"Recently, the net value of my financial product has experienced a significant decline. What happened? Should I redeem it?" Recently, Ms. He, who works in Beijing, showed the financial product she invested in to a 21st Century Economic Report journalist on her mobile phone and raised a question.
After taking the mobile phone and checking the announcement of the financial product, it was understood that the decline in the net value of the product she invested in was due to dividends. Observing the net value data of the product over a long period revealed that the net value of the financial product had experienced relatively large declines several times, and each time it was related to dividends. After hearing this, Ms. He said she felt much more at ease and stated that she would continue to hold the product.
Regular dividend distribution is a design of financial products, mainly to balance the long-term nature of investment with liquidity, which is more common in retirement-type financial products.
Retirement financial products were first piloted and issued at the end of 2021, characterized by stability, long-term nature, and inclusiveness. According to the Financial Regulatory Authority, currently, 11 wealth management companies have issued products in 10 pilot cities, with approximately 470,000 subscribing investors and a scale exceeding 100 billion yuan. How has the dividend distribution of retirement financial products been since their issuance?
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Most retirement financial products have distributed dividends.
After the new regulations on asset management, financial products gradually became net value-oriented, and the changes in the net value of financial products represent the fluctuation of the product's returns, making investors more sensitive to net values. The "China Banking Wealth Management Market Semi-Annual Report (2024 H1)" shows that as of the end of June this year, the scale of net value-type financial products was 27.84 trillion yuan, accounting for 97.61%.
Retirement financial products have a long-term nature, with the shortest investment period generally being 5 years, and some even reaching 10 years, which has a certain impact on investors' liquidity needs. Therefore, many products have designed clauses for regular dividend distribution.
On December 3, 2021, as the first batch of retirement financial product pilot institutions, ICBC Wealth Management, CCB Wealth Management, CMB Wealth Management, and Everbright Wealth Management each filed a retirement financial product on the China Wealth Management Network. As the first batch of retirement financial products, retirement and dividend distribution are the main features of these products.Taking the "CCB Wealth Management Anxiang Fixed Income Closed Pension Wealth Management Product 2021 No. 1" product filed with CCB Wealth Management as an example, the product has a dividend cycle of monthly distribution. The announcement shows that the product has conducted 9 distributions this year, with the 9th dividend date being September 20th, distributing 0.15 RMB in cash for every 100 units of the wealth management plan. The dividend amount for the previous two months was also 0.15 RMB per 100 units.
According to the product's 2024 second quarter and semi-annual investment management report, as of the report date, the product's share net value was 1.053783, and the cumulative net value was 1.093783, with the difference being the total dividend.
The "Yiyang Ruiyuan Steady No. 1 Pension" product filed with China Merchants Wealth Management adopts a quarterly dividend distribution after half a year of establishment. The product has already distributed dividends 9 times, with the most recent dividend distribution benchmark date being September 2nd, distributing 0.006252 RMB in cash for each unit of the wealth management plan. Product information shows that on September 13th, the product's unit net value was 1.0237, and the cumulative net value was 1.0738. The cash distribution amounts for the first 8 times were 0.005099 RMB, 0.005000 RMB, 0.005003 RMB, 0.007500 RMB, 0.007500 RMB, 0.005000 RMB, 0.005000 RMB, and 0.003750 RMB, respectively, maintaining basic stability.
The "Yixiang Sunshine Pension Wealth Management Product Orange 2026 No. 1" filed with Everbright Wealth Management has also conducted multiple dividend distributions, with the most recent cash dividend payment date being June 28th, distributing a dividend of 0.0040 RMB per unit share.
Information from China Wealth Management Network shows that currently, the net value of 51 pension wealth management products is greater than 1. At the same time, there are 14 products whose share net value is the same as the cumulative net value, indicating that these products have not yet conducted dividends. The issuing institutions include ICBC Wealth Management, BOC Wealth Management, and BlackRock CCB Wealth Management.

