International wealth insurance has sometimes occupied a specialist corner of the wider wealth management industry. But new research suggests that may be changing.
A major study by NMG Consulting, commissioned by Utmost, points to a market that is expanding rapidly as the needs of high-net-worth clients become more international and more complex.
International wealth insurance sales reached £53bn in 2025, up 46% from 2023, equivalent to compound annual growth of more than 20%, while assets under administration now exceed £610bn. NMG forecasts that annual sales could climb further to £87bn by 2030.
Those figures are significant in themselves. But perhaps the more interesting finding is how much potential remains. NMG estimates that only around 2% of advised HNW assets are currently held in international wealth insurance structures. Against an estimated HNW investible asset market of approximately £49trn – outside the United States – penetration remains comparatively low. The research calculates that even a one percentage point increase in HNW allocations to international wealth insurance would significantly increase the size of the market.
So, is international wealth insurance approaching a more significant point in its development?
International mobility is changing the wealth landscape
International mobility is one of areseveral reasons for this. Wealthy individuals and families increasingly have connections across different countries, with assets, beneficiaries and investments potentially spread across multiple jurisdictions. That creates a need for wealth planning structures capable of accommodating circumstances that may change over many years.
Succession is another factor with the transfer of wealth between generations putting greater focus on how assets are owned, structured and ultimately passed on. Rather than treating investment management, tax planning and succession as entirely separate questions, advisers increasingly need to consider how these issues interact within a family’s wider financial arrangements and how they might change over time.
The scale of this wider shift is significant. UBS estimates that wealth transfer will reach more than $83trn over the next 20 to 25 years, through both intergenerational transfers and transfers between spouses. At the same time, Capgemini’s latest World Wealth Report puts global HNWI wealth at $98.3trn at the end of 2025, following growth of 8.7% during the year.
Against that backdrop, the question of how wealth is structured, protected and ultimately transferred between generations is only likely to become more important. NMG’s research suggests these changes are already influencing adviser behaviour. More than 60% of advisers surveyed expect international wealth insurance to become more widely used by HNW clients in the years ahead, while many expect annual market growth of more than 10%. There are also signs that knowledge of these solutions is extending beyond their traditional specialist base. Private banks, wealth managers, family offices and specialist advisers are becoming more familiar with their potential applications, according to the research.
Importantly, this is not a trend confined to one market. NMG’s research spans the UK, Europe, Asia and the Middle East/Rest of World, reflecting the increasingly international nature of both wealth and the advice required to manage it. This matters because international wealth insurance is increasingly sitting alongside, rather than apart from, the wider wealth management conversation.
Scale is becoming more important
Growth is only one part of the market story. NMG’s findings also point to increasing concentration among providers. The 10 largest firms now account for 59% of market flows, compared with 48% five years ago. Around 70% of partners and advisers maintain relationships with fewer than four providers.
As client needs become increasingly sophisticated and cross-border in nature, advisers are placing greater value on providers that combine strong service, technical expertise and trusted relationships with the scale and capabilities required to support international clients.
That trend is particularly relevant for Utmost who commissioned the research. NMG Consulting estimates Utmost holds an 18% share of the international wealth insurance market and has the highest proportion of lead partner relationships across the market. This position gives Utmost a unique perspective on how adviser demand and the market itself are evolving.
More broadly, the findings suggest that future growth is unlikely to be distributed evenly across providers. As advisers consolidate their relationships amongst a relatively small number of insurers, established companies with scale, specialist expertise and strong intermediary relationships could be well positioned as the market develops.
What does all this mean for wealth management advisers?
International wealth insurance structures are, by their nature, designed with the long term in mind. The needs and circumstances of a client taking out a policy today may look very different in 10 or 20 years’ time. Families move, beneficiaries change, wealth passes between generations and tax and regulatory frameworks evolve.
That places particular importance on the provider behind the structure. Advisers need to consider not simply whether a provider can meet a client’s requirements today, but whether it has the scale, experience and long-term focus to continue investing in its business and adapting as those requirements change. Regulatory expertise is an important part of that, particularly where clients, assets and beneficiaries may span several jurisdictions over the lifetime of a policy.
The ability and willingness to invest for the future also matters. Technology, service models, investment capabilities and regulatory expectations will continue to evolve. For a structure intended to support a client over many years, the resilience of the provider and its commitment to developing its proposition should therefore form part of the selection decision.
Reasons for optimism
There is a genuine sense of excitement around what could come next for insurance-based wealth solutions. Perhaps the most interesting question is not simply whether a market currently generating £53bn of annual sales can become larger, but whether changes in global wealth itself are making international insurance structures relevant to a much broader group of clients and advisers.
NMG’s findings suggest this may already be happening. Awareness of international wealth insurance appears to be expanding beyond its traditional specialist audience, while advisers increasingly recognise its potential role in addressing complex, long-term wealth planning needs.
For companies operating in this market, that creates both opportunity and responsibility. Future growth cannot be based simply on product availability. Providers will need the technical knowledge, regulatory expertise, service infrastructure and financial strength to support clients over the long term, while continuing to invest and adapt as client needs and the wider wealth landscape evolve.
Utmost enters that next phase with considerable scale and recent industry recognition. At the 2026 Investment International Awards, Utmost Wealth was named winner of Excellence in Trust and Estate Planning and Company of the Year (Industry) – Global Overall. Those awards come at an interesting moment for the sector. They recognise current achievements, but the NMG research arguably points towards a considerably bigger opportunity still ahead.
Is this the start of something bigger?
Forecasts should always be treated as forecasts, but the direction of travel is difficult to ignore. That confidence is supported not only by market projections, but by the fundamentals underpinning demand. This is a market that has already grown considerably but that remains lightly penetrated within the wider HNW wealth universe. At the same time, rising international mobility is making wealth planning more complex, adviser sentiment is increasingly positive, and one of the largest transfers of wealth between generations is creating new planning needs for families around the world.
For Utmost, who commissioned this research, the findings reinforce a conviction that international wealth insurance has the potential to play a much bigger role in global wealth planning.
Perhaps the most interesting conclusion, therefore, is not that international wealth insurance has grown, it is how much room it may still have to grow.
