Milford KiwiSaver Review: New Zealand's Most Decorated Active Manager

Milford manages over NZ$8.4 billion in its KiwiSaver Active Growth Fund alone, with more than 103,000 investors. It has won the INFINZ Diversified Growth Fund Manager of the Year award four times in the past five years — in 2022, 2023, 2024, and now 2026. No other fund manager comes close to that consistency in New Zealand.

But awards tell you what happened. They do not tell you what will happen next. And paying 1.05% per year in fees means you need the next five years to look like the last five.

The Performance

Over the five years to 31 March 2026, the Milford KiwiSaver Active Growth Fund returned 6.82% per annum after fees and tax at a 28% Prescribed Investor Rate. Before tax, the annual return was 7.63%. The fund's stated objective is to provide annual returns of 10% after the base fee but before tax, over a minimum recommended investment timeframe of seven years.

The ten-year after-tax return at the 28% PIR rate is 6.63% per annum — or roughly 10.42% at the 10.5% rate. These numbers span multiple market cycles, including the COVID downturn of 2020 and the interest rate tightening of 2022 through 2024. Measured against its benchmark, the fund has delivered above-target returns over the long term.

Among the major KiwiSaver growth funds, Milford's five-year number of 6.82% (after tax at 28% PIR) leads the category. Simplicity Growth sits around 7.0% after fees but before tax. The bank funds — ANZ, Westpac, BNZ — cluster between roughly 5% and 6.5% after fees, depending on the exact fund and period measured. Fisher Funds returned 4.1% over the same five-year window.

The outperformance is real. The question is sustainability.

The Fee

Milford charges a base fund fee of 1.05% per year. There is also a performance fee of 15% of returns above the benchmark, subject to a high watermark — meaning the fund must first exceed any past underperformance before a performance fee can be charged. In the year to 31 March 2026, the total fund fees including the estimated performance fee were 1.25%.

To put that in context: Simplicity charges 0.24%. Kernel charges about 0.25%. The bank funds charge between 0.49% and 0.85%. Milford is not the most expensive fund in the market — Fisher Funds and Generate are higher, and Pathfinder is around 1.35% — but at 1.05% base fee plus a potential performance fee, it is in the top tier of cost.

On a NZ$100,000 balance, Milford costs about NZ$1,050 to NZ$1,250 per year depending on whether the performance fee triggers. Simplicity costs NZ$240 to NZ$310. The difference is roughly NZ$750 to NZ$1,000 per year — money that stays in your account with Simplicity, or goes to Milford's investment team with Milford.

Whether that difference is worth it depends entirely on performance. Over the five years to March 2026, the return gap meant the fee was justified. But that is a bet, not a fact about the future.

The Investment Approach

Milford is an active manager through and through. The fund uses bottom-up stock analysis — team researches individual companies rather than making broad bets on sectors, countries, or macroeconomic themes. As at May 2026, the top equity holdings included Amazon, Microsoft, NVIDIA, TSMC, Alphabet, NatWest Group, and Contact Energy — a mix of global technology and infrastructure companies.

The portfolio managers are Jonathan Windust and William Curtayne. Windust has 18 years of investment experience, including a role as Investment Director at Gartmore Investment Management in the United Kingdom. Curtayne has been with Milford for over 12 years, previously as a Senior Analyst before being promoted to Portfolio Manager about two and a half years ago.

The INFINZ award judges specifically noted strong risk management in the first quarter of 2025 — a period of heightened market volatility — and were "impressed with the quality of the people and their alignment with customers' values." The Diversified Growth Fund Manager category is assessed using both quantitative performance analysis and qualitative evaluation by an expert panel. This is not a popularity contest. The award is serious.

The Risk

The fund targets 78% growth assets and 22% income assets — putting it squarely in the growth category with a seven-year minimum recommended timeframe. It carries a 16% neutral foreign exchange exposure, meaning roughly NZ$0.84 of every dollar is invested overseas without full hedging back to New Zealand dollars. Currency movements will affect returns.

Active management risk is the other dimension. Milford's outperformance has been consistent over five and ten years. But active management that works is a skill, not a machine. Skill can persist, and it can erode. Key people can leave. A concentrated portfolio — by definition, bottom-up stock picking means making bets — can go wrong if the picks stop working.

There is no sign of any of these things happening at Milford. The team is stable, the process is disciplined, the results are real. But acknowledging the risk is part of making an informed decision.

Who It Suits

Milford suits investors who are comfortable with active management and willing to pay a premium for it. The cost difference with passive alternatives is large enough that you should have a reason for paying it. Believing Milford will continue to outperform is a reason. The evidence for that belief is stronger for Milford than for any other active KiwiSaver manager in the country. But it is still a belief about the future, not a fact.