Which ETFs a Korean pension account can and cannot buy
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The same ETF can be buyable in a brokerage account and blocked in a pension account. Tax-advantaged wrappers come with limits on what goes inside.
Pension accounts curate the menu
Korean pension savings accounts and IRPs exist to fund retirement, so regulation limits what may be held inside them. Unlike a plain brokerage account, you cannot buy anything that happens to be listed.
The direction of those limits is consistent: screen out products where principal can be destroyed quickly, and products carrying large derivative exposure.
What follows is the general framework. Specific eligibility varies by provider and account type and the rules change, so confirm with your provider before buying.
Leveraged and inverse are excluded
2x and 3x leveraged funds and inverse funds cannot be bought in a pension account, because products with large derivative risk exposure are ruled out.
That is less an inconvenience than the point of the rule. Leveraged products are built as short-term tools measured in days; a pension account is measured in decades. It is the combination where decay does the most damage.
Some derivative-using products, such as covered call funds, may still be eligible. The test is the size of derivative risk exposure rather than derivative use itself, so eligibility has to be checked product by product.
IRPs cap risk assets
An IRP, and a defined-contribution plan, may hold at most 70% of the balance in risk assets. The remaining 30% must sit in products classified as safe, such as deposits or bond-type funds.
Equity ETFs count as risk assets, so an IRP cannot be filled to 100% with them.
A pension savings account has no such 70% cap. The two are often lumped together as 'pension accounts' but differ here, so plan allocation per account rather than in aggregate.
Bond-mixed products classified as safe assets can be used to satisfy the cap. Classification varies by product, so check the documentation.
Foreign-listed ETFs are off the menu
ETFs listed on US exchanges cannot be bought directly inside a pension account. Only domestically listed products trade there.
Domestically listed funds tracking the same index are available instead. Several track the S&P 500 or Nasdaq 100, so the underlying exposure is generally obtainable.
But a local fund on the same index differs in expense ratio, currency hedging and size. A shared index name does not make it the same product — check fees and hedging separately.
This article is general information, not investment advice. Investment decisions and responsibility are your own.