EDITORIAL

Leave KiwiSaver alone

It’s that time of the political cycle, when politicians roll out a wide array of promises and hope that we won’t remember the ones they don’t get around to keeping.

For the financial services sector, one of the most attention-grabbing this year has been National’s proposal to allow people to withdraw money from their KiwiSaver accounts to fund a small business startup, if they find themselves unemployed.

It appeals to people who like the idea of the jobless hauling themselves out of their financial doldrums through a new enterprise.

But it’s not the sort of policy that the KiwiSaver sector needs.

It’s taken a decade for talk to die down about the potential for the Government to help itself to people’s retirement savings. People are starting to understand how the scheme works – and its aims.

Politicians need to leave the settings alone. Every time it changes, and people have to understand another aspect of the scheme, it shakes confidence.

Right now, we need people to have faith in the prospect of KiwiSaver as a longterm retirement savings vehicle. That faith and confidence will be grown by having clear rules, clear expectations and clear communication around the scheme and how it works – and then encouraging people to understand and engage with it until it’s as familiar to them as any other financial product.

Politicians need to stop thinking of it as the quick-fix solution to whatever ails the economy or financial system, otherwise there’s a real risk that the public will decide it’s just too unreliable to bank on as a solution for retirement savings.

The scheme has achieved great momentum and reach over its decade in existence and the worst thing that could happen now would be for it to be knocked off course.

Susan Edmunds Editor

Head office

1448A Hinemoa Street, Rotorua PO Box 2011, Rotorua P: 07 349 1920 F: 07 349 1926 E: philip@tarawera.co.nz Publisher Philip Macalister Editor Susan Edmunds Subeditor Dawn Adams Contributors Chris Folley, David Van Schaardenburg, Russell Hutchinson, Michael Lang, Dave Greenslade, Nikko AM Design Samantha Garnier

Advertising sales

Amanda Ellery P: 027 420 2083 E: amanda@tarawera.co.nz

Subscriptions

Jill Lewis P: 07 349 1920 E: jill.lewis@tarawera.co.nz

Moved offices?

Make sure you don't miss an issue by changing your address. Go to tarawera.co.nz/coa

ASSET is published by Tarawera Publishing Ltd (TPL). TPL also publishes online money management magazine Good Returns GoodReturns.co.nz and TMM – The Mortgage Mag. All contents of ASSET Magazine are copyright Tarawera Publishing Ltd. Any reproduction without prior written permission is strictly prohibited. ISSN 1175-9585