It's No Secret

75. How KiwiSaver Works Behind the Scenes

May 07, 2024 • Catherine Emerson & Christine Jensen • Season 4 • Episode 75

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In today's podcast episode, we’ll be answering the question of - how does the KiwiSaver joining/transfer process work behind the scenes?

While expectations around banking/financial services these days are instant, unfortunately, the case with KiwiSaver transfers and many other investments isn't.

Whether you're moving to NZ and starting KiwiSaver for the first time, or over 18 and taking control of your account - it pays to understand how and why these processes behind the scenes can take some time

Specifically, we chatted about:

  • How do you switch KiwiSaver providers? What happens behind the scenes?
  • Which parties are involved in the transfer? 
  • How long does it take to switch KiwiSaver providers?
  • How does this process differ whether you are transferring your balance VS joining KiwiSaver for the first time?

And much more!

If you enjoyed today's show, we'd LOVE for you to rate & review it on Apple Podcasts and share your favourite episode with a friend.

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Disclaimer:
Investing involves risk including the possible loss of principal and there is no assurance that the investment will provide positive performance over any period of time.

The information provided should not be relied upon as investment advice or recommendations and should not be considered specific legal, investment or tax advice.

Any information we provide is general only and current at the time of writing.

Christine:

Welcome to it's no Secret, a podcast for Kiwis who want their money questions answered. Ready, steady go. This podcast will answer the money questions you may or may not have on your mind.

Cat:

We'll talk to real Kiwis and share truths about our own financial lives both the successes and the failures, because the truth is, there is no secret to achieving financial freedom.

Christine:

Hello and welcome to. It's no Secret, I'm Christine and I'm Cat, and today we're back with another podcast, this time answering the question of how does the KiwiSaver joining slash transfer process work behind the scenes? Now, this is a question that we've been getting a lot recently. I feel like it's very top of mind. Maybe, a lot of people are just wanting to change things up with their KiwiSaver. Actually, I guess maybe because we're approaching the end of the KiwiSaver financial year.

Cat:

maybe yeah and reporting will come out and maybe people are looking at different things.

Christine:

Options maybe Kernel's branding is just really good and they're being like oh my God, need to get it off, need to switch, need to make a better choice definitely, but I guess the reason why we wanted to talk about this is also because I think it's not something that I mean I have ever been taught or learned about pre-talking to customers about it at Kernel and just the process of like what actually happens when you try to transfer or transfer your key saver balance or join for the first time, because they're different processes that take different lengths of time and a lot of people think, you know, with the expectation of banking and or like the speed of money movement in today's online digital environment, that it's instantaneous, but the reality is is that it isn't, and there's a lot of people and parties involved behind the scenes.

Christine:

So, yeah, today we're going to whiz through some questions that will hopefully shed a bit of light on that process. Love this, yeah, love it. I'm excited.

Cat:

I'll probably learn something from it as well. Well, let's hope that I get it right. For one Full disclaimer is I am personally not a KiwiSaver expert and it is rather complicated, but we will do our best because, of course, kernel does run a KiwiSaver plan, so we know a bit of the ins and outs, but it is, yeah, a little bit more complicated than some people think.

Christine:

Yes, nice, okay, love it. So the first question is obviously how do you switch KiwiSaver providers? What happens behind the scenes?

Cat:

Walk us through Well we'll start with, like what happens from your point of view as the customer making a choice. So the really easy part about switching a KiwiSaver provider is you just deciding to switch. Right, because you decide to switch and then you literally go on to the provider that you want to sign up with. So let's say that was Kernel. You come onto the website, you create an account and you go through whatever the kind of sign up process is to switch your KiwiSaver, which would usually include selecting what type of like investment portfolio you want to have within your KiwiSaver fund and choosing your funds and then agreeing to some disclosures and all the standard stuff, and then that's basically what kicks off the transfer process in the back end of the system. So your job there is done Like you don't need to communicate with your old provider or your existing provider. You don't need to like with your old provider or your existing provider, you don't need to communicate with the IRD, you just need to sign up with the provider that you wish to join and then a whole heap of messaging happens in the backend.

