How Grandtag secures the bag for Asia’s richest

Grandtag Financial’s regional CEO spills how ‘jumbo life insurance’ attracts UHNWIs in Asia.

The region’s wealthiest are getting wealthier by the hour, as more assets become available. To grasp the trajectory of private investment in the region, one must first examine where the rich are putting their money.

Globally, wealthy individuals are seen to grow by 28.1% by 2028, with Asia leading the race. Let’s take China, for example. Historically, property has been the primary avenue for wealth accumulation amongst Chinese investors, with up to 70% of savings allocated to real estate, both domestically and abroad, Knight Frank’s 2024 The Wealth Report revealed.

However, a prolonged property crisis and slower economic growth have prompted a shift towards more conservative investment approaches. In 2023, sales by China’s top 100 developers dropped by 17.3%, signalling a liquidity crisis within the property sector and denting consumer and investor confidence.

Government interventions, such as interest rate reductions and relaxed down payment requirements, have yielded limited results. Chinese buyers have become discerning, favouring markets like Japan and the UAE over previously popular destinations like Southeast Asia.

Despite these challenges, opportunities persist, especially in private credit and government-backed sectors like logistics and data centres. A swift economic rebound is possible, given the government’s accommodative policies aimed at stimulating growth.

Also, despite a slower global growth trajectory, wealth creation is poised to persist. At the close of 2023, the global population of UHNWIs increased by 4.2%, with significant gains in North America and the Middle East.

Notably, generational shifts in wealth attitudes, particularly amongst female Gen Z-ers, suggest continued growth in this segment.

Attracting the attention of these UHNWIs, Grandtag Financial’s Regional Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Martin Wong, spoke to Insurance Asia magazine about the ongoing changes and strategic directions in the wealth management and insurance industries, particularly in serving an affluent clientele in a dynamic Asian market.

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Below is an excerpt from his exclusive interview with Insurance Asia.

As the Regional CEO of Grandtag Financial Consultancy, could you share with us the overarching vision and mission that drives the operations of your firm, particularly in the context of serving affluent individuals and ultra-high-net-worth families across Asia Pacific?

Every client is different. Every client and every family situation is unique. So, we build on this platform to ensure that our client’s assets, their legacies, and their future plans are preserved and can be passed down from one generation to the next. For the last 25 years, Grandtag has been building its platform and its capabilities to establish itself as a leading international broker.

And really, our vision is to become the broker of choice. The most preferred and trusted international broking partner, particularly among private banks, trustees, family offices, and external asset managers who are our core business partners.

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the insurance industry in Asia today, and how is Grandtag positioned to navigate these dynamics?

Well, one of the challenges, of course, is in the area of regulatory complexity. And I think it’s actually a positive because as the industry steps up to ensure that things are done right, it will really benefit clients at the end of the day.

Grandtag operates both in Singapore and Hong Kong. We operate under the premise of our regulators and we ensure that our standards, our processes, and our protocols are up to international standards so that clients who are working with us, partners who are dealing with us, know that we’ve got our shop in order we deliver the best to our clients, and we ensure that we are in full compliance with our regulators.

Now this, of course, creates the opportunity because Asia is really at the epicentre of wealth creation, and the wealth creation story in Asia will continue. Rich people will continue to get richer, generally speaking, and the friends of rich people are also rich. Also, our clients navigated through the global financial crisis in 2008/2009 – as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

They have seen the need to now come together with their Wealth Advisors with their international insurance brokers to put together the right type of contingency plans that are needed. Some of our clients in Asia, also have complex family situations where they need to plan ahead. And I think with this type of context, this is where the opportunity to continue to drive partnerships and collaborations will lead to growth and dynamism.

Since your focus is heavily on ultra-high-net-worth individuals, how do you see this specific market growing in the next five years?

Every country has its opportunity. Every country has its seasons. The opportunities in Greater China are very significant. It comes from the macroeconomics and the wealth creation story of clients who are in China. But the other countries also have opportunities for this high-end client that we’re working with, for example, in Malaysia, in Thailand, in Indonesia — even in the Philippines — where clients that have already been exposed and are well-informed on the need for jumbo life insurance cover. Particularly in the offshore markets that Grandtag is able to access — providing solutions for them from Hong Kong, Singapore, Bermuda, Cayman, and the US.

