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KiwiSaver Awards

Canstar releases its KiwiSaver Awards – highlighting the KiwiSaver providers and funds that deliver Outstanding Value.
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KiwiSaver Provider of the Year Award

2026 Provider of the Year
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KiwiSaver

For the seventh year in a row, Milford is Canstar's Provider of the Year KiwiSaver, due to its great returns and the high levels of support and advice it offers its KiwiSaver members.

Awarding Milford its top KiwiSaver accolade, our expert research team noted that the Milford KiwiSaver scheme saw its strongest performance across its Balanced and Growth funds.

Customer feedback highlights investment returns and communication as Milford's key strengths, reinforcing its ongoing status as a provider of outstanding value for New Zealanders saving for retirement or a first home.

As Canstar's Provider of the Year KiwiSaver, Milford delivers:

  • A range of investment options to suit all KiwiSaver investors
  • Competitive fees
  • Great product features, for example its investor app
  • High levels of customer support
  • Market-leading returns

Outstanding Value KiwiSaver Scheme Awards

Our Outstanding Value KiwiSaver Scheme Awards reveal the KiwiSaver schemes that deliver the best value to Kiwis across all their funds. Winners are listed alphabetically:

2026 Outstanding Value Scheme
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KiwiSaver

This year is the first time ASB has won an Outstanding Value KiwiSaver Scheme Award since 2019.

The win is based ASB’s great performance across price and features: the combination of competitive pricing and a strong, well-rounded feature set established ASB as a provider of outstanding value for New Zealand KiwiSaver members in 2026.

ASB also displayed steady performance compared to the wider market, improving across the Conservative and Balanced profiles, while holding steady in Growth.

2026 Outstanding Value Scheme
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KiwiSaver

Milford KiwiSaver maintains its Outstanding Value Scheme Award by continuing to offer market-leading performance across its funds, especially in the Growth and Balanced fund profiles covered by our research.

2026 Outstanding Value Scheme
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KiwiSaver

QuayStreet has retained its Outstanding Value Scheme Award for the second consecutive year, due to the strength and consistency of its performance.

The QuayStreet KiwiSaver Scheme set the annualised return benchmark in all three profiles considered in our award ratings, and returned risk-adjusted measures at, or close, to the benchmark.

Outstanding Value KiwiSaver Funds Awards

Our Outstanding Value KiwiSaver Funds Awards reveal the individual KiwiSaver funds that deliver the best value to Kiwis across specific risk categories. Winners are listed alphabetically:

2026 Outstanding Value Fund
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KiwiSaver

AMP earns an Outstanding Value Fund Award in the following risk profile:

Aggressive Fund

  • AMP KiwiSaver Scheme – AMP Aggressive Fund


2026 Outstanding Value Funds
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KiwiSaver

ANZ Investments earns Outstanding Value Fund Awards for two of its funds in the following risk profile:

Cash Fund

  • ANZ KiwiSaver Scheme – ANZ Cash Fund
  • ANZ KiwiSaver Scheme – OneAnswer Cash Fund
2026 Outstanding Value Funds
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KiwiSaver

ASB earns Outstanding Value Fund Awards for two of its funds across the following risk profiles:

Conservative Fund

  • ASB KiwiSaver Scheme – Conservative Fund

Balanced Fund

  • ASB KiwiSaver Scheme - Balanced Fund
2026 Outstanding Value Funds
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KiwiSaver

BNZ earns Outstanding Value Fund Awards for two of its funds across the following risk profiles:

Conservative Fund

  • BNZ KiwiSaver Scheme – First Home Buyer Fund

Balanced Fund

  • BNZ KiwiSaver Scheme – Balanced Fund
2026 Outstanding Value Fund
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KiwiSaver

BT Funds Management earns an Outstanding Value Fund Award in the following risk profile:

Cash Fund

  • BT Funds – Westpac KiwiSaver Scheme Cash Fund
2026 Outstanding Value Fund
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KiwiSaver

