Savings insurance strengthens wealth succession planning, easing parents’ concerns in the AI era and helping children fulfil their dreams and live their lives.

In the era of rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), parents are full of expectations for their children’s future, yet also face many uncertainties. As parents, it is only natural to want to prepare more for their children’s future, so they have greater room to grow and more confidence to embrace what lies ahead. As a parent, have you also found yourself repeatedly thinking about these questions late at night:

• If a child is unfortunately born with a congenital condition, would traditional insurance refuse cover or impose a higher premium, leaving them without protection?  
• When the child turns 18, with university tuition, overseas study, and start-up capital for entrepreneurship all due, would the family’s cash flow suddenly drop off a cliff?  
• If you were unfortunately to become incapacitated or pass away, would everything you have carefully prepared for your child be frozen, squandered, or even fail to be passed on smoothly because the child is still too young or not mature enough? 

These are precisely the concerns of Hong Kong’s middle class and expectant parents today regarding “starting line anxiety”, the “cash flow deep-end”, and “incapacity succession risk”.

The “Prudential Child Career Planning Survey¹” shows:  

• 77.3% of Hong Kong parents have not yet taken concrete action for their children in the AI era;  
• 87.7% of Hong Kong parents are most worried about the “35-year-old career threshold²”;  

Long-term life planning such as education, entrepreneurship and home ownership requires substantial funding, yet many families are underprepared. Taking overseas study as an example, only about 17.4% of parents in Hong Kong have already prepared more than half of the funds required for their children, showing that the long-term funding gap remains significant.

The above figures reflect the gap between parents’ awareness and actions. By using insurance as an effective savings and protection tool, parents can plan ahead. Prudential’s new “Prudential Future Shining Savings Insurance Series³” (the “Future Shining”) is designed specifically for expectant parents and young families, offering guaranteed wealth accumulation and lifelong life protection from pregnancy onwards. Key product features include:  

Traditional life insurance products usually only allow applications after the child is born (or even 15 days later). If a congenital condition is identified, the application may be declined or subject to an additional premium.  

As a one-stop savings and life protection solution, “啟耀未來” breaks with market convention. It is the first in the market⁴ to accept applications from as early as 20 weeks of pregnancy. Even if the baby’s health encounters an unexpected issue after birth, cover takes effect the moment the baby is born, safeguarding the child’s well-being.

The plan offers a high guaranteed element and solid protection, addressing children’s needs for education, home purchase and entrepreneurship. On the 18th policy anniversary, a one-off guaranteed cash payment equivalent to 105% of total premiums paid is disbursed, regardless of market fluctuations, representing the highest level in the market⁵. After the payment, the policy value continues to grow, enabling parents to provide lifelong protection for their children, with a death benefit of at least 180% of total premiums paid⁶. Even after withdrawing the guaranteed cash payment, the death benefit remains unchanged. The plan also includes a guaranteed insurability option, allowing the child to take out an additional new whole-life life insurance plan with cover of up to 360% of total premiums paid, without the need for health evidence, thereby adding protection at key life stages such as marriage and having children.

All parents wish to give their children regular rewards as encouragement. The plan includes an Academic Excellence Award to reward outstanding examination results or admission to top universities, including TOEFL examinations, HKDSE, and outstanding achievements such as admission offers from universities ranked among the world’s top 20. The award amount can be as high as USD5,000, recognising the child’s exceptional performance.  

Parents accumulate wealth for their children, but if a child inherits a substantial sum before they are mature enough, they may spend impulsively and quickly lose that steady financial support for the future. The most comprehensive solution of “啟耀未來”⁷ — the policy custodian option — allows parents to designate a contingent policyholder and custodian for a minor. If the parent, as policyholder, passes away or loses legal capacity, the custodian may temporarily manage the policy with limited authority until the child reaches a specified age, date or life milestone (such as graduation or marriage), ensuring a seamless transfer of wealth.

“啟耀未來” is not only a savings tool designed for children, but also a long-term commitment from parents to their children, helping them face the uncertainties of the AI era. Whether used for start-up investment, building a business, or helping the next generation settle down, buy a home and start a family, it provides a solid financial foundation and a more manageable life plan.

