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AML requirements update

by | 7 Feb, 2023 | General, KiwiSaver, Membership

We continue updating our customer records for Anti Money Laundering (AML) purposes

We want to say a big thank you to those customers who we have contacted and who have returned their completed consent form for electronic identity verification purposes, so that we can update your details for our compliance with anti-money laundering requirements. If we haven’t contacted you then you don’t need to do anything, your information is up-to-date!

 

We now have more than 70% of the consents that we need so that we can check whether or not you are a politically exposed person. This is a great result, and we are on track with updating our customer records. Paul has joined our member services team and the team will continue to follow up with those customers who we need consents from. Alternatively, if you haven’t already, you can provide your consent to electronic identity verification in any of the following ways:

  • through the Christian KiwiSaver Scheme website – this form of consent is online, so it is still a quick and simple way to complete the consent form. You can go direct to the website, or click the link to that form here: https://christiankiwisaver.nz/AMLConsent/
  • through your member portal – you can login to your account and find the link to the consent form on your dashboard. You can login here: https://christiankiwisaver.nz/login/ (if you need help logging in please email or call us)
  • by signing and dating a hard copy consent form – we can either email or post you a consent form (and you can post it or scan it back to us). Please email us or call us if you would prefer to provide your consent this way. 

 

One final request from us is that if you have moved address or changed your phone number or email address, could you please let us know? If so, our friendly member services staff can update your records for you.

Thank you for your assistance with this – we have greatly appreciated the understanding and positive response to date.

What is happening with KiwiSaver?

What is happening with KiwiSaver?

by | 10 Nov, 2022 | General, Investment, KiwiSaver

There has been a lot of movement in the market recently which may be worrying KiwiSaver scheme members around the country.

While KiwiSaver is a long-term retirement investment, you will have seen that annual performance is down. So, what do you need to know about what is happening with KiwiSaver?


What do you need to know?

KiwiSaver is an investment. This means that you are an investor and through this retirement scheme, your money is invested into the market. We at Christian KiwiSaver Scheme carefully manage your money in the effort to grow your investment and to minimise losses.

Depending on your situation, you may also be receiving additional contributions from your employer and/or the Government which you generally would not be receiving outside of a KiwiSaver scheme.

Previously, KiwiSaver schemes have had periods of strong positive returns. In recent years, particularly since the COVID pandemic, the market has not performed so well. The thinking in the market is that it is normal to have this sort of rebalancing period, particularly with these types of unprecedented events.

Most KiwiSaver schemes are in the same boat. Schemes are carefully watching the market and are all subject to its performance. KiwiSaver schemes are also tightly regulated by the Financial Markets Authority who enforce rules for the protection of consumers.


What can you do?

  • It is important to remember that KiwiSaver is a long-term investment. While KiwiSaver has experienced a turbulent time in this past year, you can see that our 5 years (p.a.) and 10 years (p.a.) investment returns are positive.
  • Last quarter we published an article to help you navigate through this potentially confusing time. Our message is very much the same, i.e. that you look at your investment goals and remember why you chose your particular fund rather than making any sudden decisions. You can view that article here.

While the future is always uncertain, the recent performance of the market can be seen as part of the investment experience where we will experience general ups and downs.

Anglican Financial Care (AFC), the fund manager of Christian KiwiSaver Scheme, is an organisation with long-standing experience. Established in 1972, AFC is celebrating 50 years of serving its members this year. We look forward to continuing to serve your KiwiSaver needs.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33 (NIV)

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Why are conservative funds losing money?

by | 10 Nov, 2022 | General, Investment, KiwiSaver

Some KiwiSaver investors who have their money in a conservative fund have been shocked by recent performance. Typically, these types of funds have been seen as “less risky”, but given their recent losses you too most likely want to know why these types of funds are losing money.

The performance of conservative funds are strongly linked with interest rates. If interest rates go up, as they have been recently, then the investments of the fund will generally go down in value (which leads to negative returns). However, if interest rates go down then the investments of the fund may go up in value (which leads to positive returns).


Why are interest rates going up?

Interest rates are increasing because our official cash rate (and many around the world) has been going up. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (and other major central banks around the world) uses the official cash rate as a tool to set interest rates that try to fight inflation.

Their hope is that interest rate increases will lead to a slowdown in demand and therefore lower inflation. One example of this is that people may decide to spend less on products because of the higher interest rates. The idea is that there is a flow-on effect so that companies will begin to charge less for their products as they see people beginning to spend less.

The amount that we spend/purchase and the amount companies charge for their products are part of what affects whether interest rates go up or down. For instance, if demand does slow down enough then this might mean interest rates may not need to rise anymore.

Interest rates and inflation are not just influenced by what happens locally, but are also influenced by what happens around the world. In the recent past, we have had very low interest rates. Sudden big events, such as the war in Ukraine and COVID, may be part of the surprising inflation we are currently experiencing – and the big increase in interest rates we are experiencing now.

We at Christian KiwiSaver Scheme have certainly been doing our best to minimise these negative returns, however when the market has been performing this way it is sometimes difficult to do so.

Our investment style, with a focus on capital preservation and diversification, aims to reduce the losses that can prevail in these more uncertain periods.

Important requirements for our members

Important requirements for our members

by | 10 Nov, 2022 | General, Investment, KiwiSaver

We will be requesting some simple but important information from some of you in the next few weeks to help us fulfil our obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering legislation. This information will help us update your records to fulfil compliance requirements.

Meeting compliance obligations is of utmost importance for us here at Christian KiwiSaver Scheme so that your trust in us is unquestionable.

