The client, a global asset manager with a strong presence in North America and Asia, had produced a well received white paper on the challenges presented by Asia’s aging population. As part of their thought leadership programme, a second report was required, aimed at two main audiences: institutional clients in Asia and journalists.
The purpose of this piece was twofold. Firstly, it needed to demonstrate the client’s profound knowledge of the Asian markets, to explore the preparedness for retirement in each Asian country and to compare and contrast retirement preparedness within Asia to that of more developed nations in the Western world. Secondly, the report would act as a platform to market the client’s products and would form part of a campaign to distinguish the client’s already high profile in individual Asian countries.
Responding to this brief, the central theme of our report was a retirement readiness index, composed of seven/eight different metrics (economic and demographic), which estimated a country’s readiness for retirement. This, supplied as a spreadsheet, was our main source of information. As well as analysing the data, we worked closely with the client’s economists in the US, in order to arrive at some insightful conclusions.
Following the successful completion of this report, we wrote several further pieces as part of the client’s thought leadership programme. These focused mainly on fixed income related topics, including articles on securitised debt and emerging market bonds.