Korea Investment & Securities Led by Kim Sunghwan Ranks First in Retirement Pension Default Option Returns

Korea Investment & Securities, led by CEO Kim Sunghwan and expected to usher in the era of 2 trillion won in annual operating profit this year, is also recording industry-leading performance in the retirement pension sector.

According to third-quarter default option data released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on November 28, Korea Investment & Securities’ “Default Option Aggressive Investment Type BF1” posted an annual return of 32.83%, ranking first among all retirement pension providers’ portfolios. During the same period, the company’s “Neutral Investment Portfolio 2” achieved an 18.19% return, also the highest in its category. These results stand out even more considering the average returns for all portfolios: 14.72% for aggressive types, 10.18% for neutral types, and 6.57% for stable types.

Korea Investment & Securities’ default option products ranked first among all providers in six out of seven quarters from the first quarter of 2024 through the third quarter of this year. Analysts attribute this performance to differentiated product composition. The company’s default option products commonly include the “Korea Investment MySuper Automatic Fund” series, a strategic product designed by Korea Investment Management by benchmarking the system of Australia, a leading pension nation. It is evaluated as meeting all the requirements for retirement pension investment, enabling not only long-term investment but also global diversification, low-cost investment, and responsiveness to market changes.

This success has also led to an inflow of retirement pension funds. Since the implementation of the “Retirement Pension In-Kind Transfer” system last year, net inflows of retirement pension assets (based on DC and IRP types) into securities firms reached 1.3 trillion won by the end of June, with 570 billion won, or 43.7%, flowing into Korea Investment & Securities. As interest in improving retirement pension returns grows, Korea Investment & Securities is standing out with its strength in performance-based products such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and global funds. For example, the “Korea Investment Goldman Sachs US Tech” fund, launched in partnership with Goldman Sachs Asset Management in August, attracted 216 billion won in investments on its first day, with about 30% of those funds coming from personal and retirement pensions.

Korea Investment & Securities is also actively pursuing service innovation to enhance retirement pension investment convenience. After becoming the first in the industry to launch an automatic installment investment service for ETFs last year, the company recently added features such as expected return simulation and tax calculation to further improve investment convenience.