FWD: Asia’s Middle Class Anxious About Financial Well-Being
The majority of Asia’s middle class feels financially anxious and unprepared for retirement, according to a survey by Hong Kong-based insurer FWD Group.
Nearly three-quarters (71 percent) of middle class consumers in Asia feel anxiety about their overall financial well-being, according to a survey by FWD Group. The top three concerns cited are the rising expenses from daily living (71 percent), high cost of healthcare (43 percent), and unexpected job loss or a reduction in income (37 percent).
As a result, their goals are primarily based on a two to three-year time frame with a focus on building a basic safety net for their families (44 percent) and achieving financial independence (37 percent).
«It’s clear that there is a shared sense of financial vulnerability across generations of middle classes in Asia. As people live longer and family structures evolve, building the financial resilience to protect loved ones and turn savings into sustainable lifetime income will become increasingly essential,» said Lee Yen Ho, group chief distribution and proposition officer at FWD Group.
The survey was conducted with Ipsos with over 9,000 middle class consumers aged 21 to 65 years old across the 10 markets: Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
