Sixty Days Before Full Portability: Which MPF Trustees Actually Cut Fees Over the Last Two Years

Track 1 Data X-Ray | KEY THEME: Full Portability | Researched 2026-10-22

The thesis

Phase One of full portability opens on 21 December 2026 — sixty days away. On 16 October, Financial Services Secretary Christopher Hui said the reform would “promote market competition and create room for further fee reductions” (Hong Kong Government press release). Take that literally, and audit it with numbers.

mpf.hk has just completed its fee-history database: 237 funds across 10 trustees, each with two data points — the fund expense ratio (FER) printed in the 2024-edition fund fact sheet, and today’s FER. Every historical point comes from an MPFA-hosted or trustee-issued fact sheet; every current point is verified against the mpf.hk fund database (2026 quarterly fact sheets).

The verdict first: “fee reduction” has not happened for most members. Of the 10 trustees, only Principal cut across the board (34 of 34 funds, average -0.125 percentage points), followed by China Life (10 of 10, -0.070pp) and Fidelity (40 of 42, -0.097pp). The other seven either cut token amounts or raised some funds while cutting others — AIA’s sample average actually went up (+0.005pp), and Manulife remains the most expensive house in the sample (average 1.4188%).

The data: a league table of ten trustees

The table below shows each trustee’s sample-fund average FER (current, from the latest 2026 fact sheets). Note: these are sample averages over the funds in the database, not full-scheme averages — but every fund’s two-point move is traceable to a primary source.

Three X-ray spots:

1. Principal is the only trustee to cut everything. All 34 funds moved down, averaging -0.125pp. The biggest mover is the Principal Dynamic Global Equity Fund (TOP): 1.8058% to 1.5447% (-0.261pp), roughly a sixth off. This is not the 8bp eMPF platform-fee pass-through (see below); it is a genuine trustee-level fee move — the single number in this entire survey worth memorising.

2. Fidelity’s SaveEasy target-date series delivered the largest cuts: SaveEasy 2030 fell from 1.5340% to 1.2181% (-0.316pp), with 2045 (-0.257pp) and 2050 (-0.252pp) close behind. Fidelity’s scheme brochure confirms the mechanism: five years before each target year, the investment management fee plus member servicing fee steps down, with total constituent fund management fees falling to 1.01% p.a. from 30 March 2026. A designed glide-path delivering — not a slogan.

3. Fee hikes happened too: AIA’s sample average rose. Ten funds cut, nine rose: the Hong Kong and China Fund went from 0.78% to 0.8568% (+0.077pp, verified to five decimals against AIA’s Q2 2026 fact sheet), the Eurasia Fund from 0.84% to 0.9109% (+0.071pp). Sun Life split 9 and 9: the European Equity Fund rose 1.2288% to 1.3750% (+0.146pp), the US Equity Fund 1.2232% to 1.3073% (+0.084pp). Manulife’s Hong Kong Equity Fund rose 1.7881% to 1.91% (+0.122pp) — an active Hong Kong equity fund pushing fees up by more than a tenth in two years.

The darkest joke: BOC-Prudential’s RMB & HKD Money Market Fund rose from 0.3110% to 0.5370% (+0.226pp), up 73%. Even the “safe haven” product quietly got more expensive. What makes you think the funds in your own account are safe?

Why most “cuts” were so small

Many trustees’ average moves are just 1–2 basis points. That is not a coincidence. YF Life’s fee-change notice of 1 April 2026 states it plainly: following the eMPF platform fee reduction from 0.37% to 0.29% (8bp), each constituent fund’s aggregate management fee was reduced “correspondingly” (e.g. 0.91% to 0.83%), with “no change to any other fee components”.

In other words: this round of “fee reduction” is almost entirely the 8bp eMPF platform-fee pass-through — not trustees cutting their own take. Principal’s -0.128pp and Fidelity SaveEasy’s -0.32pp sit above and beyond those 8bp — which is exactly why they top this table.

The compounding cost: basis points into Hong Kong dollars

Illustrative test (monthly contributions of HK$5,000, gross return 7%) — translating fee gaps into plain language:

• The Principal-style cut (0.125pp): about HK$5,500 over 10 years, HK$35,700 over 20, and HK$133,000 over 30 years.
• The Fidelity-style cut (0.097pp): about HK$103,000 over 30 years.
• SaveEasy 2030’s 0.316pp: about HK$330,000 over 30 years.
• Manulife Hong Kong Equity’s +0.122pp hike, in reverse: about HK$130,000 — moving in the wrong direction costs money too.

Against the average MPF balance of HK$343,242 (MPF Ratings, September 2026): 0.125pp is about HK$430 a year — money visibly taken at the institutional layer.

The pre-launch checklist: four things to do in the next 60 days

1. Find out which scheme you are in. Log in to the eMPF platform’s “My MPF” and view every account’s scheme, fund and FER. Cross-check against the table: if you are contributing to Manulife (sample average 1.42%) or Sun Life (1.34%), and you were hired on or after 1 May 2025, Phase One lets you move all employer-contribution accrued benefits to a scheme of your choice once a year from 21 December. Move to where? The cheapest current sample averages are BEA (1.07%) and China Life (1.12%); low-fee options also include the DIS Core Accumulation Fund (actual average about 0.77%) and BEA’s Hong Kong Tracker Fund (0.5830%).
2. ECA resets every calendar year (1 January). If you have not used your Employee Choice Arrangement transfer in 2026, it is the last old-regime move before the gates open; the quota resets in January 2027, running alongside Phase One — two transfer channels in parallel.
3. Transfers are not free lunch. Forward pricing (T+1/T+2) plus a one-to-two-week investment gap during settlement; avoid execution windows around rate meetings (next FOMC: 8–9 December). Lower-friction first: TVC account balances can be moved in full at any time without going through the employer.
4. Track the trustee land grab. Secretary Hui’s “room for further fee reductions” is a promise; whether it materialises depends on which trustees cut fees or launch transfer offers after the gates open. mpf.hk will keep running promise-checks against the fee-history database — promises are tracked with numbers, not slogans.

Data notes (the X-ray’s frame)

• 237 funds, 10 trustees; each 2024 point from that trustee’s 2024-edition fact sheet (MPFA-hosted or trustee-issued), each current point from the mpf.hk fund database (2026 quarterly fact sheets, mostly verified to five decimals).
• FERs are backward-looking (prior financial year’s actual expenses); the two-year comparison spans financial-year vintages, but the direction of each fund’s move is unaffected.
• One rounding anomaly per HSBC/Hang Seng conservative fund (a 2024 point printed as “1.20%” dropping to 0.7676%) was excluded as a fact-sheet printing artefact.
• Table figures are sample averages covering each trustee’s core funds, not full-scheme averages; check the MPFA fund platform for the latest FER on any individual fund.