Longer working lives are changing wealth planning in the Greater Bay Area

For many professionals and business owners in Hong Kong and Macao, retirement is becoming less of a hard stop and more of a gradual transition. Some expect to work longer, take on advisory or entrepreneurial roles, support family members or divide their time between cities – all while managing assets and obligations across borders.

A recent Manulife and FT Longitude survey suggests that financial planning has not always kept pace with those more fluid lives. The study surveyed 1,000 high-net-worth and mass-affluent people across 11 Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern markets, including many respondents in Hong Kong.

Among Hong Kong respondents, 32 percent expect to work five to 10 years beyond the traditional retirement age of previous generations, while 26 percent say they intend to work for as long as they can. Two-thirds are reshaping their investment portfolios around flexibility rather than a fixed retirement date, with 74 percent saying that market, geopolitical, or tax developments prompt more frequent plan reviews 

That shift will be familiar to many families in the Greater Bay Area, where careers, property, business interests and family responsibilities may span Hong Kong, Macao and the mainland. 

More than half of the Hong Kong respondents in the survey held assets or residency in more than one jurisdiction, while 77 percent supported financial dependents. Yet only 18 percent said they had a fully integrated plan linking investments, tax, succession arrangements, legal structures and family governance. Nearly half had revised their planning within the past five years following changes in life stage or family circumstances.

Healthcare and long-term care remain another potential gap. Hong Kong recorded the survey’s highest shares of respondents who felt unprepared for a large uninsured medical bill (29 percent), critical illness (26 percent) or the cost of a family member’s long-term care (23 percent).

The research also points to a difficult but practical family question: when should the next generation enter the conversation? More than half of Hong Kong respondents had not involved future heirs in wealth-planning discussions, and 41 percent were not confident that the next generation would manage family wealth effectively.

For households with cross-border assets or evolving family responsibilities, the useful takeaway is not that every plan needs to be complicated. It is that investment decisions, protection, succession and caregiving needs are increasingly connected – and worth reviewing together rather than as separate arrangements.

This article is based on research commissioned by Manulife and conducted with FT Longitude. It is intended as general information, not personal financial, tax, legal or investment advice.