Korea Investment & Securities launched “I’M You,” the wealth management service which tailors the portfolio to each investor’s need.

By Kim Da-ye

This year’s key strategy for Korean securities companies is fostering wealth management services, and Korea Investment & Securities has taken an advantageous spot with the well-received launch of its “I’M YOU” brand.

The catch phrase denotes Korea Investment’s objective to manage customers’ wealth from their viewpoint and mindset, the leading brokerage house said.

While financial firms tend to provide their customers with a list of different ready-made products, the I’M YOU service tailors the composition of a portfolio to the investor’ style which is classified into aggressive, active, moderate or conservative.

It will be then managed “systemically and scientifically” according to the company’s unique stock market analysis model called KIS (Korea investment Securities) Investment Clock.

The KIS Investment Clock categorizes the market into four stages ― the early and late stages of a bull market and those of a bear market ― based on financial and economic indices from Korea, the U.S. and China.

The tool predicts the ideal portion of risky assets and safe ones in a portfolio as the market transforms from one stage into another.

For instance, at the early stage of a bull market, the portion of risky assets including growth stocks would expand while, at the downturn of the market, the portfolio would include more government bonds and shares that pay dividends.

The minimum required deposit for the I’M YOU service is 30 million won, which could be in cash as well as stocks and funds deposited with other companies.

The service charges a one-off fee at the end of each quarter which is 1.8 to 2.5 percent of the net worth of the assets depending on investors’ style. No extra commissions for trading stocks and funds occur.

Launched in March last year, Korea Investment advertized it as aimed for a rate of return at the commercial interest rate plus alpha.

It announced in May that the four categories of the portfolios they are managing ― aggressive, active, moderate or conservative ― showed rates of return at 28 percent, 17 percent, 13 percent and 9 percent respectively. The average earnings rate was 17 percent ― nearly five times higher as the then policy rate of three percent.

“It is a concrete, practical service that enables customers to check outcomes in real-time and provides them with a monthly analysis. We are constantly communicating with our customers, so are able to reflect their needs immediately in their portfolio,” the firm said in a statement.