Mirae Asset’s default option retirement funds top $700 mn in assets

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. now manages over one-third of South Korea’s default-option retirement funds, with the assets it operates under the scheme surpassing 1 trillion won ($700 million) for the first time, the company said on Monday.

The default option refers to a pension operation scheme, under which a designated financial company manages the defined contribution pension plan in a pre-designated scheme, if a pension participant does not select a specific plan.

As of April 11, Mirae Assets manages 1,003.9 billion won in default-option pension funds, representing 35% of the market in South Korea.

Since the introduction in July 2023, the domestic default-option retirement funds market has expanded to 2.85 trillion won ($2.0 billion).

TDFs, short for target date funds, are designed to automatically shift their asset allocations from higher-risk investments to more conservative ones as the target retirement date approaches.

Mirae Asset Strategic Allocation TDF 2035, one of the fund house’s target date fund series, manages 216.1 billion won in assets, making it the largest fund of its kind in South Korea.

It has generated a cumulative return of 18.41% since its inception in December 2022.

Write to Yeonhee Kim at yhkim@hankyung.com