Cat:

So what happens in the backend is there is a message that goes from your new provider. So let's say, in this instance it's Kernel, it goes through what's called an administrator. So in our case that administrator is Link Market Services. But there are some other KiwiSaver administrators also in operation. So a message goes to Link because Link is the organization that needs to communicate with the old provider. We as kernel can't directly communicate with, for example, simplicity. We can't do that, so the message has to go through like a third party, which is the administration systems. So Link gets a message or, like I best guess, instruction, for lack of a better word from us. Being like, christine has decided to join the Colonel KiwiSaver plan.

Cat:

Please, you know make that happen, essentially, so Link, then have some cross-checks around around making sure that the data that you've provided us is correct and obviously that you are who you are and you have a KiwiSaver with someone else, and obviously if that all matches, then they then send a message to your current provider, in this instance Simplicity, and they tell Simplicity that you have decided to move to Kernel and could they please start actioning that from their end. So that's kind of like the simple bit. There is a few caveats to that, which seems simple. Where people could come into trouble, and the most common one is if you have a name difference. So when I mentioned that there's like data matching going on, the data matching that has to go on is your IRD and number and your legal name need to match the records with the IRD that you have also provided us, because within New Zealand, part of the uniqueness of KiwiSaver is that you can only have one.

Christine:

One.

Cat:

KiwiSaver, kiwisaver, yeah, yeah, yeah, like you can only have one, you can't have a simplicity and a kernel at the same time.

Cat:

Correct, correct, saver. Yeah, yeah, like you, can only have one simplicity and a kernel at the same time. Correct, correct, and the? The way that they ensure that that happens is that you, your unique identifier within the kiwi saver realm is your ird number. Yeah, yeah, because, like your employer uses your ird number to pay your contributions, like all the providers use your ird number, so the information has to be cross-checked or referenced against the D, and what can often happen is, in my case, I became an employee and registered with the IRD, had an IRD number issued to me under my maiden name. I then got married and I had my kernel account updated with my married name, but I never told the IRD that, and so then, when I went to transfer my KiwiSaver, I had an IRD number match but a name mismatch, and so that then throws up a red flag and the process stops until the providers basically sort that out or confirm that.

Christine:

Yeah, Okay, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Cat:

And that's also why you can log into your MyIR account with the IRD and you can see your KiwiSaver balance and you can see the provider on record that you're currently with, because they also hold that information, because I guess they're kind of the also one of the parties involved, to obviously ensure that you're only having one KiwiSaver provider and that the correct details are on file. And the reason for that? We're kind of jumping ahead a little bit, but the reason for that is because contributions paid by your employer are remitted to the IRD and then paid to your provider. Yeah, and why is that?

Christine:

I actually don't know, you don't know, I don't know.

Cat:

I don't know. I'm assuming it's part of how they set up the scheme to ensure that there was accuracy there. My gut feel on that is because, having had experiences in Australia, where I don't believe that happens people can have A multiple superannuation accounts and, b the contributions don't go through the ATO, which is the equivalent of the IRD. It is then on the onus of the customer and the employer to ensure that your contributions are being paid accurately, and employers and payroll systems screw up all the time. That's so common.

Christine:

Interesting. I didn't realise that you could have multiple in Australia.

Cat:

Yeah, you can, so really really big difference. You can have multiple, and there's some valid reasons for having multiple accounts, which I won't really get into, for whatever reason, new.

Cat:

Zealand have opted to go down another path, which I don't think is a bad path, because there is obviously some like consumer protections in place where it's like you can't just have multiple accounts set up on your behalf every time you join a new employer, for example, and that employer has a preferred provider, and so it does mean that your information and money is kind of kept a little bit more simply. But I think the tradeoff there is that obviously the IRD has more information flow and money flow through to the provider and, if you think about, like, the more parties that are involved in either the transfer process or the payment of your contributions, ergo it's going to take longer.

Christine:

Yeah, and probably potentially have more mistakes.

Cat:

It's not going from, like Colonel Limited's bank account as a corporate entity straight into your KiwiSaver account. It has to go through some other processing, so it's going to take a bit longer time. Yeah, nice. So we got to the point where like, okay, so let's say all the messaging is correct, your details match, and we've then told your old provider in this instance, simplicity.

