Schroders, winner of Fund Launch of the Year in Hong Kong in Asia Asset Management’s Best of the Best Awards 2026, has been recognised for a product aimed at one of the market’s most pressing investment challenges: helping retail investors achieve more resilient retirement outcomes in the face of inflation, healthcare costs, market volatility and longevity risk.
That objective sits at the heart of the retirement share class of the Schroder Flexi Total Return Fund, launched in Hong Kong in 2025. Jason Yu, chief executive officer of Schroders Hong Kong, says the product was developed in response to concerns identified in Schroders 2024 Hong Kong Retirement Survey, which found that investors are especially worried about higher-than-expected healthcare costs, inflation eroding the value of their assets, the possibility of a major market downturn and the risk of outliving their savings.
“To address those investor concerns from a product angle, we launched the retirement share class of the Schroder Flexi Total Return Fund in Hong Kong to offer a more resilient retirement solution to retail investors that aims to balance long-term growth with a regular income stream, while seeking to limit drawdowns through a diversified, actively managed multi-asset approach,” Yu says. The strategy has gained strong traction in the market. Yu notes that assets under management for the fund exceeded US$1.35 billion as of end-January 2026, reflecting growing demand for solutions that look beyond simple accumulation and focus instead on sustainable income and risk management throughout retirement. In Hong Kong, where retirement planning has traditionally centred on building wealth, that marks a notable shift in investor priorities towards more outcome-oriented strategies. For investors approaching or entering retirement, the challenge is to preserve growth potential while generating regular income and keeping drawdowns under control. Yu says Schroders’ answer has been to combine broad diversification with dynamic asset allocation. “To deliver multiple investment objectives within a single solution, our Asia Multi-Asset Investment Team has embedded two critical elements into the fund’s design: broad diversification beyond traditional equities and bonds, and a dynamic asset allocation approach across and within asset classes, grounded in in-depth research,” he says. “Together, these elements aim to deliver a smoother return profile while actively managing downside risks.” That flexibility becomes especially valuable in periods of market stress. Yu says the portfolio can strengthen its defensive positioning when risks rise, helping to limit drawdowns, while also identifying opportunities created by market dislocations. As conditions improve, the strategy can rotate towards areas better placed to capture upside, supported by a risk-aware framework and forward-looking scenario analysis. For investors who still need market participation but are less able to absorb sharp reversals, that adaptability is central to the proposition. He also points to the portfolio’s reduction in risk in early 2025 amid uncertainty around the global trade order, followed by active repositioning as conditions improved and growth momentum stabilised. The fund’s success also points to a wider shift in Hong Kong’s retirement market. Yu says investors are looking beyond pre-retirement wealth accumulation and focusing more closely on how to generate sustainable income, preserve liquidity and manage risk over longer retirement periods. Partnership and education have helped support that shift. Schroders worked with a major global retail bank on the launch, and Yu says the relationship mattered not only for distribution but also for investor understanding and confidence. The two organisations developed bilingual educational and thought leadership material on retirement investing, income and total return for Hong Kong investors. Looking ahead, Yu believes the biggest challenge over the next three to five years will be serving an investor base that is both rapidly ageing and increasingly diverse, while helping individuals ensure their savings last through longer retirements. “The greatest opportunity is to provide clearly positioned investment solutions that combine capital growth potential, income, and risk management, all supported by better investor engagement and education,” he concludes. 
Managing retirement trade-offs
A broader retirement opportunity
