Chairman Park Hyun-joo of Mirae Asset Securities. (Photo: Mirae Asset Securities)

Mirae Asset Securities became the first Korean securities company to surpass 20 trillion won in overseas stock assets on April 29. I

ts overseas stock assets increased 20 times just four years after achieving one trillion won, in January 2017. The assets climbed by 4.3 trillion won in 2021 alone.

During the same period, Mirae Asset Securities customers racked up about five trillion won in profit through overseas stock investments.

High-ranking stocks held by Mirae Asset Securities customers include Tesla, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. These stocks are considered some of the leading global blue-chip stocks with which Mirae Asset Securities customers obtained profit of about 1.8 trillion won in total.

Mirae Asset Securities is strengthening its asset allocation through overseas exchange traded funds (ETFs).

This is because the company can prepare for a volatile market by making good use of the effects of making diversified investment in blue-chip shares through ETFs. Already, its ETF balances have surpassed 4.6 trillion won, accounting for about 25 percent of 17.7 trillion won excluding foreign reserves.

Mirae Asset Securities cited high returns on retirement pensions as a driving force behind an increase of 20 trillion won in pension assets.

As of the end of the first quarter of 2021, Mirae Asset Securities ranked first among the top 10 companies in both defined contributions (DCs) and individual retirement pensions (IRPs) in terms of one-year returns on retirement pensions.

Its returns on DCs rose by 5.85 percentage points to 13.75 percent, from 7.90 percent in the previous quarter, while its returns on IRPs hit 11.37 percent, up 4.12 percentage points from 7.25 percent from a quarter earlier. Mirae Asset Securities was the only one that logged more than 10 percent in DC and IRP returns among the top 10 operators in reserves.

The company came in first in DC and IRP returns for the fourth consecutive quarter.
Mirae Asset Securities credited an online and offline customer management system to increase returns for customers in the DC and IRP systems.

The company opened the Pension Asset Management Center for customers who are too busy to visit sales branches in 2018. The center provides pension asset management consulting and takes questions about pension asset management in a non-face-to-face manner.

In addition, customers who want in-depth consulting services can visit sales branches and receive customized pension asset management through consulting by pension specialists.

In addition, consulting on tax and pension strategies among others is provided by tax accountants at a specialized department of the headquarters.

In the meantime, Mirae Asset Securities announced in mid-May that it will exempt non-face-to-face direct IRP accounts from operating and asset management fees starting on May 17.

Direct IRP customers will be exempted from all of their operating and asset management fees not only for funds they have to pay for tax deductions in year-end tax adjustments but also funds paid by their companies.

The exemption will equally apply to fees incurred after effective dates for new customers as well as existing direct IRP subscribers.

Mirae Asset Securities expects to increase customer satisfaction as well as raise actual returns on pension accounts by eliminating the current cost burden which accounts for 0.1 to 0.3 percent of direct IRP fees.

Mirae Asset Securities’ implementation of direct IRP fee exemptions is expected to further accelerate the moves of pension money at a time when customers who traded with banks and insurers have moved their IRP accounts to securities firms since last year.

Mirae Asset Securities saw its IRP reserves grow by 661.6 billion won in the first quarter, eclipsing those of large banks and securities firms, chalking up the largest increase in assets among all retirement pension operators, according to the Financial Supervisory Service’s public disclosure data.

Mirae Asset Securities which provided ETF and real estate investment trust (REIT) trading services in the pension business for the first time in Korea is leading the spread of a culture to invest with pensions by providing information on global asset allocation strategies and promising investment products through its official YouTube channel “Smart Money.”

“This decision was made to eliminate cost burdens by exempting direct IRP customers who manage assets after opening accounts in a non-face-to-face manner from fees,” said Kim Ki-young, head of pension solutions at Mirae Asset Securities.