Hong Kong’s insurance market has achieved a double whammy: first by completing the sale of a $250 million life policy and setting a new world record for it. TThe accomplishment was acknowledged and certified by Guinness World Records this week. The previous record was held by a California-based tech billionaire who bought insurance worth $201 million in March 2014. A decade later, the record has shifted from the West to the East. While the policyholder’s name remains undisclosed, Edward Moncreiffe, CEO for Hong Kong and Macau at HSBC Life, mentioned that the client is an ultra-high-net-worth individual from Asia with multiple citizenships, according to SCMP.
“The sale of such an insurance policy shows Hong Kong’s rise as a leading ultra-high-net-worth insurance market in Asia and the world,” Moncreiffe said in an exclusive interview with the Post. “Previously, such jumbo-sized policies have only been issued in the US, UK and Bermuda. Now, Hong Kong has proven it has the capacity to issue such mega-sized policies.” The company did disclose that the purpose of the policy was for estate planning. The rise of affluent Asians is also leading to the increasing demand for mega life insurance policies.
“We are seeing a rising demand for mega life insurance policies in Asia, and most of them are for succession planning purposes,” Moncreiffe said. “There is a wave of first-generation private wealth that is now starting to think of transferring their wealth, business, enterprise, etc, to the next or subsequent generations.” According to a study by HSBC Global Research in August 2022, Asia will be bustling with millionaires in the coming years.
The number is expected to go from about 10 million in 2022 to more than double, 22 million by 2030. This rise will certainly catapult vew business premiums that have already doubled in Hong Kong in 2023 from 10 years ago.
