KiwiSaver fees are easy to overlook: they’re deducted automatically and rarely appear as a line item on your bank statement. Over 30 years, even a small fee difference compounds into a large dollar gap. Here’s what each type of fee is, how it’s charged, and how to work out what you pay. It is one of our KiwiSaver fee guides, alongside the provider-by-provider fee tables.
Types of KiwiSaver Fees
1. Management Fee (Annual Fund Charge)
The most common and usually the largest fee: a percentage of your balance charged each year for managing the fund.
- Typical range: 0.23% to about 1.35% p.a. for growth funds (some geared funds charge more)
- How charged: Deducted from the fund before returns are calculated (you don’t see it as a withdrawal; it’s reflected in your unit price)
- Low-cost examples: Simplicity (0.23% from 1 October 2026, down from 0.24%, which had replaced 0.25% on 1 September 2025), Kernel (~0.25%)
- Higher-fee examples: Booster (~1.24% Growth), Fisher Funds KiwiSaver Plan (~1.13% Growth), Milford (~1.05% base fee on Active Growth, plus any performance fee)
2. Member (Administration) Fee
A flat annual fee charged by some providers, typically about $27 to $36 a year, regardless of balance size.
- Examples (by fee): Pathfinder ($27/year), Koura and SuperLife ($30/year), Booster, Generate and Summer ($36/year)
- Providers with no member fee: Simplicity, Kernel and BNZ all charge a percentage-only fee with no flat administration fee
- Important: For small balances, a flat member fee can represent a much larger effective percentage than for large balances
3. Performance Fee
Some actively managed funds charge an additional fee if the fund outperforms a benchmark. Not common in NZ KiwiSaver, but used by some providers.
- Impact: Shown in each fund update as total performance-based fees (0.00% in several growth fund updates for the quarter to 30 June 2026)
- Disclosure: Must be disclosed in PDS
4. Transaction/Switching Fees
Several large NZ KiwiSaver providers do not currently charge fees for switching between funds within the same provider. Moving to a different provider may carry a transfer fee from your old provider (see switching KiwiSaver providers). Check your provider’s PDS to confirm.
Total Annual Fund Charge (TAFC)
The Total Annual Fund Charge (also called the Total Expense Ratio) is the management fee plus the fund’s other ongoing charges, as a percentage of the fund. Any flat member fee is shown separately in dollars: Pathfinder’s growth fund, for example, had total fund charges of 1.35% plus a $27 a year member fee.
Comparing total fund charges (plus any member fee) gives a closer like-for-like view than the headline management fee alone.
Fee Impact: A Dollar Example
Consider members starting with $20,000 at age 35, with contributions of 4% employee plus 3.5% employer on a $70,000 salary ($5,250 a year) until age 65, in a growth fund returning 7.5% a year before fees:
| Fee | Balance at 65 | Less than at 0.3% |
|---|---|---|
| 0.3% | ~$675,000 | n/a |
| 0.6% | ~$635,000 | ~$40,000 |
| 1.0% | ~$586,000 | ~$89,000 |
| 1.5% | ~$530,000 | ~$145,000 |
Illustrative only: contributions added once a year, with no salary growth, ESCT, PIR tax or government contribution. Returns aren’t steady in practice.
On these assumptions, a 1.2 percentage point fee difference (0.3% vs 1.5%) means a balance about $145,000 lower after 30 years.
How to Find Out What You’re Paying
Method 1: Provider’s website Your provider publishes fund fees on their website and in the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS). Look for “management fee” or “total annual fund charge.”
Method 2: Sorted.org.nz Sorted’s Smart Investor site lets you compare KiwiSaver funds. This is the easiest way to compare.
Method 3: Your annual statement Your annual KiwiSaver statement shows total fees paid (our statement guide shows where) in dollar terms for the year. Dividing this by your average balance gives your effective rate.
Fees by Provider
Growth fund fees range from 0.23% (Simplicity) to more than 1.25% at some active managers (Booster ~1.24%, Pathfinder 1.35%), and several providers add a flat member fee. Current fees for each provider and fund type are in our KiwiSaver fund fees comparison.
Do Higher Fees Mean Higher Returns?
Some higher-fee funds have returned more than low-fee index funds after fees over a given period and many have not. What the data shows for NZ growth funds is in our fees vs returns comparison.
Fees at Different Balance Levels
Neither Simplicity nor Kernel charges a flat member fee: both are percentage-only, so there’s no “crossover” between them at different balance sizes. The flat-fee dynamic matters when comparing a percentage-only provider against one that also charges a fixed dollar fee, such as Booster ($36/year) or Generate ($36/year):
| Balance | Booster Growth (1.24% + $36) | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|
| $5,000 | $62 + $36 = $98 | 1.96% |
| $20,000 | $248 + $36 = $284 | 1.42% |
| $50,000 | $620 + $36 = $656 | 1.31% |
| $100,000 | $1,240 + $36 = $1,276 | 1.28% |
Booster Growth Fund total fund charges and member fee from its fund update for the quarter to 30 June 2026.
At small balances, the flat $36 fee adds a meaningful chunk to Booster’s effective rate. Simplicity (0.23%, no flat fee) and Kernel (~0.25%, no flat fee) have no flat fee, so their effective rates stay at those percentages at every balance size.