Insurance solutions for the wealthy see robust demand
High-net-worth insurance earnings are expected to rise in double digits over the next two to five years
DEMAND for high-net-worth (HNW) insurance, a lucrative area for advisers and intermediaries, is rising, thanks to an increasingly mobile segment of wealthy clients and growing appetite for solutions to address wealth-transfer needs.
Vincent Eck, Swiss Re’s head of key accounts and origination for Asia-Pacific ex-China, said “significantly larger” cases of traditional HNW products such as whole life mortality were placed in 2025, both in sum assured and net amount at risk ceded to reinsurers, “increasing the importance of long-term capacity and underwriting support”.
Regular premiums have risen, he said, “with requested case size support reaching up to US$200 million to US$300 million per case”. This, he said, reinforces the need for reinsurers with strong balance sheets and large-case experience.
Last year, a Swiss Re survey of insurers and brokers in the Asia-Pacific, including Singapore and Hong Kong, found optimism over growth prospects. HNW insurance earnings were expected to rise in double digits over the next two to five years.
HNW insurance is characterised by a high sum assured, typically in the tens of millions of dollars or more. Until recently, the most popular product had been universal life policies, where returns accrue via a fixed crediting rate.
But over the past year or so, this has given way to indexed universal life (IUL) plans, where clients can have what is seen to be the best of both worlds. In IULs, premiums are typically channelled into two accounts. One earns a crediting rate and the second gets exposure to a market index. On the market exposure, there is typically a floor on the downside, and the upside may be capped.
Eck said insurers in Singapore and Hong Kong have launched new IUL offerings. “We’re seeing greater diversity in index-linked structures and index exposures, as insurers seek to differentiate in an increasingly crowded market where product design insight and risk management capabilities are becoming more critical.”
Until around 2021 to 2022 when interest rates rose, premium financing had been an enabler for sales of large single-premium policies. But higher interest rates have taken a toll on premium financing, and clients now opt for multi-payment modes.
Swiss Re expects interest rates to trend lower in 2026 as the US Federal Reserve reduces rates further, which should support premium financing. “But even with additional cuts, the terminal rate is expected to remain higher than pre-pandemic levels, suggesting a measured recovery in demand,” said Eck.
Based on a wealth management market study commissioned by the Utmost Group, NMG Consulting estimated that the HNW segment of international life insurance could generate £90 billion (S$156.1 billion) in cumulative new business sales between 2025 and 2030.
In a paper, the Utmost Group, a UK-based provider of insurance and savings solutions, said penetration of insurance-based wealth solutions is around 2 per cent, or £543 billion, of the £28 trillion of HNW investable assets, due to limited product awareness.
An increase in penetration of 1 to 3 per cent could add more than £240 billion of additional assets, growing the market by 50 per cent and surpassing £800 billion, said the group.
Demand for HNW insurance is driven by a number of tailwinds, including a growing and internationally mobile HNW population and the ongoing wave of intergenerational wealth transfer.
