Over the next decade, Asian families are expected to transfer an estimated $10 trillion—nearly twice the size of Germany's GDP—to the next generation. But behind that headline figure lies a more nuanced story. As people live longer, they are rethinking how to preserve their own independence while still passing on sufficient wealth to their children.

Asia is the fastest-aging region in the world. Fifteen percent of its population is over the age of 60, and that share is projected to reach 26% by 2050, according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. The region is also home to some of the world's longest-living populations, led by Hong Kong, where life expectancy stands at 85.5 years. In mainland China, life expectancy climbed from roughly 52 in 1963 to 78 today. The pace of this shift is also unusually fast: societies such as Japan, where nearly three in ten people are already 65 or older, and China, whose 60-plus population has surpassed 310 million, are aging at a speed that took many Western countries far longer to reach—compressing the time governments and families have to adapt.

This transformation is more than a demographic story. Greater longevity is reshaping how people think about wealth, care, and responsibility within the family.

For generations, many in Asia assumed that wealth would flow to children—through funding education and home ownership, or through an eventual inheritance—with children later caring for their parents in old age. Today's families, however, are planning differently. Survey data shows that adults in Asia are increasingly prioritizing autonomy, health, and financial security over maximizing the inheritance they leave behind.

The next chapter of Asia's wealth transfer will not be defined solely by the money parents leave behind. It will also be measured by something potentially more valuable: the freedom to support their own longer, more independent lives—and, in turn, to relieve their children of the financial and emotional burdens of caregiving.

Manulife's Asia Care Survey 2026, covering 9,000 adults across nine Asian markets, illustrates how far this shift toward independence has progressed. Men in Asia anticipate funding 14 years of their own care in later life, and women 15 years, at a time when fewer older people than ever are living with their adult children.

Respondents overwhelmingly said they value independence and financial freedom over passing down tangible assets to their family. Regionwide, 83% said securing that freedom was more important than leaving their heirs the maximum possible wealth.

On average, respondents plan to earmark 68% of their money and assets to fund their own costs, including health care, as they age, leaving the remainder to their children. The ratio varied by market: respondents in Taiwan expected to spend the most on their own health and care, at 78%, while those in the Philippines and Indonesia planned to spend the least, both at 60%.

This shift deserves to be welcomed, because it reflects a more sustainable response to longer lives. When people plan to fund their own needs in later life, they ensure they do not become a source of financial strain for the whole family.

That matters especially in Asia, where the traditional model of care is under pressure. Families are smaller, adult children are more mobile, and older people are less likely to live under the same roof as the next generation. The United Nations Population Fund warns that changing family structures and migration are weakening informal support systems for older people across Asia-Pacific, even as many formal health and social-care systems remain unable to keep pace with demand.

In that context, independence is not individualism. It is resilience—giving older adults greater control over how they age, families greater flexibility, and governments and employers greater capacity to sustain retirement systems.

Many in Asia also need to rethink how they unlock the full potential of their savings. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, pension and household assets in Asia remain heavily weighted toward cash and government bonds, while equity holdings are low compared with developed economies. That conservatism does not deliver the returns people need if they hope to live off their assets for longer.

Health planning is equally essential. The survey found that many people have not taken the steps needed to be truly independent. More than 80% said preventive care was essential to a long life, yet only 26% actually attended early health screenings.

Insurers, employers, and governments all have a role to play in helping people live independently in their later years—whether by advancing prevention and more flexible financial solutions, or by building stronger public-private partnerships.

Prevention is a natural starting point. Early screenings can catch illnesses sooner, when treatment is more effective and the chances of full recovery are far higher, yet too many people skip them until it is too late. Insurers can build wellness checks and preventive screenings into the solutions people already hold, as Manulife has begun to do with early cancer detection. Employers can do the same through workplace health plans. Nobody plans a hospital visit for a disease they don't know they have.

Financial solutions must evolve as well. Much of the insurance and savings landscape in Asia still operates on the outdated assumption that retirement at 65 lasts just a decade. That no longer fits a modern saver who may want to work until 70 and expects to manage their own care at 85. Flexible coverage that stretches and adjusts alongside shifting lifespans is needed to make self-reliance genuinely affordable.

Governments, for their part, are tackling these same structural challenges, from updating public pension schemes to launching preventive-health programs. That creates a clear opportunity for the insurance industry to partner with them.

Examples of what works are already scattered across the region. Japan's tax-free NISA accounts show how governments can successfully encourage households to move from static savings to active investments. In Hong Kong, the Mandatory Provident Fund—for which Manulife is the largest provider—demonstrates how compulsory schemes can help turn monthly wages into retirement assets. Singapore's CPF LIFE scheme shows how retirement savings can be converted into income that lasts for life.

The same opportunity for public-private partnership exists in health and later-life care. Hong Kong's Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme, where Manulife is one of the leading providers, already shows how government incentives and private coverage can work together. Under this model, governments set the mandate and tax treatment, while the private sector builds the products and carries the risk. Applied to health, that could mean tax relief for preventive care delivered through insurance plans, or national screening targets that insurers and employers are enlisted to help meet.

People in Asia plan to live long and stay independent, and they are reorganizing their wealth around that goal. The work of the next decade—for insurers, employers, and governments alike—is to build the solutions that make this ambition achievable. How that unfolds will be visible in indicators worth watching over the coming years: participation rates in preventive screenings, the share of household savings shifted into longer-duration assets, and the coverage reach of public-private retirement and health schemes.

The region that manages this successfully will have done something greater than transfer its wealth. It will have shown the world how to live well with a population that lives longer.

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