Robo-advisor Company Fount Launches Pension Savings Product with KB Securities

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] Robo-advisor specialist Fount announced on the 20th that its subsidiary, Fount Investment Advisory, has launched an advisory-type pension savings product that allows easy investment through KB Securities accounts on the Fount app.

The newly introduced pension savings product is designed to help investors prepare for a stable retirement through an investment strategy that pursues high long-term returns by taking on short-term risks while maintaining steady aggressive investments, based on a U.S. stock portfolio that has demonstrated continuous long-term growth. It also provides active management services that appropriately respond to currency risk and market timing.

More than 70% of the pension savings portfolio follows a passive asset allocation strategy that tracks the long-term growth of the U.S. stock market index, while the remaining 30% is actively managed with tilting adjustments based on market timing to generate excess returns. Stock market indices of other developed and emerging countries, excluding the U.S., will be used for tactical management considering market conditions.

This pension savings product can be invested in from 500,000 KRW through the Fount app, and offers services such as transferring existing pension savings, checking held pensions, as well as content services including market trends and global issue analysis. Like other financial investment products, there is a possibility of principal loss, but a key feature is monthly rebalancing (adjusting asset allocation once a month) to maintain a portfolio suitable for current conditions, thereby enhancing investors’ returns.

Typically, pension savings provide tax benefits through year-end tax refunds (13.2~16.5%) applied to a maximum annual deposit of 3 to 4 million KRW, and serve as an investment product to prepare for the difficult 10 years before receiving the national pension after retirement (age 65), known as the retirement crevasse. This product has attracted great interest not only from middle-aged people in their 30s and 40s but also recently from the MZ generation.

According to the "2021 Pension Savings Status and Implications" report released by the Financial Supervisory Service last April, the pension savings subscription growth rate for people in their 20s and 30s last year was 70% and 21.9%, respectively, showing a significant increase compared to the 2020 growth rates of 16.8% and 2.3%.

Fount plans to implement marketing strategies targeting the MZ generation, who show high interest in pensions, based on robo-advisors, one of the suitable management methodologies for pension savings products that require long-term investment.

Kim Youngbin, CEO of Fount, said, “Pensions are long-term investment products for 20 to 30 years, and steadily investing through installment savings in a stock portfolio that tracks the long-term growth of the global economy is a wise choice.” He added, “Fount will help investors invest and manage their pensions ‘with higher returns and peace of mind’ by providing timely management strategies such as return-seeking and defensive types tailored to the global financial market’s ups and downs.”

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