Over 500 preschoolers own stocks worth over 100 million won

Preschoolers under the age of 8 hold over 1 trillion won worth of publicly traded stocks, and more than 500 preschoolers hold more than 100 million won in stocks. The analysis suggests that stock gifting has become a popular inheritance and asset gifting method among wealthy individuals.

According to data obtained by Democratic Party lawmaker Ahn Do-geol from the Korea Securities Depository on Sunday, preschoolers under the age of eight held 1.0806 trillion won in stocks listed on the KOSPI, KOSDAQ, and KONEX as of the end of last year. This amount represents 0.14 percent of the total value of stocks held by retail investors, which is approximately 751 trillion won.

A total of 180,471 children under the age of 8 owned stocks. Of these, 508 children (about 0.3%) held stocks worth 100 million won or more, with an average per capita value of 295.44 million won. For those between the ages of 8 and 19, there were 581,257 stockholders with a total stock valuation of 4.53 trillion won. Among these, 2,921 holders with more than 100 million won had an average stock value of 452.93 million won. In contrast, those with less than 100 million won had an average holding of 5.55 million won, resulting in an 81.6-fold disparity in stock wealth between those with 100 million won or more. As minors under the age of 19 are unlikely to have purchased stocks themselves directly, it is likely that the majority of them inherited or were gifted the stocks.

“The current situation, where there is a lack of a tax system for financial investment income, needs to be addressed as stock assets are highly polarized,” Ahn said. “Efforts to introduce measures to alleviate the concerns of retail investors, such as the possibility of a large-scale exodus from the domestic stock market, should be prioritized due to strong resistance to the introduction of the financial investment income tax.”


조응형 기자 yesbro@donga.com