Korea Investment & Securities Ranks No.1 with 123.34% Three-Year Cumulative Return on Default Option

Retirement Pension Net Inflow Reaches 5.66 Trillion Won in First Half
"Strengthening Subscriber-Centered Investment and Management Services"

Korea Investment & Securities' default option product for retirement pensions recorded a cumulative three-year return of 123.34%, the highest among all retirement pension providers' portfolios. As the retirement pension market has grown to a scale of 500 trillion won and the management paradigm for pension reserves is shifting from "saving" to "investing," the asset management capabilities and product competitiveness of retirement pension providers are receiving more attention than ever.

According to Korea Investment & Securities on the 29th, data released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on the status of default options for the second quarter of 2026 showed that the "Default Option Active Investment BF1" product from Korea Investment & Securities posted a three-year cumulative return of 123.34%. This is the highest level among all retirement pension providers' portfolios. It has maintained the top position, raising its return even further from the 93.17% announced in the previous quarter.

The product also achieved a one-year return of 51.49%, far surpassing the average returns of actively managed investment products in each industry: 36.04% for securities, 33.04% for banks, and 29.20% for insurance companies.

This performance is interpreted as a result of systematic asset allocation strategies and management expertise, not just a temporary phenomenon driven by market conditions. Since the introduction of the default option system in Korea, the portfolio has recorded the highest returns among securities companies every quarter.

The "MySuper Series," jointly developed with Korea Investment Management, has been cited as the core product driving these returns. Modeled after Australia’s retirement pension system, the product features global diversification and a low-cost structure, strategically incorporating U.S. large-cap growth stocks, gold ETFs, and other alternative assets.

As investment performance continued, retirement pension assets flowing into Korea Investment & Securities also increased. In the first half of this year, retirement pension assets inflowing to Korea Investment & Securities totaled 5.66 trillion won, exceeding last year’s annual inflow of 4.93 trillion won in just six months. This accounts for 16.9% of the industry-wide net inflow of funds for the same period, which reached 33.54 trillion won.

Korea Investment & Securities is focusing on providing a differentiated portfolio centered on performance-based products, moving away from the traditional market tendency toward principal-guaranteed products. As of the end of the second quarter, its default option reserves surpassed 600 billion won, and the number of designated subscribers exceeded 140,000. The proportion of performance-based products, by combining active investment (30.7%) and neutral investment (25.4%) products, accounted for 56.1% of the default option reserves. This reflects the company’s rapid absorption of demand from subscribers seeking to grow their retirement assets through active management.

The company is also strengthening services to improve investment convenience. Recently, it became the first in the industry to introduce a "real-time total pension asset evaluation" function. Through mobile trading systems (MTS), users can now check not only ETFs, REITs, and listed infrastructure funds in their pension accounts in real time, but also monitor changes in cash and cash equivalents.

Previously, changes to cash balances resulting from ETF investments would only be reflected on the actual settlement date (D+2), but the revamped service allows users to confirm both each account’s asset status and the total value of pension assets in real time. This is part of an MTS upgrade aimed at accommodating the increasing trend of ETF investments in pension accounts. Korea Investment & Securities has also previously launched other services via MTS, including automated periodic ETF purchases and exchange-traded bond trading.

Choi Jongjin, Head of the Pension Innovation Center, stated, "As the pension market evolves from a 'money move' to a 'people move'—that is, from shifting funds to focusing on subscribers—differentiated investment and management services are becoming ever more important. We will continue to strengthen our capabilities to ensure stable retirement planning for our customers, based on systematic investment strategies and experience."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.