Craigs Investment Partners is a New Zealand investment firm and NZX Participant firm (a stockbroker and wealth manager) that also operates a KiwiSaver scheme. In the Craigs KiwiSaver Scheme you build your own portfolio, and a Craigs adviser is available to help you choose investments at no additional cost. Other schemes are covered in our KiwiSaver provider reviews.
Craigs KiwiSaver at a Glance
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type | Investment firm (NZX Participant) |
| Default provider | No |
| Investment approach | Self-directed: you choose the investments |
| Structure | Self-directed portfolio (250+ securities), not preset funds |
| Total management fee | Tiered by asset class and holding size, capped at 1.25% p.a. (PDS dated 13 July 2023) |
| Growth-equivalent 5-yr return | None to quote: there is no single “Growth fund” |
| Service model | Craigs adviser available to help select your portfolio at no additional cost |
Who Is Craigs Investment Partners?
Craigs Investment Partners (formerly ABN AMRO Craigs) is an investment advisory firm with offices across NZ. The firm provides share trading, portfolio management, and wealth advice to both retail and institutional clients. KiwiSaver is one component of its broader investment management business.
Craigs is not a traditional KiwiSaver-first provider: it is an investment firm that includes KiwiSaver as part of its service offering.
Fund Range
Craigs is structured differently from most other providers reviewed on this site. It is not a set of pre-built Growth/Balanced/Conservative/Income funds with individually published fees and returns — per Craigs’ own materials, the Craigs KiwiSaver Scheme is self-directed, letting members build a personalised portfolio from over 250 Australasian and international shares, funds, and other securities (typically with adviser input). This corrects an earlier version of this article, which incorrectly presented Craigs as offering discrete named funds with separate fee tiers by risk band.
Instead of a per-fund fee, Craigs charges management fees that, per its Product Disclosure Statement, depend on the asset class and the size of your holding, with the total not exceeding 1.25% per annum of the market value of your total investment in the scheme. This makes a like-for-like “Growth fund fee” comparison against preset-fund providers (Milford, Simplicity, ASB, and so on) inexact: a self-directed, adviser-supported portfolio is a genuinely different product, not just a differently named growth fund.
Fees
Because the management fee is a tiered percentage of your portfolio’s market value, with the total capped at 1.25% a year, the most you could pay scales with your balance:
| Balance | Craigs (up to 1.25%) |
|---|---|
| $60,000 | up to $750/year |
| $100,000 | up to $1,250/year |
| $200,000 | up to $2,500/year |
To set this cap against other providers’ fund fees, see KiwiSaver fund fees compared, bearing in mind that a self-directed portfolio is not the same product as a preset growth fund.
Performance
Craigs has no standardised after-fee return figure for the scheme the way preset-fund providers do, because outcomes vary by member portfolio, so there is no single “Craigs Growth Fund 5-year return” to check. A Craigs member’s after-fee result depends on the securities in their own portfolio, and there is no fund track record to check in advance as there is with a preset fund. Standardised 5-year returns for preset funds across providers are in KiwiSaver fund returns compared.
How Craigs KiwiSaver Is Used
Craigs describes the scheme as self-directed: you can create your own investment portfolio, and its PDS says a financial adviser engaged by Craigs is available to help you select your portfolio at no additional cost.
You don’t need to be a Craigs investment client to join.
Where to check the latest data
Rates, fees and returns change often. Before deciding, check current figures yourself:
- Sorted Smart Investor: compares fees, returns and risk levels of KiwiSaver and managed funds.
- Disclose register: holds each fund's product disclosure statement and quarterly fund updates.
- The provider's latest fund update: gives the fund's current fees, returns and holdings.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Craigs KiwiSaver compare? Craigs KiwiSaver is a self-directed, adviser-supported portfolio rather than a set of preset funds, with a total management fee capped at 1.25% a year. Preset funds’ fees and returns across providers are in KiwiSaver fund fees compared and KiwiSaver fund returns compared.
What are Craigs KiwiSaver fees? Management fees are tiered by asset class and balance, and the total management fee will not exceed 1.25% per annum of your account’s market value, per the scheme’s PDS. Craigs is self-directed rather than a set of preset funds, so there is no per-fund fee for each risk band, although funds you hold may carry their own charges.
Can non-Craigs clients join Craigs KiwiSaver? Yes. You don’t need to be a Craigs investment client to join their KiwiSaver scheme.
How does Craigs differ from preset-fund providers such as Milford? Preset-fund providers such as Milford publish fund updates showing each fund’s average annual return over the past 5 years after charges, which members can check before joining. Craigs’ self-directed structure means there’s no equivalent published figure: its outcome depends on individual portfolio selection. See the Milford KiwiSaver review for Milford’s own fees and returns.
What to Read Next
- KiwiSaver Providers Compared: full provider comparison
- Milford KiwiSaver Review: an active manager
- KiwiSaver Fees Comparison: fees across providers
- Cheapest vs Highest-Returning KiwiSaver: the fee vs return framework
- Switching KiwiSaver Providers: how switching works
- Bank vs Independent KiwiSaver NZ: the wider provider landscape