After doing the maths, a local employee with an MPF balance of around HK$1.5 million found that more than HK$20,000 a year was going to fund managers and the MPF platform — and that the account never shows how much is actually deducted each month, prompting a hard rethink. Employees point out that while the administrative fee on the eMPF platform has fallen to 0.29%, fund managers can still charge management fees of anywhere from 0.5% to 1.2%; these are amortised annually with no monthly figure shown, whereas the same index fund (say, one tracking the broad US market) would cost far less if held directly.
The MPF system also mandates employer and employee contributions through a designated platform and limits individual choice to the trustee's fund list. With no standardised disclosure of fee rates, performance attribution, or the cost of buying equivalents directly, employees face an information gap even when optimising within the system.
For those who have contributed for over 20 years, MPF is meant to be a retirement safeguard — yet once the balance reaches a certain level, the percentage-based fee compounds into a structural drain where the more you accumulate, the more is taken. Fee caps, mandatory transparency, and a direct-purchase alternative have yet to be seriously reviewed at the policy level.