From birth to brokerage: Why South Korea is seeing a surge in infant investment accounts
South Korean parents are increasingly opening investment accounts for their children to leverage long-term compounding and AI-driven market growth. Many families are shifting away from traditional savings toward U.S. and domestic equity markets to secure their children's financial future.
Why it matters
This trend reflects a broader cultural shift toward early-age financial literacy and generational wealth planning in response to global market volatility.
South Korean parents are ramping up efforts to give their children a head start in building long-term wealth by opening investment accounts even before they learn to crawl out of their cribs.
Brokerage accounts of kids under the age of one have nearly tripled from a year ago to about 15,000 in June at Mirae Asset Securities, the country's largest brokerage by market cap.
New accounts openings for those under 9 have soared nearly 60% to around 185,000, the brokerage said, excluding duplicate accounts.
That enthusiasm, triggered by Korea's AI-powered market rally, has sparked a trend toward generational wealth-planning, though the volatility in the domestic stock market has prompted investors to look for value beyond the border as well.
Lee Hye-won, who works as a nurse, told CNBC that she and her spouse believed investing long term was a better choice than keeping money in savings or deposit accounts.
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