"Home for care": Localized exploration for niche pension approach

Abstract

As a supplementary pension approach, "home for care" already caught extensive attention in China more than ten years ago, and private organizations, government bodies, banks and the insurance sector have all carried out a series of practices and explorations. But in general, the public demand for this approach is largely restricted due to traditional ideas and many scruples, and the financial institutions are neither capable nor willing enough to finance this approach owing to a string of risks. Besides, the auxiliary policies haven't been fully formulated and the institutional environment isn't mature enough, so the "home for care" approach has developed quite slowly in the country. According to foreign experience, public support and recognition, government engagement and legal guarantee, mature industrial form, and diverse product design are all important guarantees for the development of "home for care" and are worth drawing on and improving. In the future, "home for care" will be a niche approach in China, but the potential market is not to be underestimated. We should specify the government functions, improve the institutional environment for this approach, encourage the cooperation of multiple parties, better "home for care" products, promote the idea of pension diversification, and deepen the rational understanding of "home for care", so as to make full preparations for its long-term development.