This was according to Cerulli’s asset manager poll in September, which asked which factors are important in gathering retail interest in retirement products.
But according to Ng, the main challenge, over and above the complexity of products, lies in maintaining consistent fund performance and being able to beat inflation, a key concern particularly among retirees.
In terms of product features, distribution and decumulation share classes will be increasingly important to investors, especially those closer to retirement.
Indeed, rapidly aging markets such as Singapore have stepped up efforts to offer these features in products aimed at retirement savings.
Global sentiment
This chimes with research this year from Natixis, whose global survey of individual investors revealed a "critical lack of knowledge" on how interest rates and inflation might affect investment performance.
Moreover, despite the fact markets have gone from high returns with low risk, to lower returns with greater risk since 2020, "investors have yet to make a meaningful adjustment to their return assumptions and reassess where their real risks lie".
Most major indexes posted losses in 2022 (in USD), including 7 per cent for the FTSE, 18.1 per cent for the S&P, and 12.6 per cent for the Hang Seng, according to Bloomberg data.
This meant investors have moderated return expectations.
Yet Natixis' 18-page report, co-authored by CoreData and the Natixis team, including Stephanie Giardina, programme manager, revealed while investors felt that inflation was generally a shorter-term financial challenge, many felt it could have a significant impact on long-term financial success.
The study revealed 66 per cent of global investors surveyed say inflation has significantly hurt their ability to save for retirement, and 55 per cent said they were saving less, due to the higher cost of everyday expenses (see image, above).
Those countries where investors are less fearful of inflation include Japan, where inflation, at 25 per cent, ranked behind recession (42 per cent) and war (39 per cent) in terms of fears; and Hong Kong, where investors were worried more about market volatility (41 per cent) than inflation, at 38 per cent.
In fact, only in Japan did failing to meet goals come out as the top investment risk, at 21 per cent.
There was good news for advisers in the report. Despite the inconsistent views on the basics, 51 said they needed professional advice for their investments.
The reality has gone from “set it and forget it” to “go get professional advice", according to the authors.
They said: "[Investors] have good instincts about where to get solid advice, and it’s likely they will need more of that as the next wave of economic and market pressures changes what they see today."
