Friday 25th of January 2008

My last blog was called PIE are we waiting and you could well ask why are we waiting for the next one! Wait no longer…it’s here. The theme of this one is about the quality of some of the information we see and read. Writing this reminds me of sayings about stones and glasshouses. So before you take umbrage remember I am aware no-one is perfect! What got me going was mainstream media reporting of KiwiSaver fund performance a little while back. One piece where ING got a big swerve for the performance of its funds was atrocious. Firstly the writers of these reports need to be balanced and understand markets and investments. Secondly ING deserve some credit, as they were one of only a few managers who actually – as far as I can see disclosed performance. Unfortunately that ING was followed by another one about overall KiwiSaver fund performance. Secondly I read a speech to a EUFA event where a leader of the financial planning industry made some pretty exaggerated claims such as there could be 50,000 advisers in New Zealand and that people who invested in finance companies have lost "about a billion dollars." Such comments are rubbish and shouldn’t be made. The point of these comments are that it is really important for the record to be set straight and I think that is a thing which falls on all the savings industry. Secondly, and with a little self-interest, we try to cut through the rubbish and get to the facts, however I have to say that is sometimes difficult to do.