Generate's KiwiSaver funds got their turn in the sun in the June quarter

But it was lean pickings for the Milford and Fisher funds with current market performances clearly not favouring their investment styles, according to the latest Mercer Jessup Weaver survey.

Generate’s $500 million balanced fund returned 9.9% for the latest quarter, although its 11.6% return for the year ended June placed it 11th out of the 16 funds measured.

Generate’s $838 million moderate fund delivered the highest return for its class of 7.9% in the latest quarter, with the annual return of 8.9% ranking it 7th of 12 funds.

Generate’s $179 million conservative fund returned 5.5% for the three months, earning it the best performer slot, while its 6.6% annual return earned it 7th place out of 17 funds.

The Generate $2.33 billion growth fund was pipped for first place by the Medical Fund Management $587 million growth fund, which achieved a 12.5% return for the quarter compared with the 12% return for the Generate fund.

The Medical Fund Management fund also ranked highest for the year ended June among growth funds with a 19% return, while the Generate fund ranked 10th out of 12 funds for the 12 months with a 13.6% return.

Milford’s $8.96 billion growth fund was the worst performer in the growth category in the latest three months with a 5% return and it ranked 12th out of 14 funds for the year with a 7.8% return. Illustrating past outperformance, the Milford fund ranked first over 10 years out of 13 funds with annual returns of 10.2%.

Fisher’s $4.13 billion growth fund was second worst performer in the latest three months with a 7.3% return and was also the worst performer of 14 funds for the year with a 6.4% return. Over 10 years, it was the worst performer of 13 funds with an 8.4% annual return.

Of the 16 balanced funds, Fisher’s former Kiwi Wealth $4.31 billion fund was the worst performer with 5.9% quarterly return while Milford’s $2.58 billion was second-worst performer with a 6.1% return. Milford’s moderate and conservative funds were also the worst performers in their categories for the latest quarter.

Among the six default KiwiSaver providers, SuperLife’s $786 million fund produced the best quarterly return of 9% while the $1.08 billion Westpac fund produced the worst return of 7.6%.

As the positive returns delivered even by the worst performers demonstrate, it was a “green” quarter across most investment categories, largely due to oil prices falling in the latter part of the quarter.