Hong Kong investors have a reputation for their gung-ho attitude to the business of investing in equity, but John Snelgrove, general manager of corporate affairs for National Mutual Asia, believes the reputation is certainly undeserved when it comes to pension fund investments.
'People have generally adopted a relatively conservative approach to their long-term savings,' he said.
'Pension funds are long-term investments and people look at them in a very different way to the way they look at stock market investments. They regard their retirement funds as sacrosanct.' Mr Snelgrove finds Hong Kong clients of National Mutual's provident funds are not in an all-out search for maximum returns; when it comes to insurance and retirement, they are looking for security.
For this reason, he believes that, despite the numerous horror stories circulating around the SAR about the amount of money investors lost last month, pension money has weathered the storm of the Asian currency crisis rather well.
The amount of pension money Hong Kong people have exposed to volatile markets, when compared to some other markets in the world, is actually quite small.
So, the effect that any short- term volatility had on the retirement market was minimal, he said.
'Of course, if you are unlucky enough to have reached the expiry of your retirement funds at the nadir of the market, you could stand to lose substantially.' He said National Mutual had a facility whereby retirees could leave their money in the fund under a continuation option until a more convenient time.