As interest in retirement pensions has been rising recently, Korea Investment Management on the 2nd advised that the key to retirement pension investing is to achieve returns exceeding the inflation rate.
As the government has said it will gradually make the retirement pension system mandatory starting this year, demand for retirement pension investment is steadily increasing. According to Korea Investment Management, retirement pensions are an important means of raising funds for a stable post-retirement life, so the importance and utility of such investments are expected to grow in line with policy changes.
According to Korea Investment Management, the retirement pension market last year grew 7 trillion won above the forecast made in 2023, reaching 432 trillion won. By 2034, it is projected to grow about 2.4 times to around 1,042 trillion won, increasing an average of about 9.2% per year.
It also projected that the domestic population aged 60 or older will increase by 5 million in 10 years, raising demand for the retirement pension market as well.
Korea Investment Management emphasized that retirement pension investment is a long-term investment maintained for more than 10 years, and the key is to achieve returns that exceed the inflation rate. This is because it is important to defend against the decline in currency value due to inflation and secure real purchasing power.
The "Korea Investment MySuper Leave-It-To-Us Fund Series" is the first in Korea to benchmark "MySuper," the representative default option of Australia's retirement pension system, and is an asset allocation product. In particular, it said its feature is providing a global asset allocation portfolio optimized for won-based investors.
This product seeks real returns that exceed the inflation rate by diversifying investments in global assets such as Australian stocks, U.S. large-cap growth stocks, and alternative assets, as well as domestic bonds, taking into account correlations with the consumer price index (CPI).
According to FnGuide, as of the 1st, total assets under management of the Korea Investment MySuper Leave-It-To-Us Growth Fund stood at 80.3 billion won, up about 55.4 billion won from the beginning of the year. Among its classes, the retirement pension online class (C-Re) and the default option class (O) saw inflows of 23.8 billion won and 20.1 billion won, respectively, marking the largest increases within the series.
The inflows into the fund are attributed to stable management performance. The Korea Investment MySuper Leave-It-To-Us Growth Fund (C-Re class) posted a 1-year return of 32.01%, ranking first overall among domestic balanced funds (BF) based on the retirement pension online class. The 3-year return is 92.25%.
In the "Key status of default options for Q2 2025" released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL), "Korea Investment Securities Default Option Aggressive BF1," which is 100% invested in the fund, recorded a 1-year return of 17.40%, the highest among all 304 portfolios.
Kang Seong-su, managing director in charge of solutions at Korea Investment Management, said, "Although the size of retirement pension reserves is increasing, the proportion of principal-and-interest-guaranteed products is still high," and emphasized, "To secure real purchasing power after retirement, a return higher than the inflation rate is important."
Kang added, "The MySuper Leave-It-To-Us Fund series can reduce volatility and aim for stable excess returns by diversifying into assets linked to inflation," and said, "We recommend using a range of asset allocation funds with the goal of managing stable retirement funds."
Meanwhile, the fund mentioned in the article is a performance-based product, and past returns do not guarantee future returns. Principal loss may occur depending on management results.