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Compare KiwiSaver Returns - Latest Morningstar Data

Not all KiwiSaver funds are created equal - the difference in returns over 10 years can amount to tens of thousands of dollars at retirement. Compare any fund side by side using the latest Morningstar quarterly report.

Past performance does not guarantee future returns. For personalised advice on whether your fund is the right fit, book a free session with Cam.

Reporting period: the three months to 30 June 2026. Morningstar published this edition of its quarterly KiwiSaver survey on 30 July 2026. The full report also covers returns over one, three, five and ten years to the same date. The next edition covers the September 2026 quarter and is expected around late October 2026.

Across the quarter the category averages ran from 3.3% for conservative funds up to 11.9% for aggressive funds, and KiwiSaver members finished a combined $10 billion richer from contributions and market returns together. That is a 3.6 times spread in three months between two sets of members who both did nothing wrong. They were simply in funds built for different jobs.

Scroll the table sideways to see every column.

Where this data comes from

The figures above are from Morningstar's quarterly KiwiSaver survey, which covers every provider and every risk category and is the most widely referenced independent performance report in New Zealand. Request the current Morningstar KiwiSaver 360 report from Morningstar.

If you would rather go straight to the regulated disclosures, every scheme's quarterly Fund Update, which states that fund's actual return and the fees actually charged, is free on the Disclose Register.

How to read these figures without misleading yourself

The returns are after fund fees, before your tax. The percentages above have already had the fund's annual charges taken out, so they are what the fund actually delivered on the money invested. They have not had your personal tax taken out. KiwiSaver is taxed at your prescribed investor rate (PIR), so two people in the identical fund keep different amounts. They also do not reflect any fixed dollar member fee, because a flat $36 a year cannot be expressed as a percentage that is true for everybody: on a $3,000 balance it is 1.2% of your money, and on a $300,000 balance it is 0.012%. On a small balance the fixed fee can matter more than the percentage does.

Categories have to be compared like for like. Morningstar sorts funds into multisector categories by how much of the fund is held in growth assets such as shares and property. Comparing a conservative fund against an aggressive one and concluding the conservative one is bad is like timing a truck against a motorbike and concluding the truck is broken. In the quarter above, aggressive funds beat conservative funds by 3.6 times. In a falling quarter that ratio inverts, and the same members who felt clever feel sick. The only comparison that tells you something is between funds in the same category.

A quarter is noise. Three months tells you almost nothing about a fund manager and quite a lot about what markets did. The longer columns in the full report, particularly five and ten years, are where a manager's decisions start to show through. Even then, past performance does not guarantee future returns, and the fund that topped a table one year routinely sits mid-table the next.

The single most common mistake Cam sees is someone reading a table like this, seeing a big number next to an aggressive fund, and switching into it without asking when they actually need the money. If you need it for a house in two years, that big number is the wrong target. Buying a first home and investing for retirement call for different answers, and five signs you are in the wrong fund is a faster self-check than any table.

For what a recovering market actually means for a KiwiSaver balance, rather than for a headline, see what the S&P 500 recovery means for your KiwiSaver.

Cameron Steele compares KiwiSaver providers on returns after fees over five and ten years, measured between funds in the same risk category, rather than on the headline fee on its own.

To see each scheme's funds and their Morningstar returns in one place, browse KiwiSaver providers and schemes or the KiwiSaver fund directory.

Why the net return, and not the fee

A fee is a certainty and a return is not, which is why the fee is the easier thing to put in a table and the more tempting thing to lead with. But the fee is not what reaches your balance. What reaches your balance is the return the fund delivered after its charges came out, and that is exactly what the Morningstar figures on this page report. Two funds in the same category can charge very different amounts and still finish in a different order once the charges are out, in either direction.

So a cheaper fund is not automatically ahead, and a dearer one is not automatically behind. The fee is an input to the number that matters, not the number that matters.

Where fees do decide it

Between two funds in the same category delivering similar returns after fees over a long period, the cheaper one wins. It wins every year, and it compounds. That is a real and permanent edge.

The fixed dollar member fee is the other place fees decide it, and it works the opposite way round to what most people expect. A flat annual charge is nearly invisible on a large balance and a serious drag on a small one, so it matters most for children's accounts and for anyone just starting. That is the reverse of where most fee conversations end up.

Five and ten years, not one quarter

A quarter tells you what markets did. Five and ten years is where a manager's own decisions start to separate from the market they were riding, which is why Cam works from the longer columns. Even then, past performance does not guarantee future returns, and the fund at the top of a table one year routinely sits mid-table the next. It is evidence, not a forecast.

What the returns cannot tell you

Three things, and they are usually the ones that decide the recommendation:

• When you need the money. A strong ten-year number is the wrong target for a deposit you need in two years.
• What you would actually do in a bad year. A fund only delivers its long-run return to someone who stays in it.
• What you want your money to own. The schemes differ sharply here and no return figure captures it.

That is the part a table cannot do for you, and it is most of what a session is spent on.

Scope, and how Cam is paid

Cam compares KiwiSaver providers and funds across the wider New Zealand market, including whichever scheme you are in now, and a recommendation may be to stay where you are. Where a change is right, he implements it through a selected implementation panel of ten KiwiSaver schemes and options. Sessions are free and there is no obligation to act. How he is paid if you do go ahead depends on the provider, and the provider-by-provider detail is in the disclosure statement.

The wider provider picture, including investment style, ethical fund options, digital tools and New Zealand ownership, is on the KiwiSaver provider comparison page. Whether advice costs you anything in the first place is covered on is KiwiSaver advice free in New Zealand.