"Pension wealth management products are not required to conduct regular dividends. First, it depends on whether there are dividend clauses and the settings of these clauses in the product说明书; secondly, the product management institution can also decide whether to distribute dividends based on actual situations, and whether the unit net value is greater than 1 is an important indicator," said a wealth management company insider to the reporter.
The reporter noticed that the CCB Wealth Management pension wealth management product说明书 clearly states that after the product is established for one year, when the product's share net value exceeds the initial sales face value, the product manager can decide whether to distribute dividends monthly based on the actual operation of the product; the Everbright Wealth Management pension wealth management product说明书 also clearly states that after the product is established, under the condition that the wealth management product share net value is greater than 1 RMB on the dividend distribution benchmark date, the product manager has the right to distribute dividends at least once every half year.
It has been 20 months since the issuance of new products.Unlike continuous dividend payments, since the issuance of the 51st retirement financial product in January 2023, no new products have been issued in the past 20 months.
The introduction of retirement financial products is closely related to the deepening aging of society. In September 2021, when the former China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) issued the "Notice on Carrying Out the Pilot of Retirement Financial Products," it stated that retirement financial products are aimed at promoting the rich development of the third pillar of pension financial products and meeting the diverse pension needs of the people. With the positive market response and good start of the retirement financial pilot, in February 2022, the former CBIRC issued the "Notice on Expanding the Scope of the Retirement Financial Product Pilot," expanding the pilot scope from "four places and four institutions" to "ten places and ten institutions."
In January of this year, the Financial Regulatory Administration disclosed that retirement financial products are financial products that use asset allocation strategies that meet the needs of retirement to achieve long-term and stable growth of investors' retirement funds. Since the pilot started in September 2021, 11 financial management companies have issued 51 products in 10 pilot cities, with about 470,000 subscribing investors and a scale exceeding 100 billion yuan.
"The Financial Regulatory Administration earnestly implements the important decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on developing a multi-level and multi-pillar pension insurance system, and carries out the pilot of retirement financial products in a stable and orderly manner according to the work idea of 'small steps and slow running, overall gradual progress'." In July this year, when the Financial Regulatory Administration's Asset Management Institution Supervision Department talked about the pilot of retirement financial products, it said that it is currently urgently drafting the "Regulatory Rating and Graded Classification Supervision Measures for Financial Management Companies," intending to include the situation of carrying out retirement financial products and other pension financial business as an important consideration in the regulatory rating of financial management companies, and to implement classified supervision of financial management companies based on the results of the regulatory rating.
The Asset Management Institution Supervision Department of the Financial Regulatory Administration also stated that it will continue to promote the pilot of retirement financial products in a stable and orderly manner, improve and perfect the regulatory policies related to retirement financial products, study and formulate the "Regulatory Rating and Graded Classification Supervision Measures for Financial Management Companies," actively guide financial management companies to practice the concept of long-term investment and value investment, and better meet the diverse pension financial needs of the people.
At present, there are a total of 31 financial management companies, which means that there are still 20 financial management companies that have not obtained the qualification for issuing retirement financial products. Reporters learned that many financial management companies are actively applying for the qualification to issue retirement financial products. "We are actively applying for the qualification to issue retirement financial products and are planning and constructing the retirement financial product system at the same time," a person from a joint-stock bank's financial management company told the reporter.
Personal pension financial products, which are closely related to retirement financial products, are also being issued steadily. So far, there are a total of 27 products, and as of early July, investors have purchased a total amount of more than 4.7 billion yuan.
The Financial Regulatory Administration mentioned in the "Guiding Opinions on the Banking and Insurance Industry to Do a Good Job in the Financial 'Five Major Articles'" that it is necessary to develop the third pillar of pension insurance and support the development of savings, financial management, insurance, and other products with pension attributes. "With the continuous improvement of system construction, the continuous enrichment of product supply, and the continuous enhancement of personal pension awareness, retirement financial products and personal pension financial products are expected to gradually form a mutually reinforcing and coordinated development pattern, and the prospects for China's retirement financial market are broad." A person from a bank's asset management department believes.