to try and make a living out of that," he said.
But Peter Huljich, managing director of KiwiSaver provider Huljich Wealth Management, said he had taken on some distributors on a trial basis who he had suspected were using the illegal process to get people to sign up to KiwiSaver.
He had let them go because they did not fit with the philosophy and standards of Huljich.
That was six months ago. But the company was in ongoing talks with the commission.
Huljich said companies were allowed to sell life insurance on a house-to-house basis and he believed some life insurance companies were using this as a way-in for KiwiSaver.
"Some people are taking it too far," he said.
"We are certainly not supportive of the practice."
Huljich said the company had trained 614 people to sell its KiwiSaver products but only 207 were active.
It markets its KiwiSaver funds through Mike Pero Mortgages and NZF Group (formerly New Zealand Finance) and recently signed an agreement for Dorchester Pacific to sell its KiwiSaver funds.
Huljich said more than 50,000 people had been signed up.
* The hard sell
It is illegal to sell investment products including KiwiSaver by going house-to-house.
Life insurance can be sold house-to-house.
Investments can be sold door-to-door at businesses or via the telephone and email.
