AIA completes product suite with PRS funds

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KUALA LUMPUR: American International Assurance Bhd (AIA) yesterday rolled out its Private Retirement Scheme (PRS), further augmenting its comprehensive suite of products, which aims to address the protection, savings and retirement needs of its over 2.6 million policyholders.

In a statement yesterday, AIA said its has four PRS funds that cater to different age groups.

It said these comprise the growth fund for those below 40 years of age, the moderate fund for those between 40 to 49 years, the conservative fund tailored for those above 50 years, and the Islamic moderate fund, a syariah-compliant fund.

“The funds are invested in equities as well as fixed income instruments, in varied percentages according to the different risk profiles,” it added.

AIA Pension and Asset Management Sdn Bhd (AIA PAM) head of PRS Tan Jin Teik said the retirement funding market in Malaysia is at an early stage, and remains fairly untapped.

He said as at end-March this year, only 24,000 Malaysians had signed up for this retirement fund option.

In terms of market potential, Malaysia also has over two million working adults who are self-employed and not covered under the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) scheme.

“Our PRS can also complement a person’s existing retirement savings in EPF and potentially offer higher returns,” he said.

AIA PAM is the fund management arm of AIA Malaysia, which is one of the two life insurance companies to be awarded the PRS licence by the Securities Commission last year.

It will also be managing the PRS funds.

“We will be leveraging on AIA’s tied agency force of close to 17,000 life planners who are trained to help consumers plan their protection, savings and retirement needs in a holistic manner to market our PRS funds and educate our customers on the benefits of PRS,” Tan added. — Bernama