Asia’s diverse populations face a common challenge; how to tackle the continent’s retirement question. Longer life expectancies and demographic shifts raise concerns about the financial sustainability of Asia’s pension systems and what measures can be taken to address the coverage gap. It is against this backdrop that Amundi carried out research into pension provision in five Asian markets.
Our research, conducted in partnership with consultancy Crisil Coalition Greenwich and based on interviews with participants4 of the personal pension ecosystem in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and Malaysia, paints a retirement landscape that is evolving rapidly against a backdrop of growing wealth and higher living standards. Rapidly ageing populations and low birthrates across the region further accentuate the real or perceived inadequacies of state and workplace pension systems of even robust pension system such as Singapore’s. This will likely fuel the development of personal pensions as well as of post-retirement asset management solutions.
Currently the asset base for personal, pillar 3, pensions, is small at US$40 bn. However rising awareness about pension inadequacy and structural gaps with respect to post-retirement asset and income management suggest retirement assets both in and out of pension accounts is likely to grow significantly going forward. The actual rate of growth in each market will ultimately depend on local factors including available workplace schemes and contribution caps.
You can now read the full whitepaper at the link below