In conjunction with “Shine Bright Future” Savings Protection, Prudential has comprehensively upgraded “Prudential WeDo Tomorrow Multicurrency Plan”⁸ (hereinafter referred to as “WeDo Tomorrow”). The two plans work in tandem to give children a strong head start, while also enabling the long-term sustainable transfer of family wealth across generations.

Combining potentially high returns with powerful legacy features, “WeDo Tomorrow” supports multiple major currencies, including USD, HKD and RMB, with the expected total return at the 25th policy year exceeding 4 times the total premiums⁹. The upgraded version further strengthens trust elements¹⁰, including more flexible designated legacy arrangements and a new policy contingent trustee option, making wealth planning even more comprehensive.

Looking ahead, the next generation will be able to explore freely in a borderless world — whether pursuing overseas studies, building a global career, or starting a business and living across borders, without geographical constraints. The multicurrency design of “WeDo Tomorrow” is created precisely for this purpose: a choice of currencies at application, followed by the flexibility to switch the policy currency later on, ensuring that wherever your children are, and whatever the economic environment, they can easily meet living expenses, allowing your family wealth to cross borders with their dreams and be passed down from generation to generation. 

The upgraded version of “WeDo Tomorrow” further strengthens trust elements: 

“WeDo Tomorrow” offers high potential returns and, when combined with the guaranteed elements of “Shine Bright Future”, creates a complementary solution that fully meets needs ranging from education savings to intergenerational legacy planning. 

Mrs Wong, aged 30, has been married to her husband for two years and is eager to have a child of her own. When she learnt that she was pregnant, she could hardly wait to purchase insurance for her baby, in order to obtain an all-round protection plan and build a guaranteed savings fund and lifelong protection for her child’s future. With a budget of US$150,000 for insurance coverage, Mrs Wong specifically focused on pregnancy protection.

When her pregnancy reached 20 weeks, she immediately took out “啟耀未來” for her unborn child. She envisages that after the child is born, the plan can provide lifelong life protection. If the child encounters health challenges such as premature birth or congenital conditions, the coverage will not be interrupted as it was arranged during pregnancy.

To ensure the child has sufficient funds for education when growing up, a one-off guaranteed cash payment equivalent to 105% of total premiums⁶ is expected to be payable in the 18th year for overseas study expenses, while the policy value continues to grow.

Mrs Wong is concerned that she may not be able to accompany her child into adulthood. If she were to pass away before her child turns 18, the child would have no experience in managing wealth. Through the policy holder replacement option under “啟耀未來”, Mrs Wong can appoint the child as the contingent policyholder and her husband as the policy trustee, enabling a seamless transfer of the policy to the child upon graduation from university.

Mrs Wong believes that “啟耀未來” is the best gift for a newborn, as it allows the child to receive guaranteed cash payouts, while also providing long-term growth potential and life protection. At the same time, she also takes out “信守明天”, which uses flexible income to provide ongoing funding for her child’s home purchase and marriage, with total return potential helping wealth grow significantly.

Mrs Wong said: “In the fast-changing AI era, the combination of ‘啟耀未來’ and ‘信守明天’ gives me greater peace of mind and helps pave the way for my child’s future.” 

For the technology professional Mr Chan and Mrs Chan, both in their thirties and parents of four-year-old Xiao Ming, they can see that AI will significantly disrupt the workplace. At the same time, they are looking forward to the entirely new opportunities brought by AI application development, digital entrepreneurship and related fields. As such, they have chosen to take out the combined solution of 「啟耀未來」 and 「信守明天」 to lay a solid foundation for their child’s future.

They plan to use the guaranteed cash value payable in the 18th policy year under 「啟耀未來」, together with the non-guaranteed dividends, for an expected total cash value of approximately 1.74 times the total premiums, as university tuition fees and seed funding for AI professional courses for their child. If Xiao Ming performs exceptionally well academically and is admitted to one of the top 20 universities, he may also receive an additional academic excellence reward of up to US$5,000 from the plan, which can be further used as seed funding for an entrepreneurship incubator.

In the face of the high uncertainty of the AI era, 「信守明天」 is expected to deliver a total return of more than four times the total premiums⁹ in the 25th policy year. Parents may make use of the self-chosen income option to customise cash flow from when their child turns 25. This funding can support the child’s career transition or start-up plans, for example, if Xiao Ming were to found an AI technology company or develop smart applications. If Xiao Ming wishes to change direction in middle age, there would also be funds available for further study, side-business development or skills upgrading.

