\n A high-net-worth policy is written once and lives for decades, during which tax regimes shift, families move and objectives change. On a panel in Singapore last month, Mark Christal argued that this makes flexibility the central design criterion, and that advisers should stop framing the market as a contest between competing products.
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\nAt the recent Hubbis HNW Insurance Summit in Singapore, a session chaired by Roger Chi, Managing Partner at 1291 Group, examined how policies are designed, underwritten and maintained over the long term. Mark Christal, Head of Asia at Utmost, addressed the case for private placement life insurance in Asia, what gives a structure substance, and why he believes there is considerable scope to broaden the range of insurance solutions used across Asia.\n <\/p>\n
Key Takeaways<\/p>\n
\n\tSolutions Rather Than Products:\u00a0Christal repeatedly reframed the discussion away from product selection and towards ongoing planning.
\n\tChange Drives the Design:\u00a0External developments such as tax reform and internal ones such as family mobility both argue, in his view, for structures that can evolve.
\n\tThe Options Are Complementary:\u00a0He described the solutions discussed by the panel as working alongside one another rather than in competition.
\n\tPPLI Is Approaching a Tipping Point in Asia:\u00a0Still in its infancy regionally, on his account, but gaining recognition as a wealth structuring vehicle.
\n\tSubstance and Control Are the Defensibility Levers:\u00a0Additional death cover and discretionary asset management are two ways of strengthening a structure.
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A Specialist Position<\/p>\n
Christal has led Utmost’s business in Asia since 2025, having spent more than 25 years with the group and over two decades in the region’s private wealth and HNW insurance market. He is based in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
Introducing the firm, he described Utmost as a leading global provider of insurance-based wealth solutions with a footprint across 14 key international wealth centres, total assets under administration of \u00a3123.4bn and a presence in Asia stretching back more than three decades, with operations in Hong Kong and Singapore. The regional focus is narrow by design. “Our focus is on PPLI and VUL,” he said. “All our resources are focused on the delivery and support of those solutions.”<\/p>\n
He also flagged what he sees as an increasingly important and differentiating part of the offer. There is, he said, “very much emphasis on technical support, which we believe is more and more important by the day”. For structures that must hold up under scrutiny across multiple jurisdictions, that emphasis is less a marketing line than a description of where the work sits.<\/p>\n
Solutions, Not Products<\/p>\n
Asked about product selection, Christal made a point of the vocabulary. “The key focus for everyone really is around solutions,” he said. “We keep mentioning the word solutions, not products. I think that’s key.”<\/p>\n
His argument was that the planning exercise is continuous rather than transactional. “It’s not a one-off process,” he said. “It requires an ongoing and holistic and ongoing approach to wealth planning”<\/p>\n
That framing carries a practical implication for advisers. A policy sold and filed in isolation is not a completed piece of planning, and the review discipline applied to a family’s investment portfolio arguably belongs to its insurance arrangements too.<\/p>\n
Change as the Only Constant<\/p>\n
Christal’s explanation for why flexibility matters rested on the pace of change around the client. “To me, change is one constant that we see,” he said. “Change is driving a lot of complexity.”<\/p>\n
He identified pressure from two directions. Externally, developments such as tax reform in the markets where families live and hold assets create the need for new structures and revised plans. Internally, the family needs change, and here he singled out mobility, coupled with succession plans that drives the requirement for more flexibility and portability than they once did.<\/p>\n
His conclusion followed directly. “When you look at potential solutions, you need to look at those that provide flexibility and can stand the test of time, that means the ability to adapt to changing backdrop and meet the families evolving needs.”<\/p>\n
Complementary, Not Competing<\/p>\n
He was equally clear that this is not a market in which one structure wins. “I think it’s not a one-size-fits- all solution,” he said. “A number of the solutions we all talk about today can be complementary.”<\/p>\n
That observation led him to a broader point about the state of the market. Looking across Hong Kong and Singapore, he said, “certain markets can be quite polarised in terms of what solutions are utilised”, with local practice concentrating around a narrower set of products as opposed to a broader adoption across the full wealth planning toolkit.<\/p>\n
He framed that as an opportunity rather than a criticism. “I think there’s an opportunity to broaden out the depth of insurance solutions significantly across the whole Asia market,” he said.<\/p>\n
