Most Kiwis want to avoid weapons in their KiwiSaver or Investment funds. Here are weapons-free options.
80% of Kiwis don’t want firearms, cluster bombs, nuclear weapons or other military weapons in their KiwiSaver or other investment fund. A growing number of investors recognise the massive human suffering and environmental damage that results from weapons and choose not to invest in weapons producers.
In 2016, after a public outcry, many KiwiSaver providers excluded manufacturers of cluster bombs and landmines. In the wake of the Christchurch shootings, some have excluded firearms, such as semi-automatic weapons. But these exclusions are narrowly-drawn categories. For many investors, the issue is broader. They don’t want their KiwiSaver fund to include any companies that make profits from weapons manufacturers.
From Mindful Money's analysis of fund investments at end March 2025, $338 million of KiwiSaver money and $328 million of retail investments was invested in companies involved in the manufacture of weapons.
The proportion of weapons in overall investment has risen significantly over the past year, with many investors unwittingly investing in companies that produce nuclear weapons, firearms or other weapons categories.
Weapons free means no investments in the following:
Nuclear Weapons – Where companies are involved in the manufacturing or sale of nuclear weapons or components or services thereof.
Controversial Weapons - Where companies are involved in the manufacturing or retail of controversial weapons (e.g., landmines and cluster munitions) or components or services thereof.
Firearms - Where companies are involved in the manufacturing or retail of firearms, including guns, rifles, pistols, or components or services thereof.
Military Weapons - Where companies derive >10% of revenue from the manufacturing of weapons or weapon components and services to the defence industry. We do not include non-weapons-related military support.
Read more about our methodology for identifying weapons companies here.
The following funds hold our Weapons Free badge, meeting our criteria above.
Pathfinder KiwiSaver Funds offer you ethical investments that aim to respect people, our planet and animals, without compromising on returns. Pathfinder is a boutique fund manager based in Auckland. They started investing ethically in 2010, and now manage 10 funds, with their research and expertise focused on investing responsibly and ethically in global markets. Pathfinder seeks out companies actively making a positive difference and believes these kinds of companies also make better long-term financial investments. To Pathfinder, investing ethically means making conscious choices for doing good with the money they manage. They want their investors to both do good and do well.
The Pathfinder KiwiSaver funds have no investments in companies in weapons category.
The following is a list of the funds that have fully excluded weapons from their portfolio (Mindful Money measures the level of investment down to 0.01% of the portfolio).
Note: the list focuses on funds that are invested globally and avoid weapons. In addition to these funds, Australasian-focused funds are not invested in weapons since there are no major listed weapons companies in NZ and Australia. The list includes only aggressive, growth or balanced funds that have at least 35% in equities. There are other weapons free funds beyond these requirements - use the Fund Checker to be sure.
KiwiSaver Funds free from Weapons (based on March 2025 data)
Investment Funds free from Weapons (based on March 2025 data)
Check out our seminar on Getting Our Money Out of Nuclear Weapons
You can find all our articles on weapons free investing here.
