Asian Retirement Markets 2021
Moving Forward with Resilience
Grow Retirement Assets in Asia
- Analyze the role of annuities
- Understand the unique factors that impact the marketing and distribution of retirement solutions
- Assess the opportunities and challenges in New Zealand’s pension system
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Manni Huang
Associate Director, Account Management, Asia
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Summary
Evaluate the Asia-Pacific retirement sector in Australia and key North Asian and Southeast Asian markets. The report examines the current state of the retirement industry and regulatory developments in each market. It also explores the opportunities and challenges faced by asset managers in terms of product development and outsourcing opportunities, from both the retail and institutional perspectives.
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A Note from the Authors
Asian Pension Funds Turn to Asset Managers for Risk Management Expertise

Ken Yap, CFA
Managing Director, Asia
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Ken Yap, CFA
Managing Director, Asia
Ken Yap is managing director of Cerulli’s Asia Pacific office. He oversees Cerulli’s business development strategy and research initiatives in the region. For more than 20 years, Ken has worked with asset managers, distributors, and financial institutions, identifying expansion opportunities with his deep knowledge of the market. He specializes in product development and market entry strategies into Asia’s established and emerging markets.
Prior to leading the Singapore office, Ken covered local and global asset management and distribution trends in Cerulli’s London and Boston offices. Before joining Cerulli, Ken was a consultant at Analysys’ Cambridge office in the U.K.
Full biography here.
As pension funds add moderate risks to their portfolios and venture into foreign markets to address their asset-liability management, effective portfolio risk management is a growing initiative. 73% of Asia ex-Japan pension plans believe that effective risk management is a key tool in achieving optimal portfolio returns. While larger pension funds have risk management policies and target asset allocations, smaller pension plans are likely to employ external managers’ expertise and experience in managing their risk.
Risk management, however, covers many areas, and is not just limited to investment or market risks, but also includes addressing risks in operations, technological systems, and non-financial events such as climate change, as well as asset-liability mismatch risks. Changing the features of pension plans (such as raising the retirement age or increasing contribution limits, which could be sensitive issues), is one of the ways of addressing asset-liability mismatch (ALM) risk and ensuring enough funding is available for payouts. That said, asset allocation plays a paramount role in ALM and effective portfolio risk management. Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), for instance, said in its 2019 annual report that, “The most important aspect of portfolio risk management is a proper management of asset allocation based on a policy asset mix.”
We believe that asset managers that can demonstrate prudent management of ALM risk and meet the demands funding payout amid an increasingly aging population will be well poised to win mandates from pension funds.
For more on this trend and for complete coverage of the retirement landscape in Australia, Japan, and North Asian and Southeast Asian markets, access our latest research.
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