How the Lowest-Charge NZ Managed Funds 2026 report is computed

Selection rule

• The comparison column is the annual fund charge as reported in each fund's own FMA Disclose filings, expressed as % per annum.
• Within each cut (whole universe, fund category, FMA risk band 1–7), funds are ordered ascending by that one number. Ties share a position and are all listed.
• There is no scoring, no weighting, no editorial adjustment, and no minimum-size or minimum-history filter beyond having a reported charge.
• Category tables show the five lowest reported charges per category (extended through any tie at the cut-off) against the category median. The risk-band table shows each band's median and the fund(s) at the band minimum.

Data source and as-of date

• Charges and FMA risk indicators originate in each fund's PDS and Quarterly Fund Update lodged on the FMA Disclose register (Tier A), and are read from the site's extract of Sorted Smart Investor (Tier C mirror of the same filings).
• The report's as-of date — 22 May 2026 — is the latest source-document date across the included extracts. Each fund page links its own source record with its own date.
• The page is recomputed from the underlying dataset on every site build; the 2026 edition is a dated annual snapshot and the next edition will be published as a separate page.

Coverage and exclusions

• 279 of 304 tracked NZ retail managed funds report an annual fund charge in the current extract and are included.
• 25 funds are excluded rather than estimated — chiefly AU-domiciled unit trusts that Sorted Smart Investor (an NZ-PIE register mirror) does not index, plus funds whose extract did not resolve.
• KiwiSaver scheme funds are out of scope — this site covers NZ retail managed funds; the sister site FundCompare.co.nz covers KiwiSaver schemes.
• Performance fees are not part of the ordering. The annual fund charge excludes any performance fee; funds that charge one are listed at /performance-fee/funds/.
• Buy/sell spreads and platform fees are excluded — they are transaction-level costs disclosed separately from the annual fund charge.
• No "fee after PIR" cut is published. The annual fund charge is deducted from fund assets before tax; a Prescribed Investor Rate affects the tax on a PIE fund's income attributed to the investor, not the charge. Computing a "post-PIR fee" would be a modelled figure, not a disclosed one, so it is out of scope for this report. PIE/PIR mechanics: /pie-funds/.
• Cuts are reported per category (8 categories with measured funds) and per FMA risk band (7 bands with measured funds) because charge levels differ structurally between asset classes — a single cross-category ordering is shown for completeness but should be read with the category context.

What this report is not

• It is not a rating or a recommendation. A low annual charge is one disclosed attribute; it says nothing about strategy, risk or after-fee returns.
• It is not financial advice. ManagedFundsNZ is not a licensed financial adviser.
• It contains no estimates. Every number is read from, or is a median/minimum over, disclosed figures — funds without data are excluded, never modelled.

Reproduce or reuse

Journalists and researchers may republish any figure with attribution and a link to the report. The site-wide sourcing rules (confidence tiers, freshness gates, extraction pipeline) are documented at /methodology/. Corrections: hello@managedfunds.nz.