Retirement Without a Finish Line: Why Hong Kong’s Wealthy Plan to Keep Working

The survey was conducted in April and May 2026 among 1,000 high-net-worth and mass-affluent individuals across 11 Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern markets, including 250 respondents in Hong Kong. Participants had net worth ranging from US$3 million to more than US$50 million. In Hong Kong, 32 per cent expected to work five to 10 years beyond the retirement age followed by earlier generations, while another 26 per cent planned to continue for as long as possible. The share expecting to work an additional five to 10 years was higher than the 27 per cent recorded in mainland China and Singapore, although below Japan’s 37 per cent. Hong Kong has no statutory retirement age, but many employers use 60 or 65 as the normal point for retirement.

For wealthy individuals, continuing to work can carry a different meaning from delayed retirement among households facing a savings shortfall. Business owners may retain strategic or advisory responsibilities, professionals may reduce their hours without leaving their industries, and investors may increasingly treat management of family assets as a form of work. Across the full regional survey, 46 per cent expected to manage personal or family investments more actively, 34 per cent planned to take advisory roles and 28 per cent were considering a new business or venture. Retirement is therefore becoming a sequence of transitions rather than an abrupt move from full-time employment to permanent inactivity. Income remains useful, but autonomy, professional identity, mental engagement and a sense of purpose also influence the decision to remain economically active.

This changing lifestyle is already affecting portfolio construction. Among Hong Kong respondents, 66 per cent said they were redesigning their portfolios to support flexibility instead of targeting one fixed retirement date. Another 74 per cent were reviewing their plans more frequently because of market, geopolitical or tax developments. A longer working life can reduce the immediate need to sell investments and permit greater exposure to growth assets, but it also creates more complicated liquidity, income and risk-management requirements. Someone moving between employment, consulting, entrepreneurship and family responsibilities may need several pools of capital with different time horizons rather than one retirement portfolio that steadily becomes more conservative.

The weakness is that many affluent families are managing these needs through disconnected arrangements. Only 18 per cent of Hong Kong respondents had a fully integrated plan covering investments, taxation, legal structures, succession and family governance. This is particularly important because 54 per cent held assets or residency across multiple jurisdictions, 77 per cent supported financial dependants and almost half had restructured their wealth plans within the previous five years following changes in family circumstances or life stage. More than half had not yet involved their future heirs in wealth-planning discussions, while 41 per cent lacked confidence in the next generation’s ability to manage family wealth. The result is a risk that individually sound investment, insurance, tax and estate decisions may conflict when viewed at the family level.

Longevity and healthcare make that coordination more urgent. Hong Kong’s life expectancy reached approximately 83 years for men and 88 years for women in 2024, meaning that people leaving full-time employment at 60 or 65 may still face decades of financial and medical needs. The share of residents aged 65 or above, excluding foreign domestic helpers, is projected to rise from 20.5 per cent in 2021 to 36 per cent in 2046. Yet 29 per cent of affluent respondents felt unprepared for a large uninsured medical expense, 26 per cent for a critical illness and 23 per cent for the cost of a family member’s long-term care. These risks affect not only investment returns but also liquidity, insurance coverage, property decisions, cross-border healthcare access and the timing of wealth transfers.

The findings have broader implications for Hong Kong’s financial and labour markets, but they should not be treated as a forecast for the entire population. The study records intentions rather than actual retirement behaviour, covers only 250 Hong Kong respondents and was sponsored by a financial-services company. Affluent individuals also have considerably more freedom to choose consulting, investment or entrepreneurial roles than ordinary employees. For lower-income households, working longer may be driven primarily by inadequate savings or rising living and healthcare costs. Even so, both groups point towards the same structural change: retirement at a single predetermined age is becoming less realistic. Employers will need more flexible roles for experienced workers, while financial institutions will need to move beyond selling separate investment and insurance products towards coordinating income, healthcare protection, taxation, succession and family decision-making over much longer lives.