Manulife Surpass Earnings Target

Manulife, Canada's biggest insurance company, is on track to surpass its earnings target in Asia, as a result of the launch of several innovative products that have been lapped up by wealthy customers and mainland visitors buying policies in Hong Kong.

The Toronto-based insurer's third-quarter results released last week showed a 17 per cent increase in core earnings - profits generated from its primary business activities - in Asia. The region was also the largest profit contributor, accounting for 44 per cent of the group's total earnings. This was up from 37 per cent last year and approaching its target of 50 per cent from Asia by 2027.

Hong Kong, its Asian headquarters, has been a driving force behind the stellar gains. Annualized premiums collected from insurance sales rose 173 per cent year on year to US$570 million in the third quarter, as a rising number of mainland visitors continue buying insurance cover in the city. Mainland visitors' purchases represented 30 per cent of the total, with the rest coming from locals.

In the first half of the year, the city received 21 million ­tourists, an increase of 64 per cent from a year ago, according to data published by the Hong Kong Tourism Board. Two-thirds of them were from the mainland. Manulife has a wide range of products that can fulfil the needs of mainland Chinese visitors in terms of life protection and medical and legacy planning.

The company has made policy sales through agents a priority, investing in the distribution channel and introducing a program called Manulife Pro for top-tier agents in Hong Kong to improve their productivity.

Other Key Markets In Asia-Pacific - China, Singapore, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia - also reported strong sales following the launch of innovative products, customer apps and investment in call centre technology.

Manulife rolled out the new call centre technology in Japan in the third quarter to enable voice-to-text and other artificial intelligence solutions to reply to customers' inquiries. It also introduced new apps in Vietnam and Indonesia in the second quarter.

In May, the firm introduced a new product called Genesis, which provides flexible withdrawal options and estate-planning features. It also created an integrated high-net-worth platform in Hong Kong, Singapore and Bermuda to tap wealthy customers.

High-net-worth customers need insurance protection, medical coverage, wealth management, and estate planning. There are a lot of wealthy customers in Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area and other parts of Asia, which are future growth engines for Manulife.

Manulife and others such as HSBC and UBS are all eyeing a bigger slice of the growing wealth management business in Hong Kong.

Assets under management in Hong Kong rose 2 per cent year on year to more than HK$31 trillion (US$4 trillion) at the end of 2023, according to data from the Securities and Futures Commission. Net fund inflows reached HK$390 billion, a year-on-year increase of over 3.4 times, thanks to the development of the family office business.