We explore the impact of regulatory requirements—specifically fund family size, lock-in periods, and manager experience—on the performance of pension funds, including Target Date Funds (TDFs) and Target Risk Funds (TRFs) in China. Our findings reveal that these regulations generally boost fund performance. However, these same restrictions appear to have little to no benefit for standard mutual funds. Moreover, the responsibility of managing TDFs and TRFs may inadvertently dampen the performance of non-TDF and TRF funds managed by the same fund issuer, due to increased compliance and disclosure costs. Our study underscores the critical importance of recognizing the distinct policy implications for regulators, fund issuers, and investors, particularly in the context of retirement savings.