Some feedback from Sun Life Asia for you;
New research from Sun Life Asia reveals that the biggest threat to preserving wealth across generations may not be market volatility or family conflict, but whether beneficiaries are ready to manage what they inherit. While legacy planning is becoming more common across Asia, only one in five people say they feel fully prepared to pass on their legacy today.
Sun Life Asia’s latest Passing the Torch: When legacy means more than money report found a significant shift in how people across Asia think about the legacy they want to leave behind. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of people surveyed intend to pass on values, knowledge or life lessons as part of their legacy plan alongside financial assets. At the same time, 70% worry their wealth may not be preserved beyond the next generation and only 20% say they feel fully prepared to pass on their legacy today, reinforcing the growing recognition that a lasting legacy depends not only on what is passed on, but whether future generations are equipped to manage it.
The study also found that legacy planning continues to gain momentum across the region. The proportion of people with a fully documented and communicated legacy plan more than doubled from 10% in 2025 to 22% in 2026, while the proportion with no plan at all fell from 31% to 15%.
David Broom, Chief Client and Distribution Officer at Sun Life Asia, said: “A legacy plan is not complete simply because it’s been written down. It needs to give families a shared understanding of what the wealth is for, what principles should guide its use, and how the next generation can carry that responsibility forward. That is how planning on paper becomes something that can endure in practice.”
Legacy means more than money
For most families, legacy means more than money. Skills and education (33%), family values (32%) and life lessons (31%) rank among the things people most want to leave behind, alongside money and property.
Providing opportunity through education carries particular weight, ranking among the region’s top three legacy priorities overall (48%). Even among those planning to leave financial assets, funding education (45%) sits just behind providing financial support to family members during their lifetime (50%) and essential family needs (52%).
What families want their wealth to achieve tells the same story. Six in 10 (61%) want it to create long-term opportunity for the people they love, and 52% want it to cover essentials such as housing and healthcare. The money still matters, but increasingly as a way to pass on security and possibility rather than as the legacy itself.
Sujoy Ghosh, CEO of Sun Life Private Wealth, said: “Preserving wealth for high-net-worth families is not simply about avoiding family conflict. Having confidence in the decisions that shape that wealth, from investments to how it is structured for the next generation, is equally important. That makes trusted advice critical. Families increasingly need advisors who can bring the right expertise together, navigate complexity and help them make sound decisions across borders and generations.”
Across every wealth tier, the research points to the same underlying shift: that families are increasingly considering not just what they will pass down, but whether the next generation is ready to receive it.
The full report is available here.
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