Pilot expansion of elderly-care wealth management products nears approval, new batch expected soon

Shanghai, September 23 (Xinhua Finance) — Reporter Wang Shujuan — The expansion of the pilot program for pension wealth management products, which has reached a scale of hundreds of billions of yuan, is set to be implemented soon. Industry sources have revealed that a new batch of pension wealth management products submitted by bank wealth management subsidiaries is expected to receive regulatory approval in the near future.

China launched the first batch of pilot pension wealth management products in December 2021, and the pilot regions were further expanded nationwide in October 2025. According to data from the China Wealth Management Network, as of September 23, 2026, a total of 51 pension wealth management products remained in existence. However, no new products have been issued since 2023. After a three-year hiatus, with the expansion of the pilot program, many wealth management companies have actively lined up to apply for issuance qualifications, and several new products are awaiting approval. For new entrants, the trillion-yuan-level pension wealth management product market tests their ability to maintain product stability in a low-interest-rate environment.

Higher Entry Barriers for Qualification

Unlike personal pension wealth management products under individual pension accounts, the pension wealth management product pilot allows ordinary investors to purchase medium- to low-risk wealth management products without opening a dedicated account. These products are characterized by long-term and stable features.

Since the launch of the pension wealth management pilot in 2021, five years have passed. Currently, 10 Chinese-funded wealth management companies — including ICBC Wealth Management, BOCOM Wealth Management, CITIC Wealth Management, and Industrial Bank Wealth Management — along with one joint venture, BlackRock CCB Wealth Management, are qualified to issue pension wealth management products. The market has now exceeded the trillion-yuan level. Data from the Banking Wealth Management Registration and Depository Center shows that as of the end of June 2026, the scale of pension wealth management products issued by wealth management companies stood at approximately 106.6 billion yuan, with 466,000 investors. However, only 51 products remain in existence. Notably, a check of the China Wealth Management Network reveals that CITIC Wealth Management, despite having issuance qualifications, currently has no outstanding pension wealth management products.

Last year, regulators adjusted the requirements for pilot institutions issuing pension wealth management products to: "operating for at least three years, maintaining prudent management, and possessing long-term investment and risk management capabilities." Regarding issuance quotas, the total fundraising cap for a single wealth management company's pension products was raised to five times the balance of its net capital after deducting risk capital at the end of the previous year.

This means that regulators are using qualification thresholds to keep out institutions that rely solely on scale and distribution channels but have weak investment research foundations — a stark contrast to the logic of scrambling for issuance qualifications in the early pilot phase of 2021.

It is noteworthy that regulators have also established an automatic linkage mechanism: newly issued pension wealth management products can be automatically included in the personal pension wealth management list, effectively simplifying the approval process.

Stability Attribute Under Pressure

The stability attribute that underpins pension wealth management products is facing ongoing challenges from the low-interest-rate environment.

This year, the returns of pension wealth management products have already come under pressure. Data from Puyi Standard shows that as of September 22, the average annualized return of pension wealth management products since inception was 3.24%, higher than the overall wealth management market average of 2.08%. However, the average annualized return of pension wealth management products this year stands at only 1.39%.

Analysts believe that the downward trend in the overall return benchmark of pension wealth management products cannot be ignored, and the pressure to meet performance comparison benchmarks is particularly acute.

Liu Rui, Deputy General Manager and Chief Investment Officer of BlackRock CCB Wealth Management, stated publicly that from an investment perspective, the longer the duration of pension wealth management products, the better, as longer holding periods are more conducive to long-term asset appreciation. Currently, domestic wealth management clients have a low tolerance for net value fluctuations, making it difficult for institutions to engage in long-cycle asset allocation.

It is understood that pension wealth management products generally allocate primarily to bonds, deposits, and non-standard assets, using longer lock-in periods and smoothing fund mechanisms to reduce net value volatility. However, as bond yield benchmarks decline and high-yield non-standard assets decrease, the room for returns is steadily narrowing.

The income smoothing fund is a distinctive mechanism unique to pension wealth management products, distinguishing them from ordinary wealth management products. Its main purpose is to "save in good times and spend in bad times" to improve investors' holding experience. The mechanism works as follows: when the actual return of a product exceeds the performance benchmark, the manager proportionally sets aside excess returns into the smoothing fund account; when returns fall short of the benchmark or net value comes under pressure, funds are withdrawn from the account to supplement the product, effectively "cutting peaks and filling valleys"; if there is a remaining balance in the account upon product maturity, it is fully returned to investors.

Recently, some institutions have begun to withdraw from the smoothing fund to further stabilize product net values. For example, China Everbright Wealth Management issued five announcements regarding the use of smoothing funds in early September.

More notably, the "safety cushion" may be thinning. For instance, a review of the 2025 audit report for CCB Wealth Management's "Anxiang" fixed-income monthly open-ended (minimum 5-year holding) pension wealth management product shows that in 2025, the product's smoothing fund account withdrew 1.5888 million yuan and replenished the product (including interest) with 5.7758 million yuan. By the end of 2025, the balance of this special account had fallen to zero. Additionally, the Q2 2026 and semi-annual report for BlackRock CCB Wealth Management's "Bei Anxin 2032" pension wealth management product Phase 1 (closed-end) shows that as of the end of Q2 2026, the product's smoothing fund account balance was only 4.38 yuan.

Investment Research Capability Becomes Key Competitive Factor

Pension wealth management is shifting from competition over licenses to competition over investment research capabilities. Only those capable of long-duration allocation and volatility management that can withstand market cycles will turn this trillion-yuan market into a sustainable long-term business. Analysts believe that current outstanding pension wealth management products are still predominantly 5-year closed-end, fixed-income enhanced products, with a weak pension attribute. The next phase should better reflect long-term asset allocation capabilities suited to the pension demographic.

Xue Huiru, Director of Financial Institutions Ratings at Fitch Ratings Asia-Pacific, believes that in the short term, the main source of new investors for pension wealth management products will still be the conversion of long-term funds from existing bank wealth management clients, particularly middle-aged groups with strong pension reserve needs. The future focus of industry competition will not be a simple contest of product quantity or scale expansion, but rather whether product development capabilities, customer service models, and risk control systems can truly adapt to the differentiated needs of various customer groups.

Gao Ge, General Manager of the Multi-Asset Investment Department at BOCOM Wealth Management, and others have written that future pension wealth management products could further expand their investment scope and regions to enhance investment returns and reduce portfolio risk. Additionally, product forms, types, and maturities could be further diversified, with the development of longer-term products to fully meet the multifaceted needs of clients.

Editor: Li Yifan