Sun Life private wealth platform targets Asia’s rich clients

Sun Life is launching a global Sun Life private wealth platform aimed at high-net-worth clients who hold money, homes and family ties across several countries. The move matters because insurers are pushing further into wealth management, using insurance products as tools for succession planning, liquidity and cross-border asset protection.

The Canadian insurer says the integrated platform will support wealthy clients as they build, protect and pass on assets internationally. Sujoy Ghosh, chief executive of Sun Life’s global high-net-worth business, told Fortune that many clients now split their lives and wealth across markets such as Singapore, the U.S., the U.K., Malaysia and Miami.

Asia is a central target for that strategy. Capgemini’s World Wealth Report says high-net-worth wealth in the region rose 10.5% to $29.7 trillion in 2025, making Asia the fastest-growing wealth region globally.

What is Sun Life’s private wealth platform?

Sun Life’s platform is a global wealth offering built around insurance-based planning for affluent clients with international needs. In practice, it is meant to help clients use policies and related services to manage protection, savings, liquidity and inheritance planning across jurisdictions.

Ghosh told Fortune that wealthy Asian clients may use different hubs for different purposes, including Bermuda, Hong Kong and Singapore. He said Singapore appeals to clients because of its stability and regulatory structure, while Bermuda has a strong standing in high-net-worth insurance and is close to North America.

Sun Life’s 2025 legacy planning research points to a major concern among existing clients. The company found that 67% of Singapore-based clients and 44% of Hong Kong-based clients worry that their wealth may not last beyond their children’s generation.

That concern is changing how insurance is sold to rich families in Asia. Ghosh told Fortune that clients value insurance because it can assign a defined pool of money to a specific beneficiary at a specific time, which can make it useful in estate and governance planning.

Why insurers are moving into wealth management

Sun Life is not alone in treating insurance as part of private wealth management. AXA has also launched a wealth management platform, led by Sally Wan, chief executive of AXA Greater China.

Wan previously told Fortune that after borders reopened following COVID, AXA saw mainland Chinese clients return to Hong Kong, with demand concentrated among high-net-worth customers rather than mass-affluent clients. She said many customers were placing as much as 10% of their assets in insurance policies for diversification, family business protection and legacy planning.

The competition is also spreading beyond traditional wealth centers. BCG’s 2026 global wealth report identifies India, Brazil, Mexico and Southeast Asia as important growth markets for wealth creation. BCG expects emerging economies to add nearly $12 trillion in assets by 2030, with the affluent-and-above segment, defined as people with more than $250,000 in financial wealth, growing 8% a year across those markets.

Banks are moving after the same clients. CIMB, the Malaysian bank ranked No. 34 on Fortune’s Southeast Asia 500 list, launched a private wealth offering on July 20 that combines tailored advisory services with selected wealth solutions, according to the bank.

Haniz Nazlan, CIMB’s chief executive of group consumer banking, said in a company release that ASEAN is seeing rapid changes in wealth creation, protection and transfers between generations. Ghosh told Fortune that Sun Life is also looking beyond established hubs, including Latin America, India and other emerging economies, and wants to be present where cross-border money is moving.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.