Korea Investment Management's Pension Assets Near 6 Trillion KRW: "All-Time High"

Korea Investment Management announced on January 6 that its public pension fund division saw inflows of over 600 billion KRW last year, marking the largest amount in its history.

According to the Korea Financial Investment Association, as of the end of last year, the combined assets under management for Korea Investment Management's individual pension and retirement pension public funds totaled 5.9988 trillion KRW. This represents a net increase of 659.4 billion KRW over the previous year. Compared to the end of 2022, this is a growth of more than 1.7 trillion KRW.

The results are attributed not to one-off inflows into specific products, but to a well-diversified fund lineup across various strategies, which has earned the trust of investors. In fact, balanced growth was achieved across all segments, including asset allocation, bond, and global equity funds.

The flagship funds include: Korea Investment TDF Auto ETF Focus Fund, Korea Investment MySuper Auto Fund, Korea Investment Credit Focus ESG Fund, Korea Investment US Long-Term Treasury Fund, and Korea Investment Goldman Sachs US Tech Fund. The amount of capital allocated to the entire fund lineup increased significantly, without concentration in any particular product type.

The Korea Investment TDF Auto ETF Focus Fund series, a leading domestic target date fund (TDF), has consistently delivered strong long-term returns since its launch, contributing to the increase in pension public fund assets under management. According to fund rating agency FnGuide, this fund series ranked first in three-year returns across five vintages in the retirement pension online (C-Re) class at the end of last year. The three-year return ranged from 52.20% to 80.16%, and the one-year return ranged from 8.35% to 13.30%. In addition, the assets under management for this fund series reached 582.5 billion KRW at the end of last year, an increase of more than 300 billion KRW compared to the end of 2024, demonstrating strong growth.

Among the pension fund lineup, the growth of the Korea Investment MySuper Auto Fund also stands out. The assets under management for this fund reached 176.9 billion KRW at the end of 2025, an increase of 113.5 billion KRW compared to the end of 2024. The Korea Investment MySuper Auto Fund is benchmarked after Australia's default option 'MySuper,' a product from a leading pension country. As of the third quarter of last year, the default option fully invested in this fund recorded a one-year return of 32.83%, ranking first.

Among domestic bond funds, the Korea Investment Credit Focus ESG Fund series, which boasts a 17-year track record, surpassed 700 billion KRW in assets under management in the pension class, based on steady performance. It continues to attract the attention of pension investors. This fund focuses on high-quality domestic credit bonds rated A- or higher, pursuing both stability and profitability with a medium-term duration of around 1.5 to 2 years. Liquidity management using government bonds and a strategy of discovering undervalued bonds through rigorous credit analysis are also strengths.

Oh Wonseok, Executive Director in charge of pensions at Korea Investment Management, said, "For pension investing, stable profitability and management capability are most important. In particular, for TDFs and balanced (BF) funds, portfolio design that reflects the characteristics of Korean won investors-such as long-term capital market assumptions (LTCMA) and dynamic asset allocation curves (glide paths)-has led to positive results."

He added, "Our public pension funds strive to deliver real value to investors through customer-centric product offerings and management performance."

These products are performance-based dividend types, and past performance does not guarantee future returns. Principal loss may occur depending on investment results.