Christine:

We've just picked them randomly, I'm sorry.

Cat:

No shade on simplicity, so that provider then gets an instruction from link to basically be like you need to start selling down and withdrawing from this account to send the money to the new provider. So of course, within that, they have their own processing times and that's where we provide people a guidance or an estimate around how long the process can take, because we, as the new provider, can't influence how long they're going to take. We don't know what their workload looks like. There will absolutely be some manual processes involved in that to ensure that you know that's all done correctly. I don't know when it came into force, but there is now in law, like a legal requirement, that providers need to have done that within a 10 business day period, which is why we quote that it can take up to two weeks. Before that was in place, there was obviously no like- Ring fence time frame.

Cat:

Yeah, so why would a bank hustle-?

Christine:

Hurry to get rid of their customer.

Cat:

Correct. They're probably going to sit on it for a bit. Maybe they'll reach out to you try and get you to change your mind, all that kind of stuff. So then they had the timeframe put in place, which there's not necessarily huge penalties if you go over the 10-day timeframe, because there are genuine reasons it could take longer, but all providers are obviously working to try and make sure that that process happens within 10 days. So let's say that you know simplicity, received that instruction. It's probably knowing that they have to sell out of the funds. Wait for probably t plus two settlement time, so two business days after the funds have sold, then potentially another business day for that money to be transferred to link important note it goes LINK as the administrator first, not directly to Kernel.

Christine:

And it just sits on an account, or what happens like the cash once it's sold?

Cat:

Yes, so let's say it's sold down, it's with Simplicity. It then gets paid to LINK, because LINK hold our KiwiSaver custody account in the same way that we have a custody account for the investments, because of course it needs to have that custody protection structure. So it gets actually a speedy time. That's still four business days potentially right, just to get to that point.

Cat:

Then the money needs to be processed and paid to Kernel, which lands in the account, and then, once it lands, our system would pick it up and know that we have already your investment instructions on record for how you would like your KiwiSaver fund to be invested, and so that would automatically start processing. But of course, depending on what time of day that's received and when that happens and then you therefore have T plus two settlement time on that end when you buy back in, that could take another three business days. So you've got four business days to get the money to link, then probably another business day to get the money to kernel, and then, let's say, three business days before the funds are fully settled and invested in the market and you can therefore see what your unit holdings are, which would then give you the value of your KiwiSaver fund, which you could see on your dashboard. So that's what like eight business days.

Christine:

Yeah, at a minimum.

Cat:

Yeah, yeah, roughly speaking, if it's like perfect and the banks are hey, or whoever you're coming from, exactly Like some nuances where it could be faster is if you were in, say, a cash account in your KiwiSaver and there was no selling down of funds, that could potentially be faster. Or if you were in a much more liquid investment that didn't have a T plus two settlement time, all that kind of stuff. But yes, that is typically why it does take up to 10 business days to fully transfer and process and we would typically say you know, give it two weeks before you can see everything reflected on your new account.

Christine:

Yeah, nice. And what about contributions? So any kind of contributions paid during that 10 day business day period.

Cat:

Yeah, so this is something that I think not a lot of people are aware of because it's not very well publicized and even having gone through the process of switching my KiwiSaver in the past, I didn't know that this is what happened. But when a KiwiSaver switch or transfer request comes through, remember that messaging goes to link and link and then also communicating that with the IRD because they need to cross-reference that your details are correct with what's on record with the IRD For contributions as well.

Christine:

Well, no, no, just in general, just for you.

Cat:

So, they've told the IRD that you've requested to transfer. So the IRD know that at that point in time let's say it's today, the 2nd of May you've requested to transfer and processing has started. So from that point in time, requested to transfer and processing has started. So from that point in time until they get a message from the new provider. So in this case, colonel sends a message being like yo, we've got Christine's money, it's all invested, it's here it's basically like a notification of acceptance or approval. Essentially, until we send that message to the IRD, they will hold and pause remitting all employer or voluntary contributions made for you to the new provider. And the reason that they do that is like, when you think about it, it just practically works Because if you've requested today to switch to Kernel and tomorrow your employer remits some contributions and they then pay that to Simplicity, but Simplicity have already started drawing down on your account. Like that's a lot of mixed messages for Simplicity.

