Top KiwiSaver results just good timing - Mercer

Mercer New Zealand chief executive Martin Lewington says it is purely "good timing" that it has launched its first KiwiSaver performance survey at a point when Mercer's own funds appear to be at the top of every sector.

The investment consultancy company yesterday released a KiwiSaver survey showing its own funds had topped all four categories it labelled default, conservative, balanced and growth over the three months to June 30.

Mercer found its own High Growth fund was the best performer of all the funds surveyed over the quarter growing 12.2 per cent, beating the median return of 7.9 per cent. However none of its funds were top over one year.

Lewington said Mercer had been considering putting out its own survey for some time because it didn't have confidence in the numbers being produced by others.

"We saw what was out in the market and didn't have confidence in the numbers being produced. We felt the need in the market, and we have a reputation for producing surveys."

NZX-owned research company Fundsource and Australian ratings firm Morningstar are the other two companies which produce KiwiSaver comparison surveys.

Mercer was unable to take part in the last Morningstar survey because of data collection problems but Lewington said it would be providing figures in the future.

However it would not be providing figures to any other surveyor.

Lewington said the aim was to produce a survey which showed what investors would get in the hand - a figure after fees and tax.

He said the Morningstar survey reported its figures on a gross comparison.

But Lewington admitted the Mercer survey also did not include many of the smaller players which have previously shown to be the top performers including Huljich Wealth Management, Brook Asset Management, Fisher Funds and Milford Asset Management.

"Our primary goal has been to get all of the default provider's funds into the survey as well as the larger providers including Westpac and Gareth Morgan."

Lewington said Westpac was expected to take part from next quarter while Gareth Morgan had declined to provide figures although Lewington said it would take those published on the Gareth Morgan website in the future.

Only companies with multi-sector funds were included as they were the easiest to compare.

That meant the likes of Fisher Funds, which is one of the bigger small players, would not be included because it invested in small and medium-sized companies and could not easily be compared with funds that invested in large companies, Lewington said.

"We have tried to capture where most of the money sits."

Lewington said the survey highlighted the folly of placing too much emphasis on the short-term returns of a long-term investment vehicle.

Mercer expected to release its survey on a six-monthly basis.