Asia’s aging population will redefine retirement, care—and independence

Over the next decade, Asian families will transfer an estimated $10 trillion—nearly twice the size of Germany’s GDP—to the next generation. Yet there’s a nuanced story emerging behind that headline figure. As people live longer, they’re rethinking how preserve their own independence while still passing enough wealth to their children.

Asia is the fastest-aging region in the world. Fifteen percent of its population is over the age of 60; that share is projected to rise to 26% by 2050, according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Some of the world’s longest-living populations are also in Asia, led by Hong Kong, where life expectancy is 85.5 years. In mainland China, life expectancy rose from around 52 in 1963 to 78 today.

This transformation isn’t just 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 be passed to children, through the funding of education and home ownership, or leaving an eventual inheritance—with children later caring for their parents in old age. But today’s families are planning things differently. Our 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 won’t be defined only 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, relieve their children of the financial and emotional burdens of caregiving.

Manulife’s Asia Care Survey 2026 of 9,000 adults across nine Asia markets, shows how far this shift towards 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.

The survey’s respondents overwhelmingly 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 amount of wealth.

Respondents plan to earmark an average of 68% of their money and assets to fund their own costs, including health care, as they age, leaving the rest to their children. This ratio varied across markets, with those in Taiwan expecting to spend the most on their own health and care at 78%, and those in the Philippines and Indonesia planning to spend the least, both at 60%.

This shift should be welcomed because it reflects a more sustainable response to longer lives. When people plan to fund their own needs later in life, they are ensuring that they don’t become a source of financial strain for the whole family.

This matters particularly 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.

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Many in Asia need to rethink how they unlock the full potential of their savings. Pension and household assets in Asia are still heavily weighted toward cash and government bonds, while holdings of shares remain low compared with developed economies, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

That conservatism doesn’t give the returns people need if they hope to live off their assets for longer.

Health planning is also essential. Our survey found that many people haven’t taken the necessary steps to be truly independent. Over 80% said preventive care was essential to a long life, yet only 26% actually went to early health screenings.

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

Let’s start with prevention. 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’s 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, too. Much of the insurance and savings landscape in Asia still operates on the outdated assumption that retirement at 65 lasts just a decade. That simply doesn’t fit a modern saver who may want to work until 70 and expects to manage their own care at 85. We need flexible coverage that stretches and adjusts alongside shifting lifespans to make self-reliance truly affordable.

Governments are tackling these same structural challenges, from updating public pension schemes to launching preventive-health programs.

That creates a clear opportunity for our 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.

We see the same opportunity for public-private partnership 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, and 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.

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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