Rich lister's firm under fire again

Peter Huljich. Photo / Norrie Montgomery

A controversial KiwiSaver provider is under fire for aggressively promoting products to Unitec students.

Distributors from Huljich Wealth Management were eventually asked to leave Unitec's Mt Albert campus as a storm grew over former managing director Peter Huljich's admission he propped up the funds with his own money.

One mother of an 18-year-old first-year student is "furious" her daughter was lured into signing up with a chance to win a $100 shopping voucher. Industry commentators say the selling methods are alarming and inappropriate for a complex financial product.

On February 19, Rich Lister Peter Huljich admitted using his own money in 2007 and 2008 to top up his company's three KiwiSaver funds, making their performance seem better than it was. The Securities Commission is investigating.

A fortnight later, he resigned as managing director and chief investment officer, with Don Brash taking over in the latter role and as executive chairman.

Unitec Students' Association communications and marketing manager Jodine La Pere said the tertiary institution's orientation programme ran from February 22 to March 5, during which Huljich and other financial service providers had stands on campus.

In the first week, Huljich was asked to take down signage claiming it was a top-performing KiwiSaver provider, on the grounds it was "false advertising".

"As (the situation) became more well-known and the speculation became quite concerning, we actually had to ask them to leave in the second week," she said.

One first-year student was approached by a Huljich-accredited distributor and offered the chance to win a $100 Westfield voucher if she joined. She did so and won the draw.

"It's appalling they can prey on these kids, and tempt them vouchers for signing up," her mother said. The woman said her daughter doesn't have any source of income and wouldn't have fully understood KiwiSaver.

But Brash saw no problem with the promotion and said banks represented at Unitec were making similar offers.

"We didn't require them to sign for KiwiSaver before putting their name in the draw, we were simply drawing attention to our stand.

"From my point of view, every way we can encourage people to join the scheme ... is great."

Institute of Financial Advisers chairwoman Lyn McMorran questioned whether students would be able to make a fully informed decision about something that locked them in until they were 65 years old.

"Nobody at Orientation Week is sitting down with them and doing a full needs-analysis process."

Spicers Wealth Management adviser Jeff Matthews said the Unitec selling was "totally outrageous".

It's not the first time Huljich has been criticised for its selling methods.

Last year it faced claims of selling outside supermarkets and it emerged some distributors had been illegally going door-to-door.