Abstract
The New Zealand government introduced a national superannuation scheme named KiwiSaver to its citizens on 1 July 2007. However, until now, KiwiSaver funds’ performance is still an under-researched topic.
This study investigates the risk-adjusted performance of KiwiSaver growth and balance funds, where 3 models (Capital Asset Pricing Model, Fama and French 3-factor model, and Carhart 4-factor model) are applied to the KiwiSaver growth funds and 1 model (Balance fund 4-factor model) is applied to the KiwiSaver balance funds. I observe significant evidence of outperformance for some KiwiSaver growth funds and balance funds. Further, most growth funds are relatively more exposed to large companies and growth stocks. However, once I control for the momentum strategy much of the outperformance disappears, suggesting a lot of fund managers are employing a momentum strategy. I also observe 2 superior KiwiSaver funds based on its outperformance with all methods, and they are Aon KiwiSaver Milford and Milford Active Growth KiwiSaver fund.
