【Children/Middle-Aged/Elderly】When to Buy Which Insurance? A Step-by-Step Look at 5 Life Stages

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Childhood Growth Period: Accidents Are Prone to Happen Due to Falls and Collisions

As a young child, you need not worry about financial burdens, as your parents are your greatest support. The most significant risk you face is the risk of injury or illness. During youth, awareness of potential dangers is often lower, and accidental injuries are common—ranging from minor cuts to severe bone injuries requiring hospitalisation. Many parents opt for private medical services in such cases. Therefore, when parents assess insurance needs for their children, they should consider whether they can afford the related medical expenses. Medical insurance, such as Voluntary Health Insurance and Personal Accident Insurance, can be extremely useful in these situations.

Early Career Stage: Focus on Mortality Risk

After leaving school and entering the workforce, it is important to take responsibility for your future. Being young, healthy, and without financial burdens is no longer an excuse to overlook insurance. The first consideration should be whether, in the unfortunate event of your passing, your dependents, including your parents, can receive a death benefit to alleviate financial burdens. In this regard, Term Life Insurance (also known as Pure Life Insurance) offers lower premiums and may be suitable for those just starting their careers.

On the other hand, purchasing critical illness insurance, such as Whole Life Critical Illness Insurance (also known as Savings-Type Critical Illness Insurance) or Term Critical Illness Insurance (also known as Pure Critical Illness Insurance), ensures that if you are unfortunately diagnosed with a specified critical illness in the future, you can receive compensation to cover medical and living expenses. Additionally, if you have been insured with medical and accident insurance from an early age and the associated risks have not significantly decreased, it is advisable to continue maintaining these policies.

Prime Earning Years, Family Establishment Period: Heavier Responsibilities on Your Shoulders

As we age, health risks increase, and financial burdens grow. During the prime working years and the stage of starting a family, medical insurance and life risk coverage remain essential to transfer risks. Additionally, property and personal liability risks also emerge, such as after purchasing a home, a car, or hiring domestic help. In such cases, you may consider purchasing home, car, and domestic helper insurance to avoid losses due to accidents, as well as potential legal expenses and compensation.

Longevity risk is often overlooked. As Hong Kong residents live longer, the retirement savings or assets initially prepared may not suffice to support a retirement spanning decades. At this point, insurance products that assist in retirement planning, such as Qualifying Deferred Annuity Policies (commonly known as tax-deductible annuities), can be considered.

It is worth noting that during the peak working years, apart from supporting parents, you may also need to support children and bear significant mortgage payments for property purchases. As a result, the demand for life insurance coverage often reaches its highest point. In simple terms, this ensures that if an unfortunate incident occurs to you, your family can manage the heavy financial pressure. A whole life insurance policy with a savings component may be a good option.

Life Harvest Period: The Gap in Death Protection Disappears

As you age, you gradually enter the harvest period of life. Your children begin to enter the workforce, and you are no longer the sole financial pillar of the family. The risk of death significantly decreases, while the risks of illness and longevity increase. In other words, at this stage, the most important aspects to review are medical insurance and annuities. Among these, the Lifetime Annuity Plan offered by HKMC Annuity may be an option for seniors to hedge against longevity risk.

Lastly, if you wish to understand how different life experiences impact your current and future insurance needs, or at which stage you might face the largest gap in death risk coverage, you can use the assessment tool provided by the Insurance Authority. You are also encouraged to use the 10Life Insurance Decoder to compare insurance products.

Further Reading:
【Personal Accident Insurance Comparison 2025】Which plan offers the best coverage for physiotherapy and bone-setting? Which accident insurance pays the most? (With exclusive actuarial ratings)
【Senior Medical Insurance】Can a 60-year-old purchase insurance? What should be noted when applying?

Note: Information is accurate as of 20 May 2022

This English version of this article has been generated by machine translation powered by AI. It is provided solely for reference purposes. In the event of any discrepancy or inconsistency between this translation and the original Chinese version, the Chinese version shall prevail.

Last updated: 2 Feb 2026

10Life Editorial Team

Our team of professional content researchers focussing on insurance

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10Life Editorial Team

Our team of professional content researchers focussing on insurance

About Author

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Table of Content

【Children/Middle-aged/Elderly】When to buy which insurance? A detailed look at 5 key life stages

Childhood Growth Period: Accidents Are Prone to Happen Due to Falls and Collisions

Early Career Stage: Focus on Mortality Risk

Prime Earning Years, Family Establishment Period: Heavier Responsibilities on Your Shoulders

Life Harvest Period: The Gap in Death Protection Disappears

Table of Content

Trending

Table of Content

【Children/Middle-aged/Elderly】When to buy which insurance? A detailed look at 5 key life stages

Childhood Growth Period: Accidents Are Prone to Happen Due to Falls and Collisions

Early Career Stage: Focus on Mortality Risk

Prime Earning Years, Family Establishment Period: Heavier Responsibilities on Your Shoulders

Life Harvest Period: The Gap in Death Protection Disappears

Table of Content

Trending