Two million New Zealanders are now in KiwiSaver. As part of the ongoing effort to build awareness about how your retirement savings is invested, Your Money will be randomly profiling one KiwiSaver scheme per week.

Scheme: KiwiSaver Balanced Portfolio Fund

Who runs it: Axa Wealth Management Limited

Overview: The fund distinguishes itself from similar balanced schemes by appealing to investors who are slightly more risk tolerant but may not have enough time until retirement to chase returns by investing in a growth fund.

That's reflected in the fund's medium to long term investment horizon (five years plus) and a bias towards higher earning asset classes.

The fund has just over half its assets in stocks, with a heavy bias towards international equities over Australian or New Zealand shares. The average for other balanced schemes is just under 50 per cent, evenly split between local and offshore equities.

The Axa balanced fund also has double the property holdings of the sector average at 8.1 cent. In terms of low risk assets, Axa's balanced fund has about a 35 per cent of its assets invested in bonds and cash, which lags behind the average.

Fund size: $114.6 million as at August 31, 2012

Total return over 1 year*: 8.75 per cent versus a sector average of 9.18 per cent

Total return over 3 years*: 6.17 per cent versus a sector average of 6.15 per cent.

Unit price: $1.0649

Fees: Administration fee of 0.5 per cent per annum, investment management fee of 0.5 per cent per annum, and a trustee fee of 0.03 per cent per annum.

* After fees but before tax

- KiwiSaver spotlight is written by Jason Krupp using information from FundSource, and the information is considered general in nature. Please consult a professional adviser before any investment decisions.

- © Fairfax NZ News