Christine:

Where does the money go Exactly?

Cat:

And like that money. You know contributions are received and then automatically invested. They don't want that to happen when you also have money being redeemed to withdraw and transfer out. So they just put a pause on remitting contributions until the transfer is complete and then they know to send them to the new provider.

Christine:

Yeah, nice, and that money comes through in one lump payment. It's not dated as per the contributions, that's correct.

Cat:

Yeah, that's right. So the information about when those contributions were received and the amounts in line with, say, your paycheck, will be available and will be available to your new provider. But in terms of like that cash is basically deposited into your account as one lump sum and then the transactions will usually show up backdated. But of course you know, if you say, got a contribution tomorrow but Colonel, didn't have all the money until next week, you're going to see the cash next week. But you'll see that, you know, on the 3rd of May an employer did actually make a contribution for you.

Christine:

Yeah, and you can also check in the MyIR to see the exact dates as well, so that the IRD has received those as well.

Cat:

right, yeah, and I think it's important to note that, like, the remittance of contributions from your employer to the IRD through to your KiwiSaver is not in real time anyway. So some people look at that and they're like, oh that's, you know, not great because that should happen faster, but it doesn't. You don't have like we're getting paid tomorrow. Don't have like we're getting paid tomorrow. You will not have your KiwiSaver contributions that are deducted from your pay paid to the IRD and therefore into your KiwiSaver tomorrow. There is time for them to process.

Christine:

Correct yeah.

Cat:

So it's not outside the norm, it's just of course they're going to pause remitting anything because they don't want you to end up with a small residual balance with a provider that you intended to close. Yeah, yes.

Christine:

Great. So there was a lot of detail. I think it's good. If you're like listening and you're a little bit confused, I would say listen to this three times, just listen again. No, but truthfully, I think it's taken me probably twice or three times to have it explained, to actually fully understand the detail, and that's, that's okay.

Cat:

I'll ask you a question then, because I feel like, um, this also confuses people a little bit, it's like. So can you think of any other reasons why there would be a third party intermediary, like link between the providers, like what else would be important for, say us to know about your account? Um, like trick question oh gosh christine's giving me a look thinking hard like panic, panic, panic.

Christine:

What would be important for colonel to know about me as the customer through link yep, or about your money.

Cat:

So think about, like your kiwi saver, balance or growth of it no yeah, kind of on the right track, like what, what is, what are all the parts of your kiwi saver?

Christine:

um tax yep yeah, growth contributions, voluntary or like employer and voluntary yeah as well. Another type uh employee, government, government yeah, maybe the thousand dollar.

Cat:

Oh yeah, bonus thing that they had way back when for like kids or other people.

Christine:

Yeah, that thing yes.

Cat:

So all of that contribution record or component record of what makes up your account is important to be categorised correctly and the information sent to your provider correctly, because that directly impacts how much you can withdraw for your first home.

Christine:

Right.

Cat:

Because you have to also leave a thousand and only certain types of contributions and amounts can be withdrawn. Yeah, okay, yeah, you may have received money. Come in from a like foreign superannuation scheme like.

Christine:

Australia or the.

Cat:

UK or somewhere else that also has very specific rules around it of when it can and can't be withdrawn. Fun fact you can't withdraw your Australian super transferred over for your first home. All that kind of stuff needs to be, I guess, very clearly identified and kept on record because we then, as the end provider, deal with you in future for you making the withdrawals. But we need to make sure that we've got accurate information, and so the way that they've also, I guess, shored up the fact that we've got accurate information is ensuring that like link as the administrator and kind of registry function of that information is getting those accurate records. Yeah, makes sense, yeah, nice. So yeah, cool Fun times.

Christine:

Yeah, yeah, it makes sense, yeah, nice, so yeah, cool Fun times. Yeah, I know I definitely butchered that question. That's fine. No, it was good, it was good.

