The boundaries between health and wealth increasingly intersect and a new report from China's Hywin in conjunction with this news service explores the many facets.

China-based Hywin Wealth has issued a global healthcare trends report in conjunction with WealthBriefingAsia. The 44-page study highlights how high net worth individuals and families are putting more focus on health and wellbeing, particularly following the pandemic.

The boundaries of health and wealth are increasingly blurred – a fact reflected in how, last year, Hywin bought controlling stakes in several clinical centres across China. In June 2022, it launched the FactSet Hywin Global Healthcare Index tracking big-cap pharma/biotech/healthcare service firms, and subsequently several financial products. In August 2022, the firm took a controlling stake in Life Infinity as part of a push into the country’s health management sector. (See an interview with Hywin here.)

To register for a copy of the report, click here.

The report launch ceremony in Hong Kong yesterday was joined by more than 100 representatives from global asset managers, private banks, healthcare operators, as well as Hywin’s clients in Greater China.
 

“For the global HNW individuals, wealth and health have become one ‘continuum’ topic, as the challenges and milestones in life tend to impact and pertain to health and wealth, at the same time,” Hywin said in a statement about the new study. “The wealthy not only search for healthcare providers who can truly listen and understand their health needs, but also, as investors, they tend to participate actively in the booming healthcare space, which is a mega theme expected to deliver strong returns across public and private markets.”

“HNW individuals have always been interested in lifespan – longevity – but are only just starting to be interested in healthspan – the number of disease-free years that someone lives,” it continued. “The possession of wealth ought to lead to greater and longer health, but it very often does not. HNW individuals’ inclination to be in control sometimes works against them in their healthcare situations.”

The report notes that first-generation entrepreneurs and their second-and-third-generation descendants tend to differ in their assumptions and ideas about health. Wealth managers and family offices want to increase their health propositions, but many are constrained by insufficient resources or weak operational knowledge.

Hywin argues that firms which operate health assets in-house and provide holistic diagnostics/advisory/delivery can gain a strategic edge.

On a related theme, the report points out that biotech, pharma services, home health and life sciences are among the top investment choices for wealthy individuals and family offices.

“Health is the foundation of everything,” Shuming Zhu (pictured below), a member of the board of directors of Hywin Holdings, said. “Hywin has been advising our clients on their financial assets and accumulated substantive and validated knowledge on clients. While managing their family wealth, our advisors gain their trust and share the clients’ concerns and interests, and more of our conversations revolve around health, age, longevity, rejuvenation, and how to live life to the full. This report is a result from and also a guide for the extensive healthcare conversations that Hywin is having with our clients in Asia.”

Shuming Zhu

“We are pleased to launch this important report in collaboration with WealthBriefingAsia, which sheds light on the thriving healthcare sector intersecting with the wealth management sector,” Lawrence Lok (pictured below), chief financial officer of Hywin Holdings, said. “Hywin’s strategy is to serve the two most important and systemic needs of wealth and health for China’s affluent and HNW population.”

Lawrence Lok