PPLI Approaching a Tipping Point<\/p>\n
On PPLI specifically, Christal was candid about where Asia sits relative to Europe. “PPLI in Asia is still in its relative infancy I would say,” he said, contrasting this with Europe, where in his account the structure is embedded as a go-to solution.<\/p>\n
What has changed, on his reading, is the level of interest. Judging from the enquiries the business receives, he said, “it’s reaching a tipping point”, with advisers and clients “actually recognising the value of PPLI as a wealth structuring holding vehicle”.<\/p>\n
He listed the attributes driving that recognition as flexibility, portability and simplification, the last of which matters more than it may sound. Where a family holds assets across several accounts and jurisdictions, consolidating these into a single policy can reduce the reporting burden as well as the administrative one.<\/p>\n
Substance and Control<\/p>\n
Turning to how a PPLI structure is made more robust, Christal identified two levers.<\/p>\n
The first lever is insurance substance. In its standard configuration, a PPLI policy may provide a death benefit of around 101 percent. That may be sufficient in many circumstances, but it may not be enough where the client is exposed to a jurisdiction that applies greater scrutiny to insurance-based structures. In those cases, additional death cover could help remove any potential challenges around the policy\u2019s life insurance characteristics. As Christal put it, “there is the flexibility with our solutions to add death cover to address a need for further substance.”<\/p>\n
The second is control over the underlying assets. “How are the underlying assets managed?” he asked. In certain markets, clients can manage the assets directly. However, the most common approach would be for the client\u2019s asset manager or private bank to carry out this function in a discretionary or advisory capacity. For some markets an asset manager appointed in a full discretionary capacity, thereby removing any policyholder involvement may be the appropriate structure to adopt.<\/p>\n
He noted that this second requirement can suit external asset managers rather than hinder them. From an EAM perspective, he said, PPLI can allow the manager to retain the investment-management relationship while the client gains the benefit of the insurance-based structure. Whether any particular configuration achieves its intended treatment will of course depend on the client’s jurisdiction and on local legal and tax advice.<\/p>\n
Structures Built to Endure<\/p>\n
For larger and more complex cases, Christal’s prescription was collaborative. The starting point, he said, is to “identify and start collaboration with the right technical specialists in the market”, which can include the carrier, the broker and private client\u2019s adviser, all working in partnership to deliver a solution aligned with the client\u2019s long-term goals. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The test he set was duration. The aim is a structure that can “endure across lifetimes” and deliver its intended benefits “across the evolving needs of the whole family”, rather than one that satisfies the client’s position on the day it is issued.<\/p>\n
On Recent Change: Clarity Still to Come<\/p>\n
The chair also raised recent developments affecting families with mainland China exposure, and the question of holding PPLI within a trust. Christal was careful not to get ahead of the analysis.<\/p>\n
“We’re still reviewing the updates and obtaining a legal opinion, and I think there will still be some clarity to come through,” he said, describing it as a moving picture that market participants are still digesting. He noted that the firm’s tax and legal counsel for Asia was examining the position in detail.<\/p>\n
He did offer a preliminary view, framed conditionally. A properly designed policy within a well-defined investment-linked insurance framework could, he said, still support tax deferral, but the interaction with the new rules remained under legal review. He also said gains from withdrawals would remain taxable, while VUL, with its high payout on death, might have a strong role to play. The panel did not present trust-owned PPLI, VUL or any other structure as a settled route to deferral, and other panellists likewise indicated that formal opinions were still being prepared.<\/p>\n
The Long View<\/p>\n
What distinguished Christal’s contribution was the timeframe he applied. Whether a wealth structure or solution still works after a family or beneficiaries have relocated, the tax and regulatory landscape affecting HNW families has shifted, and a generation has turned over is the key question, and one that cannot be answered by an illustration.<\/p>\n
His answer was to build flexibility into plans from the outset on the assumption that needs will evolve and the plan will need revisiting. On his account, the opportunity now is for Asia’s insurance market to broaden as advisers make greater use of complementary structures rather than relying on a narrower set of solutions.<\/p>\n
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