Cat:

It was good because it kind of proved the point of like people are, like it's just one pot of money. I'm like it is one pot of money, it's all the same, like it's just your contributions into your own investment plus, as you recognize, like your growth, and maybe some tax credits or whatever. But within KiwiSaver your contribution is made up of lots of different pieces types exactly, and so that needs to be categorised and understood.

Christine:

Yeah for sure. So that perfectly leads on to the contribution, that is, voluntary contributions and therefore potentially like self-employed people or if you're joining KiwiSaver for the first time. So maybe you've moved to New Zealand from overseas, or maybe you've turned 18, even though you can have KiwiSaver for kids, but you're starting for the first time. Does that process differ? Know, overseas, or maybe you've turned 18, even though you can have KiwiServe for kids, but, like you know, you're signing for the first time. Does that process differ and, if so, how?

Cat:

Yeah, so the process in terms of joining doesn't differ because it's the same thing, as, like, you just go to the provider that you want to sign up with and you open an account and select whatever your investment option is and basically like, say yes and then essentially what's happening is basically the same transfer of information.

Cat:

So the information goes back to Link and goes back to the IRD to say, like Christine's decided to enroll for KiwiSaver. We need to check that the information she's provided us is the information that the IRD has on record so they can start to collect your contributions, essentially, and then pay them to us. But then you're just obviously not having a transfer process because you don't have a balance or an account with another provider, so you're not doing a transfer process because you don't have a balance or an account with another provider, so you're not doing that transfer process. Vir is a stand down period that is much longer for the IRD to basically remit your contributions for the first time when you join a KiwiSaver, so they can hold your KiwiSaver contributions for I think from the top of my head it's 62 days.

Christine:

So just over two months yeah.

Cat:

From the date of first join. Yeah, I'm not 100% sure as to why they do that. I'm assuming it's to do with like just ensuring that it's all correct and right and good and no one's made a mistake.

Cat:

Yeah, and all that kind of stuff, yeah, and no one's made a mistake, yeah, and all that kind of stuff. And it's important to note that, like you can earn interest on the payments that they're holding or the contributions they're holding on your behalf. So sometimes you will say that, like you've been paid a contribution, interest as well when they remit the contribution.

Cat:

But yeah for first-time joiners, it is essentially a period of two months where you sign up with a provider and then see something in your account and it feels like it's just a black hole and it's kind of a shitty experience. Where's?

Cat:

my money going yeah because it's an experience as a provider, like we have no influence over whatsoever, we don't even have the money, the money hasn't been remitted to us, we don't know exactly when the IRD is going to do that. And then you know when people come and ask, naturally, questions about that, because they feel a bit nervous. If it's been a month and they can't see anything, we just have to direct them back to looking at MyIR because to an earlier point, then at least you can see that the IRD have been receiving contributions and that you're enrolled in a KiwiSaver scheme or plan, and then perhaps it's just a case of like, waiting.

Christine:

Yeah, yeah, nice. I just wanted to make a key distinction which, like in terms of the also wording that you're using, like joining KiwiSaver as a scheme, not joining like the Kernel KiwiSaver plan. Yes, so you're becoming a KiwiSaver member for the very first time, not just the kernel KiwiSaver plan for the first time.

Cat:

Yeah, exactly. So you're enrolling into, like the retirement savings plan scheme as a concept or thing for the very first time, yeah, nice. So that's, yeah, a one-time experience. It's just unfortunate that like that as your first experience feels it's not great. No, yeah and feels very kind of murky and unsure. But then, beyond that, any time that you switch between providers in future, you should really only expect a maximum of like two weeks for that process to take.

Christine:

Yeah, nice, and then self-employed is that just literally like the way that you pay contributions as voluntary. So it's a different way. Is that the only kind of difference?

Cat:

Yeah, different way and there's two ways that the contributions can make it to your provider. So the same thing like they have to go through the IRD in the same way an employer contribution does, or they have to go directly through LINQ so that we as your provider can get the correct categorisation of what that contribution is. Because if you think about it from the point of view of like at the base level, if we just received the money into the custody bank account in the back end, we've got no idea what that is, we're like where do we put this and how do we allocate it?

