KiwiSaver customer confidence grows

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A third of people don't know what type of fund their KiwiSaver money is in, according to a survey by the country's largest provider.

ANZ Bank, which looks after around a 25 per cent share of the $16.5 billion savings scheme, surveyed 1,041 people aged 15-64 years between August and October 2013 as part of its quarterly Retirement Savings Confidence Barometer.

It found 33 per cent did not know whether their money was in a conservative, balanced or growth fund. Conservative funds have more money in cash and fixed interest investments while growth funds are tilted towards property and share investments which tend to perform better over the longer term.

Those who did not know what type of fund their money was in were also less confident of reaching their savings goals with only 34 per cent saying they were confident compared to 55 per cent of those who did know the type of fund.

Savers who had their money in a growth fund were the most confident of reaching their goals.

The survey found 68 per cent of people in growth funds were confident compared to 46 per cent of those who were in conservative funds.

But overall confidence is growing with 50 per cent of those surveyed now believing they will get to where they want to in retirement - up from 48 per cent in the previous quarter and the highest level it has reached since the survey started 18 months ago.

John Body, managing director ANZ Wealth, said it was good to see confidence had improved.

"Higher confidence among growth investors is probably linked to the growth in their balances in the last few years. With so many KiwiSaver members being defaulted into default conservative funds, this group is less actively involved with their savings and therefore less confident."

Of those surveyed 56 per cent said they would like up to $300 on top of New Zealand Superannuation per week up from 53 per cent.

While 27 per cent said they want $500 or more per week in line with previous surveys.

Five per cent said they intended to live entirely on New Zealand Superannuation which currently pays $357.42 for a single living alone and $549.88 for a couple.