The second annual Eastspring Growth and Income Index and investor behaviour survey shows 70% of Singapore respondents not having sufficient income for their retirement and about 40% who wished they had started retirement planning earlier.
“Over half the investors polled told us they are planning to change their investment strategy, with expected net inflows into income-oriented funds,” said Koh Hui-Jian, head of retail sales, Eastspring Investments.
Key holdings among Singapore income fund holders in the next few months are likely to be emerging market bonds (37%), Asian high dividend equities (37%) and Asian bonds (31%).
Apart from retirement planning fears, market uncertainty was clearly a major concern among investors.
“Along with fears about retirement, more than two-thirds of respondents reported unease regarding an anticipated interest rate hike and said they would change their investment strategy or re-allocate their portfolio if there was a hike in interest rates,” Koh said.
The index shows current investors in mutual funds are likely to shift to an emerging markets focus in the next six months as part of their overall portfolio management. However, one-third of their investment capital is likely to remain allocated within Singapore, demonstrating a strong home market investment bias.
The index, first unveiled in October last year, is a score that describes the net direction of preferences of mutual fund investors (including those intending to invest in mutual funds) as either shifting toward income funds or shifting toward growth funds in the next six months.
The index measures mutual fund investor appetite on a scale of 0 to 100 with 0 being income exposure and 100 growth exposure. The index score remained income-oriented overall with a marginal rise from 43 to 44.
In Singapore, the study was conducted in July and involved online interviews with 300 investors.
Overall, the study covered responses from 1800 investors in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia.
Eastspring Investments, part of Prudential Corporation Asia manages about $115bn in assets under management as of 30 June.
