MPs are a well-paid bunch, and get 20 per cent pensions contributions to boot.

It's not only the three homes that Simon Bridges owns, or the base pay of just shy of $300,000, that mean his personal finances are a little different from that of ordinary Kiwis.

Bridges is also one of just 242 people in the country who have their own, private, one-man superannuation scheme.

Otherwise known as "Schedule 3" super schemes, these are purely private affairs, where instead of having your money put in a pool by a fund manager and invested in shares and bonds, you get to be your own investor.

KEVIN STENT/STUFF Newly elected National Party leader Simon Bridges will receive a big pay rise. Ordinary backbenchers get $163,961 base pay. Leader of the opposition gets $296,007.

But ordinary folk should pause before they rush out to emulate Bridges and set up a private super scheme.

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Created under the Superannuation Schemes Act 1989 with everyone in mind, they've become almost entirely the preserve of financially-savvy members of Parliament, seeking to maximise their personal wealth from their years in office.

CHRIS SKELTON/STUFF Richard Prosser during his days in Parliament.

The 2017 register of MPs' pecuniary interests shows 33 MPs with what appear to be one-man super schemes, 25 of them from National, including Bridges.

Since the register was published, there have been a lot of changes in Parliament and the 2018 register is not out yet.

The financial details of the 32 new MPs are not yet known.

Some may already have been encouraged by colleagues to head off to a lawyer to get their own schemes set up.

MPs generally use these super-exclusive super schemes to buy a property they can then rent to Parliamentary Services as their Wellington residence, said Prosser, who is no longer an MP but whose entry in the 2017 register showed his trust was "not yet active".

An MP's accommodation allowance – currently $28,000 a year – can be legally paid to the super scheme as their landlord.

In addition, MPs can ask for their superannuation contributions to be paid into the private super scheme.

MPs get a contribution of 20 per cent of their salary, and only have to put in $1 of their own money for each $2.50 contribution from the taxpayer.

It's a far cry from the 3 per cent employer contribution ordinary KiwiSavers have to put up with.

Many MPs do make KiwiSaver contributions. Bridges is listed in the 2017 register as saving into the AMP KiwiSaver scheme.

And like everyone else, MPs get the $521.43 member tax credit from the taxpayer, if they put at least $1042.86 into KiwiSaver each financial year.

Together the accommodation allowance, and the pensions contributions, gives MPs a powerful wealth boost.

"Effectively it means you can pay off a mortgage in a third of the time that an ordinary person can, all on the taxpayers' coin," Prosser said.

"It's not about tax. It's about getting a leg up, and building equity in a property a lot faster."

Prosser, who was an MP for New Zealand First, said he didn't manage get his scheme off the ground before leaving Parliament.

But he isn't surprised National MPs are more likely to have a private super scheme, just as they are more likely to have a family trust, or be multiple property owners.

That's to do with many of them having a more prosperous start to life than MPs of other parties.

"The Nats start from a higher rung on the ladder in general," Prosser said.

Some Labour MPs have private schemes, but they are at the more senior end like Chris Hipkins, Stuart Nash and David Parker.

One of the perks of having your own super scheme is getting to name it.

As a result, many also have aspirational, blue-blooded names.

Bridges' scheme is called St Catherines Superannuation Scheme, apparently named after St Catherine's College in Oxford University where Bridges studied, and it owns a flat in Central Wellington, and a flat in Parnell, Auckland.

Bridge's office acknowledged the scheme existed, and that the Wellington property was his Wellington residence when in Parliament, but it said his super contributions were not paid into it.

It said his accommodation allowance was paid directly to him as it is for all MPs who are based outside Wellington.

"How MPs chose to manage that allowance once received is up to them. Mr Bridges pays rent to the St Catherines Scheme for the use of a central Wellington apartment."

Amy Adams' scheme is called the Versailles Superannuation Scheme.

Jonathan Coleman has the Hampstead Superannuation Scheme.

Others christen their schemes with a little humour. Craig Foss' scheme is called Bolthole.

Nathan Guy's is "Roof Above Head" Superannuation Scheme.

Iain Lees-Galloway has the Cookie Jar Superannuation Trust.

Very few non-politicians have call for a private scheme, EY's Matthew Hanley said.

The few he had seen have been set up by rich Brits and Aussies who had moved here and hankered after the control of a self-managed super scheme, which was common in their home countries.

While a Schedule 3 scheme isn't a problem for investing in residential property, it does not have the tax advantages of PIE funds like KiwiSaver when it comes to investing in shares and bonds.

The private schemes are not, however, shielded from the eye of the Financial Markets Authority, which regulates the mass-membership super schemes like KiwiSaver.

Every new private super scheme has to be approved by the FMA, though they are not actively monitored.

An FMA spokesman said: "They are effectively self-managed single person schemes and the sole member is required to be one of the trustees."

There is no public register, but every year the schemes are required to submit a set of unaudited accounts and some trustee statements, just to check the scheme, which is supposed to lay down retirement wealth, is not being abused.

SIMON BRIDGES PATHWAY TO WEALTH

* Educated at University of Auckland (BA political science and history).

* Worked as a litigation lawyer for Kensington Swan before moving to Tauranga to be a Crown prosecutor.

* Lived in UK and studied at the London School of Economics, and did a Bachelor of Civil Law at Oxford University in the UK.

* Elected MP in 2008.

* Became a minister in 2012.

* Elected National Party leader in February 2018.