Scheme’s optimism high despite low sign-up

A YEAR after its launch, the IWIinvestor scheme has yet to make much of an impact on Maori and Pacific Island KiwiSaver uptake, although optimism at the Taupo-based scheme manager remains high.

IWIinvestor was launched by the Taupo Moana funds management group in late 2011, with the aim of signing up 100,000 Maori and Pacific Island savers.

It has managed only 200 sign- ups so far, but general manager Tina Wilson said the scheme was working on building its network of partnerships with Maori organisations in an attempt to get more people to sign up.

Maori and Pacific Island enrolment in KiwiSaver remained about 2 per cent of KiwiSaver memberships, Wilson said.

That meant that while many in well-off New Zealand were enjoying the government KiwiSaver subsidies, many in Maoridom and Pacific Island communities were not. For lower-income families, things such as the $1000 kick-start could be very significant, Wilson said, and she feared that at some point KiwiSaver would be made compulsory and the incentives to join would vanish.

Unless Maori and Pacific Island sign-up numbers changed, many of those who could least afford to would miss out on the incentives.

Although banks had been very successful in getting members into their schemes, they appeared to have been failing with Maori and Pacific Islanders.

‘‘Their approach to Maoridom has been going for the entities that have got money,’’ Wilson said, not individuals.

As to why there had been such low sign-up levels among Maori and Pacific Island communities, Wilson said it appeared that the lack of face-to-face interaction was important.

That was why Taupo Moana’s scheme was trying to sign up Maori organisations to recruit members for it, but it had been hard going, even though Taupo Moana’s portfolio returns had been good, Wilson said.

Taupo Moana had signed up the Maori Trustee and a large Auckland-based forestry company, and hoped to make announcements about new signups soon.

‘‘We are trying to climb up a really, really steep mountain,’’ Wilson said, but optimism remained, and so did the sense of mission.