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Stacking money - Source: ONE News
KiwiSaver provider Huljich Wealth Management, which is chaired by former National party leader Don Brash and has Auckland City mayor John Banks on its board, has withdrawn its investor statements for the retirement fund after concerns were raised about reporting of historical investment returns.
Huljich, in a statement on its website, says the amendments will make no difference to members' returns and will not affect previously reported returns for its three KiwiSaver funds, which currently have more than $117 million invested on behalf of more than 70,000 members.
Managing director Peter Huljich says the amendments will clarify that some income was not investment income, but funds contributed by him personally on two occasions in 2008 and 2009 as compensation for investing overweight or not diversified to the extent required.
The events arose in the early days of the funds, partly due to their small size at the time, he says.
Huljich says he contributed $8573 for the six months to March 31, 2008 and $141,535 for the 12 months to March 31, 2009.
"I provided compensation because I felt morally responsible for the two particular investment decisions, which proved disappointing. I believed compensation was in the best interests of our members.
"There was no intention of boosting the performance of the funds through these transactions."
Subsequent analysis shows that if these payments had not been made, the growth fund would still have been the top performing fund in its category in the year ended March 31, 2009, the conservative fund would have been second in its category and the balanced fund would have been fourth in its category, he says.
The KiwiSaver scheme would also have retained its overall first ranking for that year, based on average rankings across the three categories, he says.
The Securities Commission has welcomed Huljich's move, saying the company is co-operating while it sought further information on certain transactions and their disclosure.
At this stage there is no indication that investors have lost any money as a result of the disclosure issues, the commission says.
Until the prospectus was registered no new memberships would be offered.