Cat:

Well, yeah, we're like okay, Christine's got $10,000 for her KiwiSaver Sweet, We'll invest it per her instructions. That's all we know.

Cat:

Yeah, right, yeah, so the job of the IRD and Link is to tell us so we have on record what that $10,000 is made up of. And the same thing applies for voluntary contributions. And so that's also why I recently had a shout out to them Probably won't listen to the podcast a customer like have a real whinge about this to me, because their expectation was they made the voluntary contribution from their bank account to the custody bank account for the Colonel KiwiSaver plan and, lo and behold, it takes basically two business days to get there because it has to go to Link and then they process it overnight to like kernel, basically to then be invested, and then, of course, it gets invested and you have that potentially three business days for it to show up. So from their point of view, it was taking potentially four to five days for it to exit their bank account and be visible as invested money in their KiwiSaver. They were comparing this to them transferring money to a cash savings account which they could see intraday, ie on the same day.

Cat:

Yeah, and I was like you. Just I empathize with the challenge here because there's not a lot of information around this, but when you actually understand the fact that, like you're making a contribution into a certain legal and tax structure. There are rules around that we need to make like it's an investment as well, versus a savings account.

Cat:

Yeah, but also it's very different to transferring money to your savings account via your internet banking, like of course it is. It's going into an entirely new legal structure being KiwiSaver, and so I was just like I don't know what you want from me.

Christine:

I'll give you the facts Literally.

Cat:

it's one of those things that was like I appreciate this feels like a challenge, but I also we can't make this any faster, and I think you know the part that they were perhaps missing is it is important particularly for a voluntary contribution to be recognised correctly, because self-employed people are often making voluntary contributions to the amount to get, obviously the government contribution, and so it's like, well, we do need that timeframe so that LINC or the IRD, whoever it is, can categorize the contribution correctly, so we can have on record whether or not you're eligible. Yes, A hundred percent. You can't have your cake and eat it too, people.

Christine:

Be patient, have it accurate, go fast and the details are wrong.

Cat:

Exactly, and that's kind of it. It's like, if you're not happy with that, invest yeah, save in a cash account. It it'll be faster. If your primary outcome is I want speed, cool, you can go and get speed in other ways. But if your primary outcome is I want to benefit from a long-term retirement saving scheme that I'm getting free money from the government from, don't at me with your complaints about a time frame or maybe listen to this podcast and then decide whether you're going to yeah, right, exactly, yeah, yeah, so yeah yeah, I can.

Christine:

I can like to your point around. There's just not a lot of information out there, like even for my own learning, doing research, to be like how does this work? Obviously I have you sitting beside me, I can't tell me about it, but if you go to google there's like it's actually very hard to find a simple and easy to understand guide as to like how does this all work? It is is.

Cat:

So I mean in context, like there is an IRD KiwiSaver scheme process guide that is for all KiwiSaver schemes to basically outline the process, like the back-end administrative tax process between the IRD, whoever your administrator is in the scheme, and it's 160 pages long and it's really detailed and you know it's really challenging to understand and it's not easy and it's not like, and also I guess there's an element of like.

Cat:

You probably shouldn't need to know all the back end complexity, but I think the piece that's also not communicated well and people misunderstand is that a retirement saving scheme, which is what KiwiSaver is that has benefits like a government contribution or you know, first home withdrawals or retirement withdrawals or financial hardship withdrawals, has different regulation, it has different tax requirements. It has like different it's a different tax requirements. It's a different legal structure. It's not the same as just opening an investment or opening a bank account in your own name. You are choosing to be part of something that is a slightly different structure and so just come in with the general understanding that it therefore may have some slightly different nuances or expectations around how it acts and works, comparative to say, a bank account.

Christine:

Yeah, or even just investing in a straight fund, correct?

Cat:

And this is why we say KiwiSaver is fantastic, but if you also need things like access to money before the time you turn 65, you would want to consider investing outside of KiwiSaver as well. Or if you need money that is much faster, therefore, you need an emergency account that's in cash. That kind of stuff also applies. We see this a bit when people send through financial hardship requests and applications, which is a really tricky position to be in because it's obviously a place of last resort, and the challenge with that is that people then often think that they're kind of instantaneously going to get that money or it's going to be a fairly speedy process.

