Canadian insurer Sun Life is launching an integrated private wealth platform to support high-net-worth individuals as they build, preserve, and transfer assets across borders. Life insurers are racing into the wealth management space, tapping a customer base that already uses their products to protect their finances.
Asia is the world’s fastest-growing wealth region, with HNWI wealth surging 10.5% to $29.7 trillion in 2025, according to Capgemini’s World Wealth Report. The region’s affluent also have lifestyles that span multiple jurisdictions, with family members and assets based in several different geographies.
“A typical client today lives in Singapore, their children study in the U.S. or U.K., and they have a family home in Malaysia or Miami,” Sujoy Ghosh, the CEO of Sun Life’s global High Net Worth (HNW) business, told Fortune at the insurer’s Singapore office.
Asia’s wealthy are also hedging against domestic economic risks and political instability. “They might buy a policy in Bermuda to grow their money, a savings policy in Hong Kong, and an indexed universal life policy in Singapore for protection,” Ghosh explains, adding that the different wealth hubs are complementary in their strengths, with each offering unique regional access and regulatory advantages.
Ghosh explains that Singapore is popular for its stability and robust regulatory framework, while Bermuda is attractive due to its proximity to North America and strong reputation for managing HNW insurance.
Insurance as a way to manage wealth
According to Sun Life’s 2025 legacy planning research, 67% of Singapore-based and 44% of Hong Kong-based clients are concerned that their wealth may not be preserved beyond their children’s generation.
In Asia, this anxiety is pushing insurance beyond just offering protection to become a wealth planning and governance tool. “Clients like the certainty of liquidity that insurance offers, as it provides a designated amount of assets for a designated person at a designated time,” Ghosh explains. “Given the current macroeconomic environment, many customers value resilience and reliability in wealth planning.”
Other insurers are offering their products as wealth management tools.
“After COVID when the border reopened, we saw mainland Chinese customers coming back to Hong Kong, but these were high‑net‑worth customers, rather than the mass affluent,” Sally Wan, the CEO of AXA Greater China, previously told Fortune, adding that many clients now wrap up to 10% of their assets into insurance policies. “They were looking for diversification and protection, especially for family business and legacy planning.”
AXA recently launched its own wealth management platform, which Wan also leads.
The next wave of millionaires
Emerging markets like India, Brazil, and Mexico, as well as Southeast Asia, are going to be hotspots for wealth creation, according to BCG’s 2026 global wealth report. By 2030, emerging economies will gain nearly $12 trillion in assets, and the affluent-and-above segment—those with more than $250,000 in financial wealth—will grow 8% annually across these markets.
Financial institutions are rushing to capture this rising demographic. On July 20, Malaysian bank CIMB, No. 34 on Fortune’s Southeast Asia 500 ranking, launched its own private wealth offering, combining bespoke advisory and curated wealth solutions.
“We are seeing a great rewiring of wealth, especially in the ASEAN region. Multiple generations are actively involved in the rapid evolution of wealth creation, protection and intergenerational transfer, all happening at the same time,” said Haniz Nazlan, CIMB’s CEO of group consumer banking, in a press release. “Clients are seeking trusted partners to navigate the complexity of wealth management to grow, preserve and transition their wealth legacies.”
Sun Life, too, is eyeing growth outside of traditional hubs. “We’re looking globally, from Latin America to India and other emerging economies,” Ghosh concludes. “Whichever location the money is flowing to and from, that’s where we want to be.”
