Total wealth management needs to include physical, mental and financial health, says Greg Hingston, HSBC’s CEO Global Insurance and Partnerships. And our insurance business, HSBC Life, is doing just that.

What’s health got to do with wealth? Everything. We know that people’s mental, physical and financial health are tightly interlinked. Each one can affect the others.

Our customers repeatedly tell us that they want all three to prosper concurrently.

It’s why we have an insurance business, HSBC Life, and why it’s a critical part of the bank. We offer customers a total wealth management solution – across their finances and their health.

I strongly believe that customers benefit far more from having a holistic approach that provides solutions for their physical, mental and financial health needs in a joined-up way.

This total wealth management approach, and our customer promise of health, protection and prosperity, is what makes HSBC unique in the market. We’re not just an insurer and we’re not just a bank. You could say that two plus two equals five – essentially the sum of our parts is much greater than our individual elements in isolation.

We want to be the number one wealth management provider and to do that, we must cater for all our customers’ needs.

The advantages

Our unique model means we get to know our clients better. As a bank we have many touchpoints with our customers – more than a pure-play insurance provider would have.

That relationship, coupled with the data and insights we have, means we are in a position to offer personalised, integrated solutions to customers’ individual wealth and health needs. We look at a customer’s profile, assess their needs, their financial and health situation and then can tailor our insurance and banking offering to suit them. And we can adapt this over time so we’re always providing what our customers and their families need at their various life stages. Crucially, they get it all from just one provider.

Our competitors can’t do that. It’s all about leveraging our assets and capabilities to benefit our clients.

Our capabilities

We’re both an insurance manufacturer and a distributer. In some markets, such as mainland China and Singapore, we do both. In other markets, we don’t manufacture insurance products and it doesn’t make sense for us to start a new manufacturing business or to acquire one.

But we still have clients in those markets whose needs we need to serve. So, we pick the best partners we can to work with – ensuring they’re like-minded so we are strategically aligned.

Our target customers

We’ve built our products for both retail and commercial clients. From an individual customers perspective, we’re targeting emerging affluent and up, including high-net worth and ultra-high-net worth. This range of segments has the most protection needs – be it from a health and wellness perspective, protection or from a legacy and wealth transfer angle. Or often, a combination of all of these.

When it comes to businesses, we have solutions for both large corporates and small and medium-sized enterprises. This is where we really come into our own. We can provide commercial customers with bespoke insurance offerings, for example solutions for their employees. Insurance is often the entry point into HSBC for many of these clients – it’s the first product they take with us in many cases.

It’s a key example of how HSBC Life can lead with bringing in new clients. This is particularly relevant in mainland China and India, where insurance penetration is low, but the opportunity is vast.

We have huge growth ambitions for HSBC Life. We’re confident that our key differentiator – our broad, integrated wealth management model, coupled with our international scale and backed by data and analytics – will continue to provide best-in-class holistic solutions for our customers.

For insight on the physical, mental and financial health of people living in Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore, and the UK, check out our HSBC Life +Factor Study 2022 (opens in new window)