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/ Toss Securities

Toss Securities is eyeing an expansion into wealth management (WM), a segment traditionally accessible only to a small number of high-net-worth clients. Having taken its first step into the WM business with a tax-advantaged pension savings account, the company is now pursuing a wrap account business as well.

Since Toss Securities has no in-person staff, it's expected to take the approach of adapting proven advisory models to a mobile app format. In response, established brokerages led by Mirae Asset Securities are moving first to roll out wrap products that can be easily subscribed to via mobile app, working to build up their customer base.

According to the securities industry on the 5th, Toss Securities has created "Advisory Silo," a dedicated organization under its WM department focused on wrap and advisory services. Under the motto of making WM services — once open only to a select few — easily accessible to everyone, the unit plans to build out the operating systems needed for wrap products.

Wrap products are divided into discretionary and advisory types: discretionary wrap accounts receive management authority to build and operate individually tailored portfolios, while advisory wrap accounts provide investment advice only. Rather than the traditional branch- and private banker-centered sales model, Toss Securities is reportedly considering an "advisory marketplace" service that connects investment strategies from major domestic and international advisory firms and AI algorithms within the app.

Under this model, users could compare and use a variety of expert advisory strategies with small amounts of money directly through the app, without visiting a branch or depositing a large lump sum. Given that wrap accounts have traditionally been branch-based products aimed at clients with tens of millions to hundreds of millions of won in assets, Toss Securities' move is seen as potentially reshaping the market by lowering the barrier to entry for wealth management.

A Toss Securities official said, "At this point, we are not premising this on the launch of any specific product or service."

Industry observers see Toss Securities as pursuing a phased strategy — first expanding the base of long-term investors through pension savings accounts, then moving into the higher-value wrap market. On July 24, Toss Securities launched its first in-house product, a pension savings account, formally entering the WM market. The account was designed to make pension investing accessible even for small-scale investors, offering a report showing tax credit progress and estimated tax savings, along with features for ETF investing, stock accumulation, and automatic transfers.

In response, established brokerages are also strengthening their own mobile app-based, easy-signup WM offerings to defend their turf. Mirae Asset Securities announced that day the launch of "Retirement Pension Robo-Wrap," a service available for individual retirement pension (IRP) accounts. The service uses a proven algorithm to build asset allocation portfolios suited to market conditions and execute trades automatically, and can be signed up for through the company's mobile trading system (MTS). A Mirae Asset official said the service is focused on giving even investors unfamiliar with investing access to specialized WM expertise.

                                                                                                               Park Isak