Cat:

But it's not. It can take up to two weeks for it even to be assessed before you kind of have a known outcome. And then, of course, when you think about it in reverse, we then still have processing time, meaning you know, selling out of funds, getting that money into cash, transferring it via link through to whatever bank account the customer has. So you know it's something that may still have a three to four-week timeframe, depending on your situation. It's not. You know, I'm at a last resort situation. I'm going to be able to get money from my QS over account in two days. Yeah.

Christine:

Yeah, interesting, maybe we'll do a separate Q and a on how like withdrawals from QS over work also for first homes and things, because it's the same kind of logic applies. Like we have had people lawyers last minute. Be like we need this.

Cat:

Like settlements in two days. Can I please have this money and you're like hi could you have given me like a month's notice maybe.

Cat:

I know, and that also that part does crack me up, because people often come in very early. On the other side of we're looking to buy a house, we want to get our ducks in a row like well in advance, but then once they've bought the house, often the lawyer can take a bit of time getting their ducks in a row and then they send through a very last-minute request and I'm like I can't speed up settlement time.

Christine:

Like I don't know what you want me to do, but I don't control like standard T plus two. I'm working hard on my side, but that's it.

Cat:

There's a complete side note. This well related to KiwiSaver, but someone basically that I was chatting with yesterday, a customer, had a challenge around their KiwiSaver transfer taking longer than their expectation and there were some very valid reasons for that happening and we talked through that and they understood that they were like okay, notwithstanding this delay, I would like the units that I buy in my KiwiSaver fund to be issued to me at the date at which I started the transfer.

Cat:

Ah, that doesn't work, like that I appreciate your face and your response, because I was like wait, let me think for a second.

Christine:

No, that doesn't work yeah and because also, that doesn't apply to anyone else if the like, even if they're like, and then two, after the two-week time frame that it should be in your account, let's say like also whose legal obligation or responsibility? Sorry, now you're like, you're really riled up.

Cat:

I'm glad that this is your response, because I think this also just really highlighted to me the fact that people don't necessarily have an understanding that kiwi saaver is an entirely different structure, more similar to a managed fund, obviously, or an investment than, say, a bank account. And I it just got to the point I won't bore you with how we resolved it, but it got to the point where I was like you obviously don't have any understanding around the complexity of how this works to make this request, because I was like this is physically impossible, like just a hard, no, like absolutely not even impossible, literally cannot be done at all, ever and so and when. That's your starting point and their starting point is I want this. It's like yeah, that was a fun chat.

Christine:

There's a lot of grey in the middle, exactly no-transcript.

Christine:

Yes, that's nice, oru nice summary, um? And on that note, should we say everyone who is listening and is like, oh, I've had a similar kiwi server experience, or maybe I had a really positive one and this is what they did, well, or actually I have a question about other things that you've talked about today. Please send it to us on instagram and it's no secret nz because we'd love to hear about it. And if you would like to also hear an episode about the process of withdrawals, I feel like I would personally like to hear that so or anything else kiwi saver related.

Cat:

Yeah, let us know and just trap for young players. If you've changed your name or you've, like, done some life admin and exactly, just just make sure that you update that data with the IRD, because they do have, yeah, a good amount of record keeping. So that's a good list to have. In terms of, like, if you're doing some financial life admin, make sure you're updating your details with them too, to stop any future problems.

Christine:

Yes, great, I'm definitely going to be checking in on that.

Cat:

You don't want to be me when I, like, haven't done this, like getting to age 65, and they're like hi, produce your marriage certificate. And I'm like I've lost, I don't have like I'm not married. So let's just, let's just maybe get onto that now it's like trying to find your own birth certificate. It's like I know where was my parent kicked over like 20 years exactly exactly. So, yes, love this chat. Thanks for.

Christine:

Yeah, thank you for answering, Kat. Great time and we'll see you. We won't see you. We'll talk to you next week everyone.

Cat:

See you on the gram. Bye, bye, bye, bye.

People on this episode

Contributor

Catherine Emerson

Host
Contributor

Christine Jensen

Host