Fisher Funds merger lifts fees for its youngest GlidePath savers

Fisher Funds is folding its KiwiSaver Scheme into its KiwiSaver Plan. The FMA has approved the transfer, and Fisher expects to complete it by 6 October. The stated aim is simplification, and a Fisher website article about the proposal said “your fees will remain the same or lower”. RNZ reporting shows that isn’t true for everyone. Fisher says it told affected GlidePath members about the increase in letters and emails tailored to their age.

The increases are small. But a fraction of a percentage point, charged every year on a growing balance for decades, is one of the most expensive things a young saver can accept.

Two groups are paying for the tidy-up

The first group is former Fisher Funds Two growth fund members, who moved into the KiwiSaver Plan in June. Their old fund’s fee rose from 1.06% to 1.14% in June 2025 when private equity was added, and the destination fund charged 1.13% at transfer. The second group is GlidePath investors under 46. A 30-year-old’s fee rises from 1.13% to 1.21%.

Jody Kaye, Fisher Funds’ chief product and strategy officer, told RNZ the Plan’s GlidePath “incorporates more funds” and “offers a more complete solution”, so clients under 46 “will pay slightly higher fees”. Kaye said fees would be the same or slightly lower for “the vast majority of clients”. The website’s “same or lower” line didn’t carry that exception.

The regulator’s test lets this through

The more important detail is why the FMA approved it. Clare Bolingford, the FMA’s executive director of licensing and conduct supervision, told RNZ the regulator consents to a transfer if the new terms are “no less favourable to members” and the move is “otherwise reasonable”. She said “fees are not considered in isolation” but are assessed alongside investment strategy, asset allocation and expected member outcomes. Bolingford said members had been given “detailed disclosure of changes to GlidePath settings, asset allocation, and fees.”

That bar allows higher fees for some members as long as the regulator judges the overall package reasonable. The FMA treats more funds inside a GlidePath as a possible offset. Whether that delivers a better after-fee result for a 30-year-old is a forecast, not a fact.

Complexity rarely pays for itself

The evidence on that forecast isn’t encouraging. Shamubeel Eaqub, chief economist at low-fee provider Simplicity, found that over the past decade paying a higher fee hasn’t meant a higher after-fee return. “Once you take away the fees, the punters are no better off,” he told RNZ. “What are you buying?” He calculates that over a 40-year working life on median full-time wages, a fund charging 1.05% collects about $53,000 more in fees than one charging 0.25%. Morningstar’s Greg Bunkall said fees are one of the few variables investors control, though he said outcomes vary a lot between managers.

Fisher wasn’t a budget provider to begin with. The 2025 MJW KiwiSaver Market Review found that in the year to March 2025 the Fisher Funds KiwiSaver Scheme, the one now closing, charged $342 per member, or 0.98% of assets. Market averages were $258 and 0.74%. The KiwiSaver Plan that members are moving into charged $258 per member, or 0.86%. On those scheme-wide figures, most members are moving to a scheme with a lower average cost. GlidePath members under 46 are the exception.

Eaqub also told RNZ it was surprising fee revenue hadn’t fallen further, given how much the market had grown. A merger is exactly when scale benefits should show up. For GlidePath members under 46, fees have gone up instead.

Built by acquisition

This merger was years in the making. Fisher bought Tower’s KiwiSaver scheme in 2013, which became Fisher Funds Two, and later bought Kiwi Wealth, whose scheme became the KiwiSaver Plan. That left it running three overlapping schemes, which is costly, and consolidation makes commercial sense for Fisher. Nobody should object to a provider cutting its own overheads. The question is whether the extra funds in the Plan’s GlidePath are worth the higher fee for members under 46.

The timing matters. Government contributions were halved from July 2025, which leaves members more reliant on returns and fees.

What employers and advisers should do now

For employers, a provider-level decision can change staff outcomes without any employee lifting a finger. If Fisher is your nominated scheme, tell staff, particularly younger ones, and point them to their fund’s fee disclosure. Advisers recommending GlidePath to clients under 46 should flag the step-up in writing and justify it.

Fisher is unlikely to be the last multi-scheme provider to consolidate. Under the FMA’s “not in isolation” test, the next one can also raise fees for some members if the regulator judges the overall package reasonable. Members should read the numbers themselves, and the fee table in their transfer letter is the place to start.

Sources

• RNZ: Fee questions for Fisher Funds KiwiSaver members (2026-09-30)
• RNZ: KiwiSaver, do you get what you pay for? (2026-08-31)
• MJW: KiwiSaver Market Review 2025 (2025-10)
• Business Daily Media: How New Zealanders miss out on hundreds of thousands in retirement savings
• Investment News NZ: Fisher signals scheme consolidation in KiwiSaver realignment
• FMA: KiwiSaver Annual Report 2026

Correction, 4 October 2026. An earlier version of this article said Fisher Funds told members their fees would stay the same or fall. That line came from a website article, not from the letters and emails sent to GlidePath members. Fisher says those letters and emails set out the fee increase. The earlier version also mixed up fee figures for the closing scheme and the scheme members are moving into, and included two claims we couldn’t verify. We apologise for the errors.