With the launch of KiwiSaver in 2007, Gareth Morgan managed to get a lot of publicity criticising the unit pricing method of the fund managers in New Zealand. He created a range of scenarios and information that led to doubt about the veracity of this
technique.
While the publicity created a large following for Gareth Morgan and his KiwiSaver funds (since sold to KiwiBank), and led to a few fund managers changing some of their techniques of unit pricing, the reality is that it was a great PR drive.
Unit pricing is the method of valuing pools of investment funds that has been used universally and successfully for many decades. It is easy to understand and administer.
This commentary from David Chaplin on the NZ Herald website describes how MAS have finally changed from valuing their funds 2x a year (which meant it was virtually impossible to make a transparent comparison of their investment performance with other providers), to a unit pricing basis.
This leaves only the Gareth Morgan funds as the outlier - with no unit pricing. Not only no unit pricing, they do not participate in any of the industry comparison surveys.
Medical scheme opts for unit-pricing face lift
An interesting related article by David Chaplin about Gareth Morgan 'bowing out' gives some more insight into the 2007 PR spree:
Exit stage right - Morgan bows out
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For more blog entries that you might be interested in:
KiwiSaver Performance – how do you measure? – Fund Type
KiwiSaver – How do you measure performance? – Fund Size
By Carey Church