In the next few weeks, our Chief Executive will be sending some of our members emails (or, where we do not hold your email address, letters) asking you to provide us information to help us fulfil compliance requirements.

When you receive this communication, please complete the instructions. The whole process should be relatively easy and take less than a minute, but if you have any questions, including whether or not the email or letter you receive is legitimate, then please do not hesitate to contact us. If you do not hear from us, you do not need to do anything – your information is up-to-date.

Anglican Financial Care Celebrates 50 years

Anglican Financial Care Celebrates 50 years

by | 9 Feb, 2022 | General

Photo of the Board meeting in Wellington in March 1992

 

This year, Anglican Financial Care (AFC) celebrates its 50th birthday. The 1972 General Synod of the Anglican Church approved a Church Canon to establish Anglican Financial Care, originally known as The New Zealand Anglican Church Pension Board (“Board”). The General Synod of the Anglican Church also approved the establishment of The New Zealand Anglican Church Pension Fund (“Pension Fund”).

Over the past 50 years, AFC has developed into a multi-faceted and professional organisation that provides a multitude of financial services to the Anglican Church and other Christian denominations, including the administration of three separate retirement savings schemes (Pension Fund, The Retire Fund and Christian KiwiSaver Scheme). AFC has also provided other financial services such as a welfare fund, a health fund, a supplementary support fund and mortgage finance.

Anglican Financial Care also provides ancillary services to the wider Church including the administration services for the Anglican Insurance Board and the Baptist Union Superannuation Scheme, as well as a role coordinating the Inter-Church Bureau (an inter-denominational body tasked with monitoring the impact of legislation on the wider Church’s affairs).

While our services have grown over time, our mission and purpose have remained the same. We hope to tell you more about our story over the coming year as we celebrate this amazing milestone. For now, if you would like to learn more about Anglican Financial Care click here. We are very proud to have served our members for 50 years and look forward to continuing to serve you in the years ahead!

Christmas message 2021

Christmas message 2021

by | 17 Dec, 2021 | General

Dear friends,

It is a pleasure to bring greetings to all who are members of Christian KiwiSaver Scheme, the Anglican Church’s clergy Pension Fund, the Retire Fund, and all our friends and supporters. May our infant saviour give you the joy of the Bethlehem shepherds, the awe of the sages and the humility of the holy family.

It is likely that by the time you read this message you will have sung a Christmas carol or two. There tend to be three kinds of carols. One is: “Isn’t it time we stopped and had a jolly good time?” This is the category of “We wish you a merry Christmas,” and “Santa Clause is coming to town.” Then there is the kind of carol that says, “Isn’t the baby sweet?” of which there are many including “Away in a manger” and “O little one sweet, O little one mild.” And then there are the carols that contain some pretty incomprehensible ideas that should have us trembling. You will be pleased to know that if, as Christians, we wish to keep a good Christmas, it is to these carols we need to turn.

Take, for example, verse two of “O Come all ye faithful”:
 

God of God,
Light of Light
Lo! He abhors not the Virgin’s womb;
Very God,
Begotten not created.

 
These are ancient words dating from the fourth century and that, amazingly, we are still singing today. They set out who is at the centre of the Christmas story. The answer, of course, is God. In the birth of Jesus, the life of the eternal God is born in time. The fourth century teachers of the faith were trying to explain how the life of God could flow into creation in human form, and yet leave God undiminished. The answer, they said, was like lighting a candle from another candle leaving the light of the first undiminished; “Light of Light”. A Christian Christmas celebrates God’s divine life coming into the world in a whole human life, hallowing our humanity, transforming creation, and uniting us to God.
 
At Christmas, then, we celebrate God being present in a new way. God’s way of making a difference is by living as humanly as you and I do. God doesn’t work by ‘breaking in’ to the world from the outside, but by filling it from within, by filling creation with the divine life of God, so that there is no place where God is absent. For in Jesus there is no gap where humanity stops, and God starts. The birth of Jesus, the birth of the divine life into our world, proclaims that all creation is soaked through with God’s life. The carol, “Hark the herald angels sing” puts it this way (using an inclusive language version): “Hail, the incarnate Deity, pleased in human form to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel.”
 
Jesus, however, is no superman. He is dependent. He weeps. He is tested. He faces death. His will sometimes wobbles, but the decisions are made, and his mission moves forward. In fact, the message of Christmas is that God takes massive risk to be in relationship with us, entrusting himself to unreliable human beings, to bring fullness of life and love into the world. In the birth of Jesus, God says, each human life is so valuable, that you and I are worth risking everything for, that there is no risk too great to take or gift too big to give to bring fullness of life to you and me. God thinks every single one of us can reflect the life and generosity of God and that each of us is worth risking everything for. Jesus is born into this world because God thinks our humanity, and the humanity of every person, is supremely worthwhile.
 
If we are to keep a good Christmas then, we have to ask hard questions of ourselves. Because if God thinks so highly of each person, how do I overcome my fears of those who are ‘other’ to me? How can I feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, give clothing to the naked, care for the sick, and visit those who are in prison? (Matt 25:34-36). For Christmas declares that God’s solidarity with us is so deep and total, that when we see Jesus in the manger, we not only see the fullness of God, but we see God valuing our humanity beyond our imagining.
 
And because of that, we come before the new-born Christ filled with wonder and awe, and with humble and repentant hearts.
 
May I take this opportunity to thank the Board and the Investment Committee of Anglican Financial Care, our new Chief Executive, Margaret Bearsley, and her team, for their amazing work supporting all of us this year. And may God give us all the gifts and the grace we need to keep a good Christmas.

The Very Rev’d Lawrence Kimberley
Chair of Anglican Financial Care
Dean of Christchurch