Fisher Funds earns an Outstanding Value Fund Award in the following risk profile:

Conservative Fund

  • Fisher Funds – Core Conservative Fund
2026 Outstanding Value Funds
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KiwiSaver

GoalsGetter earns an Outstanding Value Fund Award in the following risk profile:

Defensive Fund

  • GoalsGetter – Amova NZ Cash Fund
2026 Outstanding Value Funds
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KiwiSaver

Milford earns Outstanding Value Fund Awards for three of its funds across the following risk profiles:

Defensive Fund

  • Milford – Cash Fund

Balanced Fund

  • Milford – Balanced Fund

Growth Fund

  • Milford – Active Growth Fund

2026 Outstanding Value Funds
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KiwiSaver

QuayStreet Asset Management earns Outstanding Value Fund Awards for five of its funds across the following risk profiles:

Conservative Fund

  • QuayStreet – Conservative Fund
  • QuayStreet – Income Fund

Balanced Fund

  • QuayStreet – Balanced Fund
  • QuayStreet – Socially Responsible Investment Fund

Growth Fund

  • QuayStreet – Growth Fund
2026 Outstanding Value Fund
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KiwiSaver

Simplicity earns an Outstanding Value Fund Award in the following risk profile:

Growth Fund

  • Simplicity – Growth Fund
2026 Outstanding Value Funds
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KiwiSaver

SuperLife earns an Outstanding Value Fund Award in the following risk profile:

Aggressive Fund

  • SuperLife – SuperLife High Growth

Canstar's KiwiSaver Awards Methodology

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What are Canstar’s KiwiSaver Awards?

Canstar's latest KiwiSaver Awards credit the providers and individual funds that deliver the best returns, features, overall value and customer satisfaction to KiwiSaver members.

Our top Provider of the Year award goes to the KiwiSaver provider that delivers not only great returns and value but also earns the best consumer reviews from its customers in our extensive research.

The Outstanding Value Scheme Awards are awarded to the schemes that deliver the best returns across three general risk profiles:

  • Conservative
  • Balanced
  • Growth

While our Outstanding Value Fund Awards are more tightly focused on the best performing individual KiwiSaver funds across six investment risk profiles:

  • Cash
  • Defensive
  • Conservative
  • Balanced
  • Growth
  • Aggressive
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Which KiwiSaver providers do we survey for our ratings?

For this year's ratings, our researchers analysed

  • 19 Schemes
  • 129 KiwiSaver Funds

From 18 KiwiSaver Providers:

  • AE
  • AMP
  • ANZ
  • ASB
  • BNZ
  • Booster
  • BT Funds
  • Fisher Funds
  • Generate
  • MAS
  • Mercer
  • Milford
  • GoalsGetter
  • Pathfinder
  • Pie Funds
  • Quaystreet
  • Simplicity
  • SuperLife
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How do we determine the award winners?

Our KiwiSaver Awards research involves a sophisticated and unique methodology. Our expert research team delves deep and compares KiwiSaver schemes and funds across the following categories:

  • Performance: most importantly, this covers annual returns, but it also looks at consistency of performance. This means how returns fluctuate year to year – whether they are consistent or vary wildly. And, importantly, we don't just look at short-term results. KiwiSaver is a long-term investment and our research reflects this, rewarding providers for their average returns over the past five years.
  • Features: features include: the range of investment options offered by a KiwiSaver provider, the financial advice, tools and support provided, and ease of member access.
  • Price: annual cost to members, including fees and total fund charges.

When determining our top Provider of the Year Award, our research team also factors in customer feedback from thousands of KiwiSaver members:

  • Customer satisfaction: how everyday KiwiSaver members rate their providers on delivering customer service and value for money.
Full methodology

Numbers Crunched

18KiwiSaver providers assessed
129KiwiSaver funds rated
3Outstanding Value KiwiSaver Scheme Award winners
1KiwiSaver Provider of the Year winner

Most Satisfied Customers KiwiSaver Award

Canstar's Most Satisfied KiwiSaver Award is based on feedback from thousands of KiwiSaver on the performance of their providers.

