Cumulative returns close to 13% over the past three years! Corporate annuity scale exceeds 4.2 trillion, which investment institutions stand out?

Interface News Reporter | Du Meng

On March 23, the Social Insurance Fund Supervision Bureau of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security released the “2025 National Enterprise Annuity Fund Business Data Summary” (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”). In 2025, the enterprise annuity market continued its steady development, with all indicators reaching new highs.

By the end of 2025, the number of established enterprises reached 177,854, an increase of 11.66% from the previous year; the number of participating employees rose to 33.4299 million, a net increase of 1.01 million; the accumulated fund size surpassed 4 trillion yuan, reaching 42,050.03 billion yuan, a growth of 15.45% compared to last year.

In 2025, 3.6882 million people received benefits, totaling 116.213 billion yuan. Among them, 97.2% of recipients used installment payments, accounting for 94.1% of the total payout amount. Installment payments have become the dominant method of benefit distribution in recent years.

To encourage long-term investment of funds, the assessment mechanism for enterprise annuities is shifting toward a long-term focus. Data shows that by the end of 2025, the net investment assets of enterprise annuities nationwide reached 41,691.48 billion yuan, with 6,118 investment portfolios established. The weighted average return for the year was 6.69%, and the three-year cumulative return reached 12.94%.

As of the end of 2025, 12 institutions served as trustees for enterprise annuities, including China Life Pension Insurance, Ping An Pension Insurance, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Taikang Pension Insurance, Taiping Pension Insurance, Yangtze River Pension Insurance, CITIC Trust, CCB Pension Management Co., Ltd., China Merchants Bank, Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, and China People’s Pension Insurance. They managed a total of 3,194.155 billion yuan, further increasing market concentration.

Among them, China Life Pension Insurance managed assets worth 959.707 billion yuan, serving 43,000 corporate clients. Ping An Pension Insurance and ICBC Trust managed 618.249 billion yuan and 373.389 billion yuan respectively, ranking second and third.

From the perspective of investment managers, by the end of 2025, 22 managers collectively managed assets of 4,145.638 billion yuan, with a three-year comprehensive cumulative return of 12.94%.

Among these, 11 are public fund management institutions, including HFT Fund, China Asset Management, Southern Fund, E Fund, Harvest Fund, China Merchants Fund, Fullgoal Fund, Bosera Fund, Yinhua Fund, Guotai Fund, and ICBC Credit Suisse Fund; six are insurance companies, including Ping An Pension, Taiping Pension, Yangtze River Pension, China Life Pension, China People’s Pension, and New China Pension.

In terms of investment scale, Taikang Asset Management leads with 715.384 billion yuan managed, overseeing 922 pension portfolios. China Life Pension manages 525.155 billion yuan with 910 portfolios. ICBC Credit Suisse Fund, Ping An Pension, and E Fund manage 395.239 billion yuan, 393.688 billion yuan, and 335.395 billion yuan respectively, with portfolio counts of 316, 623, and 428.

Enterprise annuity portfolios are divided into single plans and collective plans. A single plan involves a trustee managing a single employer’s (enterprise’s) fund separately, while a collective plan involves a trustee managing multiple employers’ funds collectively. Both types are further divided into fixed income and equity-including portfolios.

From the perspective of fixed income and equity investments, there are significant differences among institutions, reflecting a diversified professional investment landscape.

In fixed income portfolios of single plans, the three-year cumulative return for enterprise annuities nationwide is 10.91%. CITIC Securities and Huatai Asset Management achieved 12.62%, Yangtze River Pension 12.19%, and China Life Pension 11.85%. Guotai Fund, Bosera Fund, HFT Fund, and ICBC Credit Suisse Fund had similar returns, at 11.73%, 11.39%, 11.38%, and 11.13%.

In equity-including portfolios of single plans, the three-year cumulative return is 13.41%. ICBC Credit Suisse leads with 19.3%, followed by Guotai Fund at 16.84%, Taikang Asset Management at 15.7%, Yangtze River Pension at 14.07%, and Ping An Pension, CITIC Securities, and E Fund with 13.5%, 13.41%, and 13.15% respectively.

In fixed income portfolios of collective plans, the three-year cumulative return is 10.95%. Guotai Fund’s return is highest at 13.43%, followed by CITIC Securities at 12.8%, and Yangtze River Pension at 11.85%. China Life Pension, Huatai Asset Management, ICBC Credit Suisse Fund, and China Asset Management have returns of 11.33%, 11.26%, 11.06%, and 10.78%.

In equity-including portfolios of collective plans, the three-year cumulative return is 12.01%. Among 18 managers with returns over 10%, ICBC Credit Suisse leads with 18.51%, followed by Guotai Fund at 16.64%, Taikang Asset Management at 13.64%, China International Capital Corporation at 13.4%, and Southern Fund at 12.83%.

On January 5 of this year, the “Guiding Opinions on Improving the Long-Cycle Evaluation Mechanism for Pension Funds” was officially issued. The core is to promote a long-term evaluation of over three years, with key rules clarifying that contract terms should generally be no less than three years and that short-term performance within one year should not lead to reductions in existing funds. The document mentions extending contract and assessment cycles and optimizing evaluation mechanisms to establish a scientific, reasonable, and well-defined long-term evaluation system for pension funds.

“Changes in the evaluation mechanism will directly drive adjustments in asset allocation strategies,” said Huayuan Securities. They believe that as the scale of pensions expands, leading institutions may further strengthen their competitive edge by increasing their allocation to equities and enhancing differentiated capabilities.

In the current low-interest-rate environment, relying solely on fixed income assets is no longer sufficient to meet long-term retirement return needs. How to fully leverage the patience capital in capital markets and live up to the trust of enterprises and employees is a test of each enterprise annuity investment management institution’s investment capability.

“Especially now, with declining interest rates and the yields from bonds and other fixed income assets continuously decreasing, whether fund companies can develop all-weather pension investment capabilities, leverage platform support, and strengthen talent teams may become the key to winning in enterprise pension business,” said a head of a public fund product department to Interface News. The company is upgrading mechanisms such as diversified investments, deviation control, and dynamic rebalancing to enhance the adaptability of pension investments across different market conditions, aiming to achieve excess returns at favorable moments while avoiding extreme situations and comprehensive pressure, thereby increasing the sense of gain among enterprise pension clients.