Mr Chan said: “AI is changing too quickly; the combination of 「啟耀未來」 and 「信守明天」 gives our child flexible capital, enabling them to pursue entrepreneurial independence without fear of the ever-changing and unpredictable world.” 

From now until 30 June, if you apply for “Enlighten Your Future” and pay the full premium in a single lump sum, you can enjoy a limited-time double reward of up to 70% of the first-year annual premium. If you also apply for “Trust Tomorrow”, “Trust Tomorrow” can enjoy an additional 2% premium rebate, equivalent to a total of up to 72% of the first-year annual premium¹¹ .

For more information about “Prudential Enlighten Your Future Savings Insurance Series” and “Prudential Trust Tomorrow Multi-Currency Plan”, please visit the website or contact a Prudential financial consultant.

Insurance product information is provided by the advertiser 

Notes:

1. Source: Prudential children’s career planning survey
2. The “35-year-old workplace threshold” refers to age discrimination whereby employees aged 35 and above face a higher risk of redundancy and greater difficulty finding employment, particularly in the technology and internet sectors in Mainland China.
3. The Prudential Enriching Future Savings Insurance Series refers to Prudential Enriching Future Savings Insurance and Prudential Enriching Future Savings Insurance – Love One, with the products provided by Prudential Hong Kong Limited (“Prudential”). For product details, please refer to the product brochure.
4. The above description of “market first” is based on Prudential’s understanding and interpretation of the current market information, and a comparison conducted by Prudential as at 24 December 2025 of whole life insurance plans without critical illness cover publicly offered to individual customers by major life insurance companies in Hong Kong.
5. The above description of “market highest” refers to the total guaranteed cash value payable up to the 18th policy anniversary. This description is based on Prudential’s understanding and interpretation of the current market information, and a comparison conducted by Prudential as at 24 December 2025 of whole life savings insurance plans with cash payout publicly offered to individual customers by major life insurance companies in Hong Kong. The above statement is based on a 5-year premium payment term, USD policy, total premiums of USD50,000, and assuming no policy changes are made.
6. The guaranteed cash value payable is 105% of the notional amount, and the guaranteed death benefit is 180% of the notional amount, where the notional amount is equal to the standard annualised total premium.
 7. The above description of this plan’s policy successor option as the “most comprehensive solution” specifically refers to the feature whereby, upon the death or loss of capacity of the original policyholder, the policy successor may temporarily manage the policy for the minor contingent policyholder or designated policyholder, and allows the policy legacy to be completed on the specified date, at the specified age, or upon the occurrence of a specified life event. This is based on Prudential’s understanding and interpretation of current market information as at 24 December 2025 in respect of savings and life insurance plans publicly offered to individual customers by major life insurance companies in Hong Kong.
8. Prudential Faithful Tomorrow Multi-Currency Plan is provided by Prudential Hong Kong Limited (“Prudential”). For product details, please refer to the product brochure.
9. The above expected total return is not guaranteed and is based on a 5-year premium payment term, USD policy, total premiums of USD50,000, and calculated over a 25-year policy term, assuming no policy changes are made. Expected returns include guaranteed cash value and non-guaranteed bonuses, but future non-guaranteed returns may be affected by various factors, including investment performance or future outlook.
10. “With trust elements” refers to the product features of the “Self-directed Legacy” and “Self-directed Income Option” under this plan, and does not mean this insurance plan is the same as setting up a trust.
11. The double reward includes a premium rebate offer and a one-off upfront guaranteed preferential rate discount for the whole premium term, amounting in total to up to 70% of the first year’s premium, applicable when simultaneously taking out any plan under the Prudential Enriching Future Savings Insurance Series and the “Prudential Faithful Tomorrow Multi-Currency Plan”; the latter can also enjoy an additional 2% premium rebate. The offer period runs until 30 June 2026, or may end earlier without prior notice. Please consult your financial adviser for details and refer to the relevant Prudential Enriching Future Savings Insurance Series leaflet and Prudential Faithful Tomorrow Multi-Currency Plan leaflet.

This article is for information sharing only and does not constitute investment advice. The product is underwritten by Prudential Hong Kong Limited, and the details are subject to the policy terms and conditions. 

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.