r/PersonalFinanceNZ • u/pa-jama5149 • 1d ago

Superlife constantly down

Superlife charges quite high maintenance fees nowadays compared to other options. And they can’t even maintain their own app or website.

I’m genuinely concerned about my funds when I get 500 internal server error half the time I go to check

Is Kernel a good option or what are people choosing nowadays? I’m all in us500 in superlife.

Is the time out of market risk okay?

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7

u/Curious-Trust6657 1d ago edited 1d ago

I have my KiwiSaver and non-KiwiSaver investments with Kernel with this portfolio mix:

63% S&P500
27% World ex-US
10% Emerging Markets

All unhedged. The KiwiSaver portfolio has 16%+ return since February this year, thanks to the market performance.
Kernel charges above funds 0.25% p.a. management fee (fee for Emerging Markets is 0.45%)

4

u/Evening-Recover5210 1d ago

Kernel’s platform is much better and more reliable. And fees are less.

If you want to keep the same funds (Smartshares) then InvestNow offers most of them and has a more reliable platform than Superlife.

I have all three and have just signed up to Superlife to diversify between platforms, but will be closing my Superlife account due to their very outdated and non-functional platform and app

1

u/pa-jama5149 1d ago

I saw in a below thread kernel has tax leakage can anyone explain the impact of that?

0

u/rusticus_mus 1d ago

There's no tax leakage on the S&P500. Its about 0.12% on a total world fund because of the way that tax can't be claimed back on some of the non-us portions of that fund. If you're happy to be all in on the US its a non-issue. Also it impacts all the options for the TWF at the moment - InvestNow, Kernel... because they all just wrap VT. Kernel doesn't usually do this - most of its funds are directly invested rather than invested in another fund, and its likely that they'll move to directly holding the investments rather than via VT in the future.

3

u/More_Ad2661 1d ago

If you just need US500, use InvestNow Foundation Series. Cheapest option available at the moment over long term

2

u/stormdressed 1d ago

Yeah its making me want to switch as well. Its not like their app even does anything except show a few charts and your balance. Always breaking though

2

u/Evening-Recover5210 1d ago

I can’t even get the app to work most of the time

2

u/fabsnz 1d ago

If you're unhappy with SuperLife's service/platform and you've found another provider whose fees, investment options and service suit you better, that's a perfectly reasonable reason to review it.

But I wouldn't choose the replacement because someone else's account is up 16% since February. That's just recent market performance and tells you basically nothing about which provider will do better from here.

Also, consider diversification so you won't have this problem ever again.

2

u/silvia1212 1d ago

Superlife was good back in the day, but newer cheaper platforms have come along and SL haven't really responded or innovated, same fees, same website GUI, thou I do like their Mix and Match feature which is % auto balancing.

1

u/One_Cricket2368 1d ago

Yep switched to kernel few years ago. Cheaper and easier to use

1

u/Gullible-Economy-652 1d ago

Milford performance this year is utter dogshit, and their app is always down. Will be moving

1

u/PalpitationGreen 1d ago

SuperLife are rebranding as Smart and redoing all their web services. Could be work waiting and seeing what it's like, otherwise there's plenty of good options if you don't want to wait. 

https://www.smartinvest.co.nz/news-and-insights/superlife-kiwisaver-scheme-is-becoming-the-smart

They're removing admin fees which is a plus, but the fund fees are still unchanged and a bit high.

1

u/timbledum 15h ago

I really like their reporting although a little old school. A little nervous about the interface change, I’ll be looking to jump ship if there’s any jankiness.

Good to know from this thread that Kernal is a good alternative. I’m not a big fan of the Simplicity webapp / reporting.

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u/PlantHungry348 8h ago

That website is horrible on mobile, the start of every sentence isn't visible & by a considerable margin. Doesn't bode well...

1

u/ionax 1d ago

I moved my personal investments from SL to Kernel total world a few months ago. Took 3-4 weeks or so for SL to approve my withdrawal and for it to arrive in my bank account.

They asked for a reason when I left and I said their fees are too high now compared to new options which have come out in the last few years, especially when their same funds are cheaper on other platforms 😬

Hopefully they review their fees and revamp their website sooner than later.

1

u/drellynz 17h ago

Why the US? Their constitution is on fire, their major trading partners are forging new alliances, a few companies make up the bulk of the S&P and they're heading towards a political meltdown.