KiwiSaver may have the catch-all title, but as the retirement savings vehicle for almost 3.5 million of us now, it should by no means be seen as a one-size-fits-all solution.

Your personal KiwiSaver settings should reflect your individuality and take into account a whole array of factors. These include where you are at in your career journey, when or whether or not you plan to purchase your first home, your wider investment plan, your comfort with volatility and your social and environmental beliefs.

Finding the right combination of quality funds that meet these criteria is essential to you unlocking your KiwiSaver potential.

With 18 high-quality funds from six of New Zealand’s leading fund managers to choose from, we’ve developed a multi-manager KiwiSaver scheme that enables you to tailor, track and when necessary, tweak your portfolio settings to meet your unique requirements.

While you can of course do this directly yourself – and I’d encourage you to check out how you can create your own bespoke portfolio on our GoalsGetter investment platform – we’ve developed GoalsGetter to make it more efficient for financial advice providers (FAPs) to offer a KiwiSaver service aligned to each individual client’s situation by being able to choose from a range of select managers.

With more and more investment products available directly to consumers, working with a financial adviser can play an important role for Kiwis seeking to navigate their way to financial security. When it comes to getting the most out of KiwiSaver, here are three of the most important questions you should be asking yours.

1. Will my KiwiSaver settings keep me awake at night?

Understanding your own unique investor profile will lead you to the right fund mix for you. Your profile occupies the sweet spot between your savings ambition, your level of comfort with risk, your investment timeline and your personal beliefs. With funds carrying varying levels of risk and return (conservative, balanced, growth, aggressive) and thematic exposures, your adviser can guide you to not only the right mix of funds, but the right weighting.

2. How much should I contribute?

Standard contribution rates are 3 per cent, 4 per cent, 6 per cent, 8 per cent or 10 per cent. Contributing more will obviously make your balance grow faster, and through compounding returns this can make a significant difference to your retirement fund over decades. Similarly, if you’re self-employed, making greater contributions – particularly through your best earning years – can compensate for the lack of employer contributions. However, preparing for the future needs to be balanced against the reality of navigating the high cost of living in the present. Your adviser should be able to help you work out what rate is best for you, both for now and for the future.

3. How am I protected through diversification?

It’s important that you understand the make-up of each fund you invest in. Having three or four different funds may not offer you the risk protection you think it does, if each fund invests in the same companies and sectors. A truly diversified KiwiSaver portfolio can allow you to spread your risk across managers, sectors, industries and geographies without compromising on your core beliefs.

The 18 high-quality funds we have handpicked for the GoalsGetter KiwiSaver Scheme enable you to create a portfolio with this level of diversification; your adviser is there to help you achieve it.

www.goalsgetter.co.nz