Singapore's wealthy are rethinking what retirement looks like as longer life expectancy pushes them toward more flexible careers, portfolios and family arrangements - but many remain poorly prepared for the risks that come with living longer, a gap that leaves an opening for advisers willing to close it.
More than half of high-net-worth individuals surveyed in Singapore expect to work beyond traditional retirement age, according to new research from Manulife and FT Longitude. The findings suggest retirement is becoming a transition rather than a fixed endpoint, creating new demands on insurers and wealth advisers.
The shift comes as Singapore itself ages. Life expectancy at birth reached 83.5 years in 2024, and residents who reach 65 can now expect another 21.2 years on average - 22.7 for women. The old-age support ratio has fallen to 3.3 working-age residents per senior. For insurers, that stretches the period over which financial protection may need to hold, building a case for products structured around decades rather than a single retirement date.
The New Fluidity surveyed 1,000 HNWIs across 11 Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern markets in April and May 2026, including 250 in Singapore, with net worths from US$3 million to over US$50 million.
In Singapore, 57% said they wanted to keep working beyond retirement age, and 30% planned to work for as long as possible. Among those leaving primary careers, 35% expected to take advisory roles and 24% planned new ventures - what Manulife calls "portfolio lives." For brokers and advisers, that means income and protection planning built around a hard retirement date is already out of step with how this segment intends to live. Products and review processes need to flex with career transitions, not just with age.
The shift extends to investing: 64% said longer life expectancy had made adaptability more important than simply accumulating wealth, and 57% were redesigning portfolios accordingly.
The harder task for advisers may be less persuading clients to plan, and more joining up plans that already exist in pieces. Sixty-eight percent said they were updating plans more often due to market, geopolitical or tax shifts, and 69% were building contingency plans. Yet just 16% had a fully integrated wealth plan spanning investments, retirement income, health insurance and succession - the gap between the 70% who say they want one adviser to bring these pieces together and the 16% who have one is, in effect, the size of the market opportunity.
Income sustainability (59%) and healthcare costs (55%) were top concerns, but fewer than half felt prepared for a major medical expense, cross-border healthcare costs or cognitive decline. Fifty-three percent hold assets or residency rights across multiple jurisdictions - a detail worth raising proactively with any HNWI client, since multi-jurisdictional asset exposure carries specific insurance implications: cross-border healthcare products, life cover denominated in appropriate currencies, and estate structures that account for different legal systems in different jurisdictions. These are not conversations clients typically initiate; they are conversations advisers need to bring to the table first.
Longevity also delays wealth transfers. While 38% cited preserving multi-generational wealth as a concern and 37% cited succession specifically, 51% had not involved the next generation in planning at all, and only 45% felt confident that generation could manage the wealth effectively - a conversation clients are avoiding, not one they have resolved, and an opening for advisers to raise it first.
"When the next generation is not brought into the conversation early, families risk leaving important decisions until moments of pressure or transition," said Michelle Fang, chief marketing officer of Manulife Singapore. Insurance, she said, can provide liquidity for succession needs without forcing families to sell long-term assets - a specific and practical framing that advisers can use directly in a client conversation about estate planning.
Demand for coordinated advice is clear: 70% said they would benefit from a single adviser able to bring these pieces together. The practical implication for advisers is that the HNWI segment is not underserved for want of product options - it is underserved for want of someone who can connect the options that already exist into a plan that reflects how these clients actually intend to live. Singapore's wealthy may have more freedom over when and how they work, but an ageing population is making their financial lives more complicated. The task for brokers and advisers is to be the one who joins the pieces up before a client's family has to.
