Students targeted to sell KiwiSaver

University students are the latest group being targeted to sell retirement savings scheme KiwiSaver. Photo / Mark Mitchell.

University students are the latest group being targeted to sell retirement savings scheme KiwiSaver.

Superlife scheme provider Aventine has set up a website called Campus KiwiSaver to encourage students to sign up with the chance to win an iPod and is also offering to pay them if they sell the scheme to others.

Aventine principal Michael Chamberlain said the main aim of the website was to get students signed up to KiwiSaver, not to get new salespeople.

So far it had not signed up any students for the job, he said.

"Signing up students to sell KiwiSaver was an afterthought - it is not the main focus," he said.

Currently, anyone is able to sell KiwiSaver but under new legislation, expected to be introduced at the end of next year, KiwiSaver is likely to be classed as a category one complex investment product.

That means it will only be able to be sold by people with a minimum qualification - likely to be of a diploma standard - who are registered with the Securities Commission.

Chamberlain, who has also been advertising for salespeople in local newspapers, said the students would probably be paid a similar amount to the $20 fee subsidy it was offering to those who referred a friend who signed up to Superlife.

Some providers are offering commissions of up to $50 to sell KiwiSaver as well as an ongoing service fee.

Chamberlain admitted its enticement was at the lower end but that Superlife prided itself on being a low-cost provider and higher commissions would ultimately be paid for by the investor.

The website also offers those who want to sign up to KiwiSaver the chance to do so online without receiving any financial advice.

Chamberlain said he saw no problem with this, given that the Government was also putting people into KiwiSaver without advice.

People who move to a new employer are automatically enrolled into KiwiSaver and are allocated to one of six default schemes, all of which are conservative funds.

A spokesman for the Securities Commission said it was not illegal to offer an iPod for signing up to an investment product like KiwiSaver and as new legislation had yet to come in there was nothing to stop students from selling KiwiSaver.

More than a million people have signed up to KiwiSaver since its launch in July 2007.