The international wealth insurance market has grown significantly over the past two years, with sales increasing markedly from £36.4bn to £53bn between 2023 and 2025, according to the latest Utmost market study conducted by NMG Consulting.
That is a sizeable expansion, reflecting a longer-term evolution in the needs and priorities of high-net-worth and internationally mobile families and how their wealth strategies must adapt to meet their long-term priorities.
Yet the future opportunity for financial advisers is even more significant.
The international wealth insurance market still represents only around 2 per cent of the approximately £28tn global HNW advised asset market (excluding the US).
International wealth insurance is a cross-border, insurance-based financial product designed for HNW individuals to structure, grow and transfer their assets.
We are already seeing greater institutional familiarity and awareness of international wealth insurance, alongside an expansion in advisory distribution through private banks and wealth managers, which should drive greater adoption of these solutions.
Meanwhile, with expanding pools of global wealth, there is considerable room for growth as families become more internationally mobile, tax regimes increase in complexity, and the focus on succession planning grows.
Our market study suggests that these structural trends could drive international wealth insurance sales up to £87bn by the end of the decade, driven by continued growth in specialist resourcing, placement capacity and higher average case sizes.
Beyond traditional boundaries
There are several major underlying drivers behind the recent growth of international wealth insurance.
In the short term, changes in the macroeconomic and tax environment across different jurisdictions are prompting HNW families to reassess their wealth strategies, driving a shift in priorities and a keener focus on long-term multi-generational wealth planning.
Simultaneously, wealth itself is becoming more mobile.
It is no longer unusual for clients to live in one jurisdiction, hold investments in another, and have children studying in a separate region.
This creates a different set of requirements from those faced by clients whose wealth, residency and family arrangements are concentrated in a single jurisdiction.
It also requires planning strategies that reflect the possible future need for portability.
Tax is also becoming a more important consideration, as governments around the world continue to evolve their fiscal policies.
For families and their advisers, this makes it increasingly important to understand how existing or future changes to tax regimes could affect long-term wealth and succession planning.
For internationally mobile families, this can be especially complicated, as a change in residency or a move to another jurisdiction can have a big impact on their tax liabilities.
For families thinking about succession, the question is no longer simply how assets should be invested today, but how they can be managed, and transferred, as circumstances change.
It creates a need to think further ahead.
Planning for succession at the point when it becomes imminent can leave families dealing with issues that could have been addressed much earlier.
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So, the strongest planning strategies are those that anticipate change rather than react to it.
This is where the relevance of international wealth insurance is increasingly being recognised by intermediaries because these solutions can provide a framework through which clients can manage investments alongside long-term objectives.
This will be critical as we approach a period of unprecedented wealth transfer, which will be a multi-decade process rather than a single event, supporting demand for solutions that can provide greater continuity and flexibility.
A dedicated solution for mobile clients
Given these structural tailwinds, it is little surprise to see the strong momentum within the international wealth insurance market.
These solutions can specifically address the needs of HNW, ultra-HNW and internationally mobile individuals and families who have complex wealth accumulation, portability and transfer needs.
Their key benefits are oriented to facilitate efficient wealth planning and structuring on a flexible and compliant basis.
Increasingly, these solutions are also supporting improved access to private market investments as these customers move alternative assets from satellite allocations into the core of their portfolios.
Two-pronged adviser opportunity
The mainstreaming of international wealth insurance alongside key demographic and regulatory drivers creates a chance for advisers to increase their presence in a market that remains significantly underpenetrated.
Growing wealth pools and an expanding HNW population will naturally support future growth expectations at a baseline level, by increasing the number of potential customers and assets for these solutions.
International wealth planning is increasingly moving beyond a specialist requirement for a relatively narrow group of HNW and UHNW families and becoming relevant to a broader segment of the wealth management market.
However, despite strong alignment with customer needs, adviser awareness and appetite for these solutions, alongside specialist capacity, have typically weighed on adoption of international wealth solutions.
This is now changing, creating vast potential for the market to expand sizeably over the coming years.
We are seeing intermediaries, private banks and wealth managers become more familiar with these products and, as distribution expands, advisers will be increasingly well placed to identify where flexible, long-term strategies may help their clients.
Moreover, as wealth becomes more global and tax changes increase focus on wealth transfer, demand from internationally mobile and affluent families for more flexible and future-proofed solutions that can support their longer-term objectives is only likely to increase.
Rising demand raises the importance of specialist expertise.
Cross-border wealth planning can involve multiple legal, tax and regulatory considerations, meaning advisers will increasingly require the ability to bring investment management, wealth structuring and succession planning within a framework that can adapt as a client’s circumstances, residency or family arrangements evolve over time.
The opportunity for advisers is therefore twofold; not simply about accessing a growing market but about helping their clients successfully navigate a more complex and international wealth landscape.
Mark Fairbairn is head of strategy and corporate affairs at insurer Utmost
