Stocks owned by minors reached nearly 4 trillion won ($3.6 billion) as of last year, Korea Exchange and the National Tax Service reported on Wednesday. The total amount increased by fourfold over the previous year’s 1.12 trillion won.

Among shareholders in South Korea, about 1.8 percent, or over 92,000, were minors under 19 years of age, according to the institutions. The under-19 shareholders owned on average 42.95 million won each.

The number of minor shareholders has been on a steady rise since 2004 when it marked around 31,000. In 2010 it was about 67,000. Insiders expect that the figure will surpass 100,000 this year.

Under-19 shareholders owned more stocks than those aged 20-24 or 25-29, groups which owned stocks worth 1.18 trillion won and 3.49 trillion won, respectively.

Experts say that stocks are used as one way to evade gift tax, which is imposed on property ownership transfers, when passing down wealth to children.

Including non-stock funds, parents transferred money to 5,989 minors in 2010, including to 2,213 who were younger than 10 years old. The total amount of money transferred was 712 billion won, an average of 120 million won per person.

Six minors, including two who were below the age of 10, received more than 5 billion won.

By Park Min-young  (claire@heraldcorp.com)