What key principles or values guide your approach to client engagement and service delivery?

What we want to do is to provide transparency and client advocacy. Trust is at the centre of everything that we do. We also collaborate with best-in-class professionals to provide a whole suite of solutions to our clients in the area of tax and legal views. And we are in this business for the long term. Life insurance is a business that is here to stay, and we journey with our clients through their various life stages. And we've been in a very privileged position not just to serve our clients, but to serve their families and their children as well.

Could you elaborate on the strategies Grandtag employs to ensure personalised and tailored solutions for such a diverse clientele?

What is very important is that we listen to the needs of our clients and we listen to the expert views of the partners that we work with – particularly we work with private banks, trusted advisors, and investment counsellors.

About 60% to 70% of our client portfolio consists of highly successful entrepreneurs, who are wealth creators. As much as they have a journey in their businesses and their careers, they also have various challenges. And they are looking to us to provide the liquidity funding instrument that can help them in their asset protection, and liquidity planning; as well as to help them achieve some of their philanthropic goals as they look beyond the near term to the long term.

How does Grandtag integrate empathy and innovation into its service offerings to cater to these specific demographics such as the elderly or individuals with critical illnesses?

By keeping their interests and their goals right at the centre. It impacts the execution and operations of how we go about designing the conversation with them in ensuring that there are disclosures provided to them so that at the end of the day, the solutions will be there to meet their needs in the long term.

Let me give you an example. We have a client who had an episode of breast cancer. Now, she’s a cancer survivor. And in her local market, she tried to get cover domestically. But we all know that once a person has this issue, it becomes very challenging to find coverage.

She was in remission for about seven to eight years. When our partner came to us and asked, are you able to help this client straight away, I asked for the latest oncologist report and I had some private conversations — on a no-name basis — with the chief underwriters of some insurance companies. In the end, we managed to place cover for this client to the tune of $5m on her life.

I could really sense the gratitude and appreciation from this client when we ultimately delivered because this was something that she could no longer get. And through our platform, she was able to access a comprehensive plan that could meet long-term wealth planning and wealth transfer goals. And I think that has been a very clear example of how we really want to put empathy as well as putting our clients at the centre of the whole equation.

What are some significant trends or shifts you foresee shaping the landscape of wealth preservation and legacy planning in the coming years, particularly in the context of the region’s insurance market?

One thing that has really shaped the whole context and control of the environment is that wealthy Asians have already changed their wealth attitudes in the face of increasing uncertainty. The whole risk environment has changed, particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Asian high-net-worth families have really shown an increased urgency and priority on their planning needs. We found that because of the increase in the risk environment for everyone, clients now view the need for planning for appropriate solutions to be of greater importance. And you’ll find that the overall risk environment has also stepped up because of market volatility.

Because of ongoing geopolitical tensions and climate crisis, you find that technology is also disrupting the way people are doing business. Therefore, this simply means that our clients who are already very wealthy — high net worth and ultra-high net worth families — are looking at the world through this lens.

Looking ahead, what are your plans for Grandtag Financial Consultancy in the next five years, and how do you envision the firm’s role evolving in shaping the future of insurance and wealth management in the region?

For one, we are committed to expanding our footprint in Asia. We are exploring growth opportunities over various territories, and we have already set up an office in Malaysia. That’s providing us with a lot of touch points locally, and we are carefully assessing the opportunities in the regional countries as well.

Number two is our commitment to digitise our platform. We believe in today’s market, having a digital touch point with your clients is absolutely critical. An example of this is our digital platform, Blue Ocean Advance, and the recent launch of our social media presence. Because social media is the language of today — it is the language of the children of our clients. And we are in full efforts, to even one day in the not too distant future, launch our own Grandtag app. Giving clients full access whenever they need on their phones.

Are you targeting to expand into any more markets in the region?

We are carefully assessing and reviewing the opportunities. Timing is of course critical. Resourcing the platform is another, and we are going to take a very calibrated and sustainable approach in this business.