Booyoung Research Institute Seminar on "Financial Consumers in the Super-Aged Society and Private Pensions": "Private Pensions Must Be Strengthened"

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] The Korea Insurance Research Institute and the Korea Financial Planning Association announced on the afternoon of the 24th that they held a seminar seeking to strengthen private pensions under the theme of "Financial Consumers in a Super-Aged Society and Private Pensions."

Professor Sangho Kim of Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, who gave the keynote presentation, pointed out that the reason private pension enhancement is necessary is that Korea has a high old-age poverty rate and weak old-age income security, but improving the income replacement rate of public pensions is difficult due to fiscal issues.

He emphasized that Korea's total fertility rate was at a record low of 0.81 in 2021, the average life expectancy is projected to be 90.1 years in 2060, and the elderly population aged 65 and over is expected to reach 43.8%, while the economic growth rate continues to decline.

Professor Kim noted that in a situation where securing funds to respond to the rapidly increasing welfare demand is not easy, it is necessary to implement pension reform that reduces the role of public pensions and strengthens the role of private pensions.

Senior Researcher Seongho Kang of the Korea Insurance Research Institute suggested strengthening the linkage between public and private pensions, unifying retirement pensions, automatic pension receipt, and enhancing tax support to revitalize retirement pensions during the pension reform process.

Senior Researcher Kang argued that it is necessary to establish an integrated control tower for public and private pensions to improve old-age income security alongside public pensions.

He also stated that to revitalize retirement pensions, unification and continuity of retirement pensions, improvement of asset management conditions and protection of benefit rights, introduction of an automatic pension receipt system, and strengthening of tax support are needed.

Additionally, Professor Hyekyung Yang of Konkuk University analyzed the impact of gender differences in life expectancy perception on individual pension subscription. Professor Hongmu Lee of Waseda University pointed out the necessity of strengthening payment guarantees for private pensions in the Korean pension market through the case of Japan.