What legally makes something an MIS
Under the FMC Act 2013, a managed investment scheme exists where investors' money is pooled and managed by someone else, investors hold interests whose value depends on the scheme's performance, and investors don't have day-to-day control. Retail managed funds, KiwiSaver schemes, superannuation and workplace-savings schemes are all MIS variants; what differs between them is access rules and scheme-specific overlays, not the core structure.
The four-role separation
The regime's core safety design is separation of duties. The manager (MIS-licensed by the FMA) makes investment decisions and operates the scheme. The supervisor — an independent, separately licensed trustee company — monitors the manager on investors' behalf and holds enforcement duties of its own. The custodian holds the scheme's assets, legally separate from the manager's balance sheet, so the manager cannot spend or pledge investor assets. The auditor signs the scheme's annual financial statements. A manager failing commercially is therefore a different event from scheme assets being lost.
The disclosure set every retail MIS must file
Every retail MIS files, on the public Disclose register: a Product Disclosure Statement (PDS — fees, risk indicator, minimums), a Statement of Investment Policy and Objectives (SIPO — the mandate the manager must follow), quarterly fund updates (QFU — after-fee returns next to the fund's stated market index, fee breakdowns, top-10 holdings), annual audited financial statements, and material Other Material Information documents. These filings are the substrate of every number on ManagedFundsNZ — each fund page links its own documents.
What operating an MIS requires (the short version)
Establishing a retail MIS means, at minimum: obtaining an MIS manager licence from the FMA (capability, fit-and-proper directors and senior managers, financial resources, compliance arrangements); appointing a licensed supervisor and entering a governing document; establishing custody; registering the scheme and lodging the PDS and SIPO on Disclose; then meeting continuous obligations — fund updates, financial statements, SIPO limit-break reporting, and conduct obligations. Wholesale-only schemes (offers restricted to wholesale investors under Schedule 1) sit outside most of these retail requirements — which is precisely why they don't appear on this site. This is regulatory information, not legal advice; anyone actually establishing a scheme needs specialist advisers.
Where the FMA sits, and what it publishes
The FMA licenses managers and supervisors, monitors conduct, publishes sector risk assessments and value-for-money guidance, and can act against schemes and individuals. Its Disclose register is the primary public source for scheme documents; its investor-facing material explains the regime in plain language. When this site counts or verifies anything, the underlying document is an FMA-regime filing.