KJM Returned 139% in 2025. Here Is Why You Should Not Chase It

The best-performing pension fund in Turkey last year, out of all 394 traded on BEFAS, was a katilim fund. KJM, Katilim Emeklilik's precious metals fund, returned 139% in 2025. Its sibling KEF, the pure gold fund, returned 102.45%. For a segment routinely accused of sacrificing returns for principles, a katilim fund at the top of the entire national league table is a satisfying headline. It is also, read carelessly, a dangerous one. Both things are true and this piece is about holding them together.

What actually produced the 139%

Metal prices, not manager alpha. Lira gold prices surged through 2025 on the combination of global gold strength and TL depreciation, and silver outran gold, which is precisely why the metals-blend KJM beat the pure gold KEF. A fund holding gold and silver in a year when gold and silver went vertical will post a vertical number. The manager's real job, holding the metals cleanly under committee icazet, without leverage or futures, was done well. But no stock picking, no timing, no insight produced the return. The asset class did.

This is not a criticism of Katilim Emeklilik, whose governance we rate highly in our full review: named scholars, published icazet certificates, a signed annual compliance report. It is a description of what a passive metals vehicle is. The company itself does not claim otherwise.

Why katilim shelves top the tables in metal years

There is a structural story here that most coverage missed. Katilim pension portfolios hold lease certificates, participation accounts, TKBB-screened equities and precious metals. Metals are a core katilim asset class, not an exotic satellite, partly because gold is culturally central to Turkish saving and partly because the compliance toolkit makes physical metals one of the cleanest exposures available. So in metal bull years, katilim funds dominate system-wide league tables. The mirror image is equally structural: in high policy rate periods, conventional money market funds can out-yield katilim equivalents because lease certificate profit rates adjust more slowly than deposit and repo rates. Neither result is mismanagement. Both are the portfolio's shape meeting the cycle.

The mistake the headline invites

Buying KJM now, because of 2025, is the textbook error: performance chasing at a cycle high. The 139% already happened; it belongs to the people who held metals before the run. What a buyer today gets is metals exposure at post-run prices, with the same 1.91% regulatory expense cap for metals pension funds and the same volatility that will, in a reversal year, put KJM at the other end of the same league table. Silver's higher beta, the very thing that pushed KJM above KEF in 2025, works identically in both directions. League tables measure the past with great precision and the future not at all.

The lesson worth keeping

• The katilim menu spans the full risk spectrum. A segment that can top the national table is not a compromise segment. That is the honest, durable takeaway from 2025.
• Hold metals structurally, a 10% to 25% sleeve for most savers, and rebalance when they run. A disciplined holder trimmed KJM after 2025; a chaser bought it.
• Use BEFAS deliberately. Any BES saver can buy KJM or KEF cross-platform, subject to plan type and the buying company's committee review, per our BEFAS guide. Portability is for building the right allocation, not for chasing last year's winner.
• Judge each fund against its job. Metals funds are ballast and inflation insurance; screened equity funds are growth; lease certificate funds are stability. None should be judged by another's yardstick.

The allocation logic behind the sleeve sizes is in our gold comparison and our BEFAS guide; the inflation arithmetic that should frame every Turkish return number is in our real returns piece.

Frequently asked questions

Should I sell my KJM position after the run?

If metals have grown past your target sleeve, rebalancing back to it is exactly what the discipline prescribes: sell some strength, buy the laggards. Exiting entirely is a different decision, a bet that the cycle has topped, which is timing, and timing is the game this piece is warning against in both directions. Hold the sleeve, trim the excess, keep the plan.

Is KJM better than KEF?

Different exposures, not better and worse. KEF is pure gold; KJM blends in silver, which adds beta in both directions, as 2025 flattered and a reversal will punish. A saver wanting the classic ballast role leans gold; one accepting more volatility for more cycle participation takes the blend. Both are icazet-certified funds from the same well-governed shelf.

Does the 139% prove active katilim management works?

No, and that is the point: KJM's result is asset class beta, not active selection. The active versus passive question in Turkish halal equity is a separate argument with its own evidence, which we make in our active versus passive piece. Do not let one metals year settle a debate it never entered. For the wider retirement picture, start at our retirement hub.

Can I buy KJM if my BES contract is at another company?

Yes, through BEFAS, the cross-platform pension fund market, which is exactly what many savers did after the 2025 results. Two constraints: katilim plans may hold only katilim funds, and purchases into a katilim plan pass the buying company's advisory committee review. KJM clears those tests routinely, being an icazet-certified katilim fund itself. The better question is not whether you can buy it but whether your allocation calls for more metals exposure at current prices. If your sleeve is already full, the platform's flexibility is a temptation to resist, not a feature to use.