Neve18

First post, so go easy. As per post title, hopefully moving to Dunedin by the year end, leaving Glasgow behind.
Myself and partner are both mental health nurses, with 10 &18 years experience respectively. We have a 6 year old daughter, and have decided after a year agonising over the decision to make the big move.
Would like any feedback with regards what other ex NHS staff did with superannuation pension scheme, and secondly what would be best pension scheme for nurses in New Zealand.
Cheers, Alan

Justcol

NZ doesnt do pension schemes. Kiwis buy 2nd and 3rd house to fund retirement

There is only kiwisaver which is just a saving scheme that you and employers pay into

BEVS

I will ping someone who may be able to better advise.

There are superannuation schemes out there ( which are not Kiwisaver) but you will need to tread very carefully.

My husband brought his NHS pension fund over to NZ. This is something we now actually regret doing as the funds were far safer in the UK NHS scheme than we found here.

escapedtonz

There are no company pensions schemes here like in the UK.
There is the national savings scheme that has been mentioned - Kiwisaver, which is a government scheme where you and your employer can make contributions and where the government also pays bonuses depending on how much is invested per year. After the initial 3 month contribution period you can select the type of investment you are aiming at, how and who it is managed by dependent on your personal preferences and how risk averse you are. We both pay in to Kiwisaver and both of our employers match those contributions. We also have Kiwisaver accounts for the kids as when we opened them the government was offering a $1000 start up grant....free money yay! but that's all been stopped now.
We transferred both of our pensions in to an NZ QROPS Superannuation Scheme and we have those investment portfolio's managed by a Financial Services company here in NZ to maximize their growth in return for a tiny service fee.
Glad to say they are performing pretty well.

Since we purchased land and built a new house within the last 18 months - 2 years we stopped paying in to the kids Kiwisavers and also held off paying in to the new Superann fund so we maximized using our earnings for the new property but the plan is to restore the fortnightly investments in to the kids Kiwisavers and to start up further regular investment in to the Superann scheme to maximize growth.

There is a forum member on here who is our Financial guy with the company that manages our portfolio and who I'm sure is the person BEVS has pinged.

Getting the proper advice is worthwhile.

chc4me

Hi Alan,
Welcome to the forum. In terms of NHS pensions, the UK Govt changed the rules about 3 years ago which resulted in NHS Pensions (and other Govt non-funded final salary schemes) no longer permitted to transfer out of the NHS. Therefore your NHS pensions will stay with the NHS until it is time for you to retire. Nothing that you need to do until that time, except ensure you keep your contact details up to date with them. At retirement time, you will need some tax advice so that you can meet your NZ tax obligations on your retirement benefits.

As mentioned by others, KiwiSaver is a common NZ retirement scheme with particular rules. There are 16 KiwiSaver providers, although the top 6 account for the majority of clients. Some employers do offer benefits over and above the standard KiwiSaver contribution, this might include increased matching contributions, Health Insurance, Life insurance or other things. Check with your employer.


Hope that helps, best wishes.

Neve18

Thanks everyone. Much appreciated

bearskin

That's not true. You may not know of any, but they do exist. I've heard anecdotally that since Kiwisaver started, many, if not all, of them are no longer taking new members though.

I'm in one; and it has performed very well indeed.

scot47

Pension system in New Zealand – Pension Funds Online

Justcol

So essentially as far as the OP is concerned there are no company pension schemes here like in the UK

bearskin

As this info is from 2016, I'm not going to suggest it is entirely comprehensive, but it does give an idea of who operates this kind of thing.

Financial Markets Conduct (Restricted Schemes) Order 2016 (LI 2016/119) (as at 02 September 2016) – New Zealand Legislation

Justcol

So essentially as far as the OP is concerned there are no company pension schemes here like in the UK

BEVS

Col. You originally wrote that NZ doesn't do pension schemes which is not the case. It does but under a slightly different guise & wording , like all things here. I know this, as we had the misfortune to be in one where there was ....erms... irregularities and our funds ended up being locked without performing at all for quite some time. I shan't go into regulation or lack thereof in NZ as that will muddy waters for the OP.

Did you actually mean that there are no company run pension schemes other than Kiwisaver?
Companies are free to offer pension schemes. As per the UK they will choose a preferred scheme to peddle to their employees.

I've no idea what District Health Boards advise and offer. As they are govt run, likely it will be the govt run Kiwisaver.

Justcol

Sorry, of course they are readily available, thats why we've all got one.

Maybe I should rephrase, there is next to no provision for pensions apart from a few low rent superannuation schemes
unlike the UK where even small businesses with just one employee MUST offer a company pension.
OP, do what the rest do and buy a second house then later complain that your kids cant afford a home of their own.

Bo-Jangles

You all make Kiwisaver sound like a bad thing.

I think it has quite a bit going for it and the compulsory 3% contribution from employers is not to be sniffed at.

People like to look down on it and labelling it as 'Government run' which isn't quite correct. The individual providers (mostly banks) run it and the take up rate has exceeded all expectations with something like 2.8 million active members.

escapedtonz

I didn't say it was government run and I can't see where anyone else in this thread has mentioned it.
I said it is a government scheme. It is a government initiative set up in 2007 or whenever it was to help people in kiwi land save up for their retirement. You can view all you need to know by looking at the official website for Kiwisaver at www.kiwisaver.govt.nz (website address kind of gives it away that it is a government scheme). I believe it is mandatory that a new Kiwisaver must remain with or in the government run scheme with the government provider for at least the first 3 months until the account holder becomes eligible to join any other kiwisaver scheme provider. You can only have your kiwisaver in one scheme at any one time and you can only transfer to a different scheme once per year.