2026 Most Satisfied Customers Award
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KiwiSaver

Sharesies wins our Most Satisfied Customers KiwiSaver Award thanks to the great returns it delivers on its customers investments, and the value for money they represent.

Overall, Sharesies' KiwiSaver scheme earns maximum possible scores across all the ratings categories in our survey from its members, outperforming all the other schemes eligible for our 2026 award.



Most Satisfied Customers KiwiSaver Award Methodology

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What is Canstar's Most Satisfied Customers KiwiSaver Award?

The Most Satisfied Customers KiwiSaver Award recognises the KiwiSaver provider that offers the best levels of consumer satisfaction to its customers. The award is based on consumer feedback from 3058 KiwiSaver scheme members across the country.

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Which KiwiSaver providers did we survey for our ratings?

Sixteen KiwiSaver providers met the criteria for our award, listed here in order of our research ranking: Sharesies, Pathfinder, Kernel, Generate, Simplicity, Milford, SuperLife, Booster, AMP, ASB, Fisher Funds, Kiwibank, ANZ, BNZ, Westpac, Mercer.

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What are the main drivers of satisfaction?

When you consider your KiwiSaver, you think about returns, so it's no surprise that for the KiwiSaver members in our awards survey, Investment Returns is the biggest driver of their satisfaction levels with their scheme providers.

It's interesting to see that Value for Money is far more of a concern than Fees, indicating that members are happy to pay higher fees if it flows through to better returns on their KiwiSaver investments.

Key drivers of borrower satisfaction:

  • Investment Returns: 26%
  • Value for Money: 20%
  • Communication: 19%
  • Customer Service: 14%
  • Investment Options: 12%
  • Fees: 9%

Numbers Crunched

3058KiwiSaver members surveyed
16Providers assessed
6Performance categories rated
1Award winner

About Canstar's KiwiSaver Awards

Canstar's KiwiSaver awards and expert ratings reveal the KiwiSaver providers and funds that deliver Outstanding Value to New Zealanders investors.

Find the best in KiwiSaver

Compare KiwiSaver providers and funds to discover those that deliver the best returns, account features and service.

Compare KiwiSaver

FAQs about Canstar's KiwiSaver awards

Joshua Sale's profile picture
Joshua SaleGroup Manager - Research & Ratings

As Canstar's Group Manager, Research & Ratings, Josh Sale is responsible for the methodology behind Canstar's diverse suite of Star Ratings and Awards and leads the teams that deliver them. With a background in economics and finance and a Master's in data science, Josh has spent the past ten years building ratings that help connect consumers with the right product for them.
Josh is passionate about helping consumers get hands-on with their finances. Josh has been interviewed by media outlets such as the Australian Financial Review, news.com.au and Money Magazine.
You can follow Josh on LinkedIn, and Canstar on X and Facebook.


Bruce Pitchers's profile picture
Bruce PitchersNZ Editor

Bruce Pitchers is Canstar's NZ Editor. An experienced finance reporter, he has three decades’ experience as a journalist and has worked for major media companies in Australia, the UK and NZ, including ACP, Are Media, Bauer Media Group, Fairfax, Pacific Magazines, News Corp and TVNZ. As a freelancer, he has worked for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority and major banks and investment companies on both sides of the Tasman.
In his role at Canstar, he has been a regular commentator in the NZ media, including on the Driven, Stuff and One Roof websites, the NZ Herald, Radio NZ, and Newstalk ZB.
Away from Canstar, Bruce creates puzzles for magazines including Woman’s Day and New Idea. He is also the co-author of the murder-mystery puzzle book 5 Minute Murder.