Retirement Commissioner role
The Retirement Commissioner's role is established under the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001 and appointed by the Minister of Commerce.
- Current Retirement Commissioner
- Responsibilities
- Financial literacy role
- Retirement income policy review and advisory role
- Retirement villages functions
Current Retirement Commissioner
Diane Maxwell is the Commissioner for the Commission of Financial Literacy and Retirement Income. The Commissioner's term of office is for three years from 1 July 2013.
The previous Retirement Commissioner, Diana Crossan, was appointed in February 2003 and stepped down from the role on 16 January 2013.
Responsibilities
Under legal mandate, the Retirement Commissioner is required to fulfil the relevant functions and requirements of the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001 and certain functions under the Retirement Villages Act 2003.
The Retirement Commissioner is responsible for:
- Leadership and coordination of the National Strategy for Financial Literacy to improve the financial literacy of New Zealanders. The Commissioner is a member of the National Strategy for Financial Literacy Advisory Group which reports to the Minister of Finance on progress every six months.
- Reviewing and reporting to the Minister of Commerce every three years on the retirement income policies implemented by Government
- Monitoring the effects of retirement villages legislation, administering the retirement village disputes process and appointing members to disputes panels as vacancies arise
Financial literacy role
One of the key roles of the Retirement Commissioner is to lift the financial knowledge of all New Zealanders aged 5 to 105. The Commission was instrumental in the development of the National Strategy for Financial Literacy and the Commissioner represents the Commission on the Advisory Group.
Read more about financial literacy or see the website.
Retirement income policy review and advisory role
The Commissioner is also responsible for providing advice to government on New Zealand's retirement income policies including undertaking a major review of policy every three years. The most recent review report was released in 2010. Diana is often quoted and interviewed by the media on current issues such as the age of eligibility for New Zealand Superannuation.
Read more about retirement income policy reviews.
Retirement villages functions
The Commissioner has advisory, monitoring and education functions relating to retirement villages legislation. Since the Christchurch earthquakes, the Commissioner consulted stakeholders and provided advice to the Minister of Building and Construction on proposed variations to the Code of Practice 2008 to clarify operator and resident obligations in the wake of such major events.
The Commissioner's role includes administering the disputes process and appointing disputes panel members.
Read more about the Commissioner's retirement villages role.
