Mr Peter Crewe, Managing Director

Since the launch in 2000 of Hong Kong's compulsory retirement benefit plan - the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF), many schemes and funds have become available on the market for both employers and employees to choose from. However, making the right choice can still prove to be a daunting task, as not everyone finds retirement planning simple and most rely on their MPF service provider to provide products and services to cater for their retirement plans. To this end, AIA-JF Mandatory Provident Fund Services, a leader in this field, is a strategic business alliance formed between American International Assurance Company, Limited (AIA) and JF Asset Management Limited (JF) in 1999 that offers comprehensive MPF products and services to their members.

These two companies, each with its own track record, has been operating in Hong Kong for over 30 years. AIA is Southeast Asia's largest life insurer whose core business is providing insurance and retirement services, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of American International Group, Inc. (AIG), the world's leading international insurance and financial services organisation. JF, a part of JP Morgan Asset Management, founded and headquartered in Hong Kong is a forerunner of investment in Asia. Together, they seek to bring the ‘best of all worlds’ to their customers by bringing simple, effective, completely flexible MPF products and services. They provide clients with total peace of mind, as they meet their MPF obligations, together with the highest quality services and products.

Like many service providers at the beginning, AIA-JF started with five portfolios for its customers to choose from. At that time, most investors were very conservative and were inclined to go for guaranteed funds and capital preservation funds in making investment choices. The majority were also reluctant to make additional voluntary contributions to their retirement plans. But recent reports have shown that when it comes time to retire, most funds are insufficient for the golden years. This has prompted people to take another look at their retirement plans. Recognising this predicament at an early stage, AIA-JF started to launch additional funds that are more flexible and, as a result, has designed a series of MPF products – some 18 investment funds, ranging from high-risk to conservative low-risk to meet individual investment needs.

AIA-JF was the first to introduce a Greater China Equity Fund into the Hong Kong MPF market as well as pioneering socially responsible investment with its Green Fund. AIA-JF also set up a multi-million dollar investment in state-of-the-art technology to make sure that its clients have easy access to information via its Call Centre, Interactive Voice Response System and Interactive Website.

Peter Crewe, Managing Director of AIA Pension & Trustee Co. Ltd (AIAPT), stresses “Whichever fund you choose for your retirement plan, you must think long term in the region of 15 to 20 years time zone. With the varying economic cycles, you will achieve continued growth if you choose carefully.

“This year, we launched another two new products: Manager's Choice Fund and the LifeEasy Service. The Manager’s Choice Fund has been available since August. It is a portfolio managed fund, which allocate its assets in a dynamic combination composed of equities, bonds, money market instruments and cash, and such allocation may change based on the economic and market conditions. It seeks to achieve long term capital appreciation through a professionally managed portfolio, by investing in two or more pooled investment funds and diversified throughout various markets globally.

“Over the previous eight years, MPF members have experienced several investment cycles and market situations. While they may have become more investment-savvy, most people still lack the time to review and evaluate their investment portfolios regularly. The uniqueness of Manager’s Choice Fund lies with the investment managers’ dynamic approach to allocate investment assets in accordance to the market situation to maximise capital appreciation. A comprehensive bouquet of fund choices, meaning they can diversify their MPF investments to suit risk appetites and unique objectives.

“The LifeEasy Service, on the other hand, is an automatic asset rebalancing service dedicated to safeguarding funds as they accrue assets towards their retirement. Portfolios will be automatically rebalanced with the predefined investment mixes, saving time and effort in managing funds.”

The LifeEasy Service saves time and makes the management of retirement nest eggs easy. Once successfully enrolled, the investment portfolio(s) are reallocated based on age band or number of years until the end of the desired savings years. Beginning at the highest risk fund selection, 100 percent World Equity Fund, the assets will slowly decrease in its risk level until it is invested primarily in the Global Bond Fund and Guaranteed Portfolio.

Crewe explains, “As you get closer to your retirement age or end of your desired savings years, exposure to risk is gradually minimised by a decreasing proportion of the World Equity Fund. However, 20 percent of your assets will remain in the World Equity Fund, as this will help you to capture potential capital appreciation.

“With these two newly launched initiatives, we feel that for the time being we have developed a good platform of MPF products already – the best in its class. Our immediate plan for next year is to continue to communicate with our members about their needs with diligence by undertaking surveys and queries as well as enhancing our services further by delivering what our customers want.”

This year the company won the Bronze Award in the Hong Kong Management Association’s (HKMA) Quality Award. This prestigious business accolade is not simply bestowed upon any company. Since its beginning in 1991, the HKMA Quality Awards are only for outstanding management performance and service excellence. Detailed inspections into the company include several criteria that have to be fulfilled. Crewe says, “The detailed checks by an outside third party also helped us recognise our strengths and pinpoint areas for improvement which is in line with our plans for the coming years.”

The strong growth of AIA-JF and its ability to provide the highest quality service in the past few years has elevated its status to be one of the most prominent MPF service providers in Hong Kong.
- Thomas Lim

PHILOSOPHY
Peter Crewe's personal philosophy on the company’s success and his expectations for the future:
"The most important criteria in reaching success is to have a mission and set a direction while doing it with integrity. I often tell my staff to always do the right thing. There is a high likelihood there will be a recession. For anyone selecting an MPF scheme, they need to do it with prudence. The market is very volatile now. Investors need to look towards long term investments instead of the quick short term period to benefit; and to diversify by spreading over different markets and different types of investments as shares and bonds will always go up as well as down."

FAST FACTS

2008
• HKMA Quality Award - Bronze Award
• CAPITAL WEEKLY Service Awards
• Superbrands - Hong Kong's Choice
• Lipper Fund Awards Hong Kong - Best Fund over 5 Years: Equity Europe
2007
• CAPITAL CEO Supreme Service Awards
2006
• Best Practice Awards - Innovation
2005
• Asian Investor Achievement Award - Best MPF Master Trust
2 Years Running:
• The 7th & 8th CAPITAL Outstanding Enterprise Awards - Best MPF and Retirement Service Provider
• Gold WasteWi$e Logo
3 Consecutive Years:
• Lipper Fund Awards Hong Kong 2006 - 2008 – Best Fund over 3 Years: Equity Europe
• Caring Company 2005 - 08
• Hong Kong Business High Flyers - Outstanding Enterprises Award 2005 - 07