Kang Seung-woo is the Business Desk editor at The Korea Times. Prior to this position, he covered politics, national affairs, finance and sports.
Kyobo Life eyes pole position in pensions
By Kang Seung-woo
By Kang Seung-woo
On the back of a wealth of know-how from its long history and competitive services, Kyobo Life Insurance looks to claim pole position in the retirement market.
The life insurer has established itself as a leading player in the sector. It developed the first retirement product in the industry back in 1976 and has over 30 years of experience in retirement savings management. It currently manages 1.43 trillion won ($1.27 billion) pension assets with about 1 million subscribers as of February 2011. It is also the first company to set up a retirement pension task force, develop a pension IT system, offer all products in the market through an open platform and provide IFRS services to clients.
Korea is one of the fastest aging societies in the world along with having the lowest birth rate. Its income replacement by national pension is low while average career employment is shorter than people’s life span. As a result, the Korean government made pensions mandatory in 2010, abolishing tax benefits on retirement allowance funds, the forerunner of the retirement pension.
The pension market is a fast-growing, lucrative one with expectations it will make a difference in the financial industry.
According to industry sources, around 20 trillion won is expected to be newly created this year alone in the retirement pension market, as a large number of major businesses intend to adopt the corporate retirement pension system.
Kyobo is considered one of the best in the industry.
Park Jin-ho, head of the retirement pension division, leads its department of 350 pension experts. The insurer is the first company to put together a comprehensive professional pension team comprising of actuaries, asset managers, labor attorneys, tax accountants, AICPAs, CFPs, financial risk managers, graphic designers and advertising professionals.
Kyobo, founded in 1958, is gaining a footing in the retirement market, adding global firms operating in Korea to its client list.
According to the insurer, multinational corporate giants including IBM, Costco, Swarovski and Templeton have adopted Kyobo’s retirement pension plans.
Kyobo said that a task force deals with each global enterprise to make sure that it is prepared to help them because it believes that an important factor in adopting retirement pensions is the provider’s support in employee communication.
Kyobo Life develops and provides customized communication programs for different clients in different industries to meet their special needs.
Through an online system employees or human resources officials can easily access information on how their money is being managed.