PDS
Product Disclosure Statement (PDS)
The headline legal document a NZ managed fund or KiwiSaver scheme provides to retail investors, summarising the fund, fees, risks, and how to invest.
Under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013, every retail managed-investment scheme in New Zealand must produce a Product Disclosure Statement (PDS). The PDS is the primary plain-English document setting out what the fund invests in, who manages it, the fees charged, the risks, and how investors join, switch, or withdraw.
A PDS must follow a standardised FMA-prescribed structure to make funds comparable. Section 1 covers the manager and the scheme; Section 2 explains the funds; Section 3 lists the risks; Section 4 itemises fees; later sections cover entry, exit, taxes, and the dispute-resolution scheme.
A PDS is a snapshot: it must be updated whenever a material change occurs and reissued at least annually. ManagedFundsNZ stores every dated PDS version for each fund and surfaces the diff between versions when a fund publishes an update — this is part of the Audit Trail product for advisers.
A PDS is read alongside, but is not a substitute for, the fund's Statement of Investment Policy and Objectives (SIPO), Other Material Information (OMI), and Quarterly Fund Update (QFU). All four are filed on the FMA Disclose register.
Common questions
- How often is a PDS updated?
- A PDS must be updated whenever there is a material change to the fund (e.g. fee change, mandate change, manager change) and at minimum annually. Each version is dated and filed on the FMA Disclose register.
- Where do I find a fund's PDS?
- Every NZ retail managed fund's PDS is filed on the FMA Disclose register at disclose-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz. ManagedFundsNZ links to each fund's most recent PDS on its fund page.
Primary sources
Related terms
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SIPO
Statement of Investment Policy and Objectives (SIPO)
The fund-manager document setting out the fund's investment objectives, strategy, asset allocation ranges, and investment-policy constraints (including any responsible-investment screens).
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OMI
Other Material Information (OMI)
A supplementary FMA-required disclosure document containing material information about a fund or scheme that is not included in the PDS.
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QFU · Fund Update
Quarterly Fund Update (QFU)
A standardised FMA-mandated quarterly report each NZ retail managed fund publishes, summarising fees, returns, risk indicator, asset mix, top-10 holdings and fund size.
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Disclose register · disclose-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz
FMA Disclose register
The official New Zealand register of every retail managed-investment scheme — the primary public source for fund PDSs, SIPOs, OMIs, Quarterly Fund Updates and full-portfolio holdings disclosures.