The upside potential for HNW wealth solutions that harness life insurance is considerable, particularly if advisors and other players are aware of their value, the report said.

International new business sales of wealth management linked to life insurance rose about 25 per cent in 2024 from a year earlier as UK taxes and other forces came to bear. But while growth has been strong, life insurance is still a relatively small field globally, a study finds.

A 2024 Wealth Management Market Study for Utmost Group, carried out by NMG Consulting, said that new business sales in the life insurance space would rise to £67 billion ($76.7 billion) by 2030, delivering an additional £90 billion of new business sales cumulatively between 2025 to 2030.

Source: Utmost Group, NMG Consulting: 2024 Wealth Management Market Study

Areas such as private placement life insurance, still a relative niche area, can be useful for HNW and ultra-HNW individuals seeking ways of holding and transfering wealth in tax-efficient ways. This news service has covered this market for some time. In the case of Utmost, the firm acquired Lombard International Assurance at the end of 2024. Lombard had been one of the more prominent players in that field. 

Tailwinds favouring the sector include a growing and internationally mobile HNW/UHNW population; the significant wave of intergenerational wealth transfer; and an increasing interest in advisory and solution-based outcomes to meet client needs, the report from Utmost said.

It appears that the wider wealth sector is not yet fully getting the message: Insurance-based wealth solutions currently account for around 2 per cent, or £543 billion, of the £28 trillion HNW investable asset market.

“By increasing penetration of insurance-based wealth solutions by 1 per cent to 3 per cent, the global HNW international life insurance market could add over £240 billion of additional assets, growing the market by 50 per cent and surpassing £800 billion,” the report said.

Mark Fairbairn, head of strategy and corporate affairs at Utmost, said: “This landmark Market Study unveils for the first time the size of the rapidly-growing HNW and international life insurance market. It is a market that is set to grow quickly in the coming years as wealth transfer accelerates and the HNW population both expands and becomes more internationally mobile. Insurance-based wealth solutions are currently a small part of the market but are expected to play an increasingly important role in an advisor’s toolkit when serving HNW and UHNW clients over the coming years.” 

For the study, products include unit-linked (notably PPLI and single premium bonds) and non-linked solutions (fonds en euros and permanent insurance) designed to support HNW individuals and families in wealth structuring and preservation, inheritance tax planning, risk management and diversification.

These products are often complex and tend to be distributed via specialist financial advisors or brokers working with private banks, family offices or professional service firms.