Kiatnakin Phatra Financial Group (KKP) has announced its vision to become a leader in retirement planning with the launch of the KKP Retirement Solutions. This initiative moves beyond offering single products to creating a comprehensive financial ecosystem. It simplifies complex matters through the “Set and Forget” concept—set your goal once and leave it to the experts. The solutions address Thai people’s retirement hurdles, such as starting too late, choosing the wrong portfolio, and running out of money too soon. Partnering with Capital Group, a global asset manager with extensive retirement expertise, KKP has co-designed solutions that cover both the pre- and post-retirement phases. The first phase is set to launch this November.
Tackling 3 Major Retirement Obstacles
Based on customer sampling, Thai people’s retirement planning often faces three major obstacles that prevent them from reaching their goals:
• Not starting, or starting too late: Many people neglect planning because they view it as a distant and complex matter. Studies show that 86% of the population still lacks a clear financial plan for retirement. Furthermore, even though maintaining a post-retirement lifestyle (e.g., at 70% of previous income) for someone earning 30,000 THB requires around 6 million THB in savings for 30 years, data reveals that the median Provident Fund (PVD) savings at retirement for Thais is only 2 million THB, which covers expenses for just 5 years.
• Confusion over self-managed portfolios: Even when planning has started, investors bear the burden of selecting funds, timing the market, and allocating assets themselves while still working hard. This causes anxiety about making investment mistakes or missing out on opportunities.
• Receiving a lump sum but lacking management skills: Upon retirement, investors often lack the tools to manage their lump sum sustainably. Uncertainty about how much to withdraw annually and which asset classes to invest in leads many to park their money in assets that fail to outpace inflation. Alternatively, mismanagement creates the risk of depleting their savings before the end of their lifespan.
Redefining Retirement with “Set and Forget”
To eliminate the complexities that hinder retirement planning, the KKP Retirement Solutions are designed under the “Set and Forget” concept. Customers simply “specify their retirement year,” and the system, along with experts, will manage the investment plan and dynamically adjust risks according to changing life stages—from the wealth accumulation phase to the cash flow generation phase in retirement. The solutions provided will encompass mutual funds, life and health insurance products, as well as application innovations, allowing customers to easily track and manage their retirement plan within a single solution. The first phase is set to launch this November.
Joining Forces with Capital Group, a Retirement Portfolio Giant
To establish leadership in retirement investing, KKP has partnered with Capital Group, one of the world’s largest active investment managers, with over 90 years of experience and over $2.2 trillion in retirement assets under management. By integrating Capital Group’s global retirement portfolio expertise with KKP’s unique understanding of the behaviors, needs, and financial contexts of Thai investors—as the country’s leading Wealth Management pioneer—the resulting KKP Retirement Solutions bring established global retirement experience to the specific financial challenges facing Thai people.
Narit Kosalathip, Head of Personal Investment Advisory at Kiatnakin Phatra Securities Public Company Limited, stated: “We found that the greatest concern for working professionals is not knowing how to start managing their investments to adequately support their post-retirement life, or whether their lump sum will last until their final days. Therefore, KKP intentionally created the Retirement Solutions so that customers only need to specify their target retirement year, leaving the rest to world-class tools and experts. These solutions will serve as the infrastructure that manages cash flow up to age 90, without the customer having to worry about the management along the way. Retirement investing shouldn’t be about chasing returns; it should be about securing the peace of mind that you will enjoy a comfortable life when you retire.
Most importantly, KKP also has a team of highly experienced investment advisors ready to provide close consultation—both through on-site discussions and portfolio tracking via the KKP Better application—ensuring customers are confident they have experts by their side at every stage of their retirement.”
Jeik Sohn, Head of Southeast Asia Client Group at Capital Group, added: “Capital Group is one of the world’s largest active investment managers. We have spent decades helping investors prepare for and live through retirement, supported by active investment capabilities, retirement research and solutions designed to evolve with investors’ changing needs. Today, we serve millions of investors globally.
Together with KKP, we have brought that experience to Thai investors through solutions that combine global retirement-investing expertise with local market insight. It is designed to simplify important retirement decisions, evolve with investors’ changing needs and help them pursue retirement with greater confidence.”
The KKP Retirement Solutions differ from standard mutual fund sales, where customers must manage their own risks. Instead, it is a comprehensive care system that combines mutual funds, insurance, and applications under the “Set and Forget” concept by simply specifying a “retirement year.” In the first phase late this year, KKP will initially launch the core investment engine co-designed with Capital Group, followed by the gradual integration of insurance innovations and application features to complete comprehensive solutions.
Interested individuals can request advance consultation at all Kiatnakin Phatra Bank branches, via personal financial advisors (RM), or by calling 02-165-5555.