Super rich Chinese eye retirement communities

More than half of multimillionaire respondents in China said they may opt for high-end retirement communities in future and healthcare services are the top concerns for retirement planning, according to a report.

Taikang Life Insurance Co Ltd and Hurun Report, a leading authority on China's wealthy, jointly released the Retirement Planning and Healthcare of Chinese High Net Worth Individuals 2015.

The report, based on a study of 1,119 Chinese with net wealth in excess of 10 million yuan ($1.57million) across the country, revealed that 70 percent want to learn more about high-end retirement communities.

The survey also revealed that male respondents are more interested than females. The younger the respondent the higher their enthusiasm towards retirement communities, it said.

Professional healthcare expertise at retirement communities is the main attraction for Chinese multimillionaires. Next come meals, regular physical examinations, leisure activities, natural environment and fitness facilities.

As of May, there were 1.21 million mainland Chinese individuals with personal wealth of 10 million yuan or more, an increase of 120,000 from the previous year, a record growth rate of 11 percent. For individuals with 100 million yuan or more, the growth rate hit a staggering 16 percent, to reach 78,000 individuals.

As many as 90 percent of China's individuals with net income above 10 million yuan currently have life insurance products, the report said.

The average premium paid by each individual is $5,800 and the scale of annual premiums paid by high net worth individuals reached $6.3 billion, making up 4 percent of China's total life insurance purchases.

Of those with life insurance products, 90 percent have health insurance, 82 percent endowment insurance and 73 percent casualty insurance. This indicates that most superrich Chinese buy insurance as a safeguard rather than an investment tool.