Kathmandu. Asian insurers may need to focus less on awareness and more on turning financial concerns into action. That’s because consumers in Hong Kong and Singapore are not prepared for long retirements and rising living costs, despite growing concerns about their financial situation. <\/p>\n
A recent survey by FWD Life Insurance Company (Bermuda) found that 64 per cent of respondents in Hong Kong and Macau are simply financially stressed and worried. This indicates low confidence in long-term financial security. <\/p>\n
More than 1,000 respondents participated in the survey. The survey cited rising living costs, healthcare costs, and low retirement savings as some of the biggest financial concerns over the next five to 10 years. <\/p>\n
Ken Lau, CEO and Managing Director of Hong Kong for Greater China at FWD, said: “Hong Kong has been the world’s longest-lived, liveable region for 10 years in a row, thanks to growing public health awareness. \u2019<\/p>\n
According to Lau, the expectation of living longer, in particular, increases the risk of saving. “The results of the survey highlight a growing gap between financial awareness and actual retirement preparation,” he said. <\/p>\n
A study conducted by CIMB Bank Berhad in Singapore found that 78% of people believe that financial freedom can be achieved. However, 34.6% are worried about their financial future. <\/p>\n
High cost of living and family responsibilities are major obstacles. Less than half of the respondents have started a retirement plan. “Our study shows that financial freedom in Singapore is no longer determined by the dollar figure alone, but also by freedom from financial stress,” Sharon Ng, deputy dean of Nanyang Business School, said in a separate report. <\/p>\n
Respondents in Hong Kong estimated that they would need about $817,000 in retirement savings. However, they expected these funds to last only until the age of 82. The average age is about 86 years. This creates a 4-year retirement fund gap. <\/p>\n
The gap between planning and implementation is most pronounced among young consumers. Genji respondents in Hong Kong expected to retire the earliest and were expected to need the most retirement savings. However, only 16% said they were taking proactive steps to secure their financial future. Of all respondents, 43% had not consulted a financial adviser. About 30% do not contribute to retirement funds on a regular basis. <\/p>\n
According to Kelvin Yu, chief proposal and healthcare officer at FWD Hong Kong and Macau, rising healthcare costs are also putting pressure on financial planning as medical care becomes more advanced and personalized. The FWD survey found that 64% of Hong Kong’s ‘sandwich generation’ respondents did not know that insurance products covering multiple family members already existed. Which suggests that insurance companies may be facing not only production gaps but also distribution and communication gaps. \u2013Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kathmandu. Asian insurers may need to focus less on awareness and more on turning financial concerns into action. That’s because consumers in Hong Kong and Singapore are not prepared for long retirements and rising living costs, despite growing concerns about their financial situation. A recent survey by FWD Life Insurance Company (Bermuda) found that 64 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":229621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45031,45044,45159],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banner-news-en","category-international-news-en","category-news-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":302003,"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302002\/revisions\/302003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/media\/229621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}