{"id":6319,"date":"2026-06-08T22:02:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=6319"},"modified":"2026-06-08T22:02:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:02:42","slug":"axa-launches-a-new-hnwi-platform-as-hong-kong-wealth-surges-past-switzerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=6319","title":{"rendered":"AXA launches a new HNWI platform as Hong Kong wealth surges past Switzerland"},"content":{"rendered":"

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AXA is launching a new Hong Kong\u2013based platform for high?net?worth individuals, doubling down on the city just as it overtakes Switzerland as the world\u2019s largest cross?border wealth hub.<\/p>\n

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On Monday, the French insurer unveiled AXA Global Private, a hub that combines life insurance products with wealth management and succession services for rich families in Asia. The platform will also bundle niche coverages often demanded by the wealthy, such as kidnap?and?ransom, art collection, and family?office insurance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 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,\u201d says Sally Wan, CEO of AXA Greater China and the newly appointed head of AXA Global Private. \u201cThey were looking for diversification and protection, especially for family business and legacy planning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wan says wealthy families increasingly use participating life policies for estate planning and efficient tax management, often wrapping 5% to 10% of their total assets into insurance contracts that behave \u201clike a trust.\u201d Policies sold in Hong Kong are typically denominated in U.S. or Hong Kong dollars and offer exposure to asset classes that are harder to access in China. \u201cJust Hong Kong may not be enough\u201d to serve those clients, Wan adds.<\/p>\n

Mainland Chinese policyholders account for roughly half of AXA Hong Kong\u2019s overall portfolio by premium, according to Wan. Many of those customers come through private banks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference is that for high?net?worth individuals, the premium size is much larger and the underwriting, financial planning, and tax?planning needs are much more complex,\u201d Wan says.<\/p>\n

The group can also insure art collections, provide kidnap?and?ransom coverage for families traveling in higher?risk markets, and offer bespoke protection for family offices and their physical and cyber assets. \u201cIf you look at other insurance companies providing high?net?worth products like art insurance, they probably need to purchase from somebody else,\u201d Wan argues. \u201cWe can do it all in one shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

AXA, No. 103 on the Fortune Global 500, generated 116 billion euros ($133 billion) in revenue last year, a 6% increase. Net income rose 24% to 9.7 billion euros ($11.2 billion). The company is refocusing its attention back to its core product of insurance, selling AXA Investment Managers to BNP Paribas last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hong Kong boom<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Hong Kong narrowly overtook Switzerland as the world\u2019s largest cross-border wealth hub last year, according to analysis from Boston Consulting Group. Cross-border wealth in the Chinese city rose to $2.9 trillion, thanks to surging inflows from mainland China and the city\u2019s strong IPO market. BCG forecasts the gap will widen by the end of the decade: Hong Kong will be home to $4.6 trillion in cross-border flows, compared with $4 trillion in Switzerland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, BCG\u2019s analysis suggests that Hong Kong is primarily a hub for mainland China, which contributed almost 60% of cross-border inflows last year. The firm estimates that mainland Chinese wealth grew by 15% last year, and will continue to grow by 9% a year through 2030.<\/p>\n

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Courtesy of AXA<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Wan isn\u2019t surprised that Hong Kong overtook Switzerland: Several organizations, including the city\u2019s government, expected to reach this milestone by the end of the decade. \u201cNow it\u2019s just faster,\u201d she says. \u201cThe majority of the flow is coming from mainland China, but it\u2019s also coming from Taiwan, Korea, and other places in Asia like India.\u201d She credits Hong Kong\u2019s booming financial sector, including its IPO market and family offices, for the surge in wealth.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong\u2019s government has also spent the past few years aggressively pitching the city to global capital. Wan sits on the market development committee of the Financial Services Development Council, an advisory body representing the financial sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring Covid, there were a lot of misconceptions about Hong Kong,\u201d she says. \u201cThe government has been going out to promote the city, and the result is that family offices are coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wan suggests that AXA might expand the Global Private platform to the Middle East after Asia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She concedes that while flows into Hong Kong from the Gulf remain \u201cvery limited,\u201d they\u2019ll likely build as more Middle Eastern entrepreneurs set up Asian operations and relocate part of their businesses and families to the region. \u201cIt will be coming, though probably not as much as the China flow,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Aging populations<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Hong Kong is aging quickly. With a median age of 47.9 years, it is one of the oldest cities in the world. The city reported around 32,000 births last year, leading to a fertility rate of just 0.73 births per woman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAging is giving insurers a lot more pressure because people live a lot longer,\u201d Wan says. \u201cIn the past, people may have had enough money to live for another 20 years after retirement. Now, they\u2019ll live for 30. What happens in that last 10 years?\u201d<\/p>\n

Wan argues that high?net?worth clients, who typically combine life, health and long?term care coverage with detailed financial planning, are less likely to be caught unprepared. Her bigger worry is the mass market in Hong Kong and across the Greater Bay Area. Hong Kong has historically lacked sufficient rehabilitation and elder?care facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cHong Kong has not come to that realization yet,\u201d she says. \u201cThe education has not been spread enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#AXA #launches #HNWI #platform #Hong #Kong #wealth #surges #Switzerland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AXA is launching a new Hong Kong\u2013based platform for high?net?worth individuals, doubling down on the city just as it overtakes Switzerland as the world\u2019s largest cross?border wealth hub. On Monday,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8752,173,8753,2534,2533,2535,61,28,5025,6671,81],"class_list":["post-6319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-axa","tag-china","tag-hnwi","tag-hong","tag-hong-kong","tag-kong","tag-launches","tag-platform","tag-surges","tag-switzerland","tag-wealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}