Liu Lübing, HWP: Expanding Cognitive Boundaries and Driving Innovation in the Longevity Era

In the broader health and wellness sector, are there careers with promising growth prospects? While tracking industry evolution, VCBeat has also noted the emergence of a new profession: the Health and Wealth Planner (HWP). This role offers annual compensation that can reach RMB 1 million or even higher. What lies behind the strong potential of this enviable career path? We interviewed several Taikang HWP professionals to seek answers. This article is the third installment in our interview series.

“You are not just choosing a job, but a career worth dedicating your life to.” This is how Liu Lubing summarized his reason for becoming an HWP (Health and Wealth Planner).

In 2015, Liu Lübing, a social work student at Dominican University of California in the United States, was inspired by the vibrant momentum of U.S. healthcare reform. During his studies, he interned at an NGO dedicated to promoting government healthcare reform policies, where he engaged in insurance consultation services.

This internship experience provided Liu Lübing with a systematic understanding of the insurance and healthcare landscape in the United States: “On one hand, after decades of development and accumulation, the U.S. commercial insurance market is highly developed, and Americans have a strong acceptance of insurance; U.S. households have formed the habit of regular insurance planning. On the other hand, without commercial insurance, it is virtually impossible to navigate the U.S. healthcare system, as medical costs would be prohibitively high.”

Later, Liu Lübing went on to work successively for the American Sub-health Association and the American EON Loan Group. This composite experience spanning insurance, health, and finance laid the groundwork for his subsequent career as a Health and Wealth Planner (HWP).

2019In that year, as China’s insurance and elderly care markets continued to expand, Liu Lübing chose to return to China for his career development.Based on his two years of experience in the U.S. insurance industry and long-term observations of the insurance and healthcare sectors, Liu Lvbing is highly optimistic about the elderly care market. He believes that whether in the United States or China,Amid the global trend of population aging, the elderly care industry boasts vast market potential, yet it also presents certain entry barriers.

“Initial investment in the elderly care industry is substantial, and the return on investment cycle is long. While many enterprises are currently seeking to enter this sector, the vast majority struggle to secure corresponding medical resources. Elderly care services divorced from medical support are fundamentally unsustainable.”

Guided by this vision, Liu Lübing embarked on a systematic study of China’s medical and elderly care industry. By chance, he was drawn to the role of Health and Wealth Planner within Taikang Life’s business segment and chose to become an HWP (Health and Wealth Planner).

In the era of longevity, high- and ultra-high-net-worth individuals have strong demands for wealth, health, and medical planning; however, professionals and personnel capable of providing precisely matched services remain scarce.

It is precisely for this reason that, unlike traditional insurance agents whose ultimate goal is policy sales, the Health and Wealth Planner (HWP) originates from insurance yet transcends it.HWP integrates the three roles of insurance consultant, general practitioner, and financial planning expert.，Provides one-stop management and services for elderly care, health, and wealth to middle- and high-net-worth families in China,It can be described as an innovative solution for the era of longevity.

“We believe that the completion of claims payment is merely the beginning of our service.” This is how Liu Lvbing described the difference from traditional insurance.

Liu Lübing introduced that, compared with traditional insurance sales, the biggest difference of HWP lies in the platform empowerment provided by Taikang.In fact, insurance policies cannot resolve all issues; they often only cover financial losses.For instance, if a policyholder falls ill, traditional insurance companies typically provide only a one-time benefit payment; upon settlement, the contract terminates and the service relationship with the insurer ends.

However, for customers, insurance claim payouts after illness are only one aspect; more importantly, it is crucial to address the issue of disease treatment. This not only requires access to appropriate resources but also the provision of comprehensive post-treatment health services. Underpinning this capability is Taikang’s robust medical resources and extensive physical service infrastructure.

“In Wuhan, we have physical assets such as Taikang Tongji Hospital, Chuyuan Senior Living Community, and Xianhe Lake Wetland Park, which can help customers address practical needs,” said Liu Lübing.

In fact, by addressing the wealth, health, and medical planning needs of middle- and high-net-worth individuals, Taikang is able to provide clients with high-quality tiered diagnosis and treatment resources, ranging from Grade A tertiary hospitals to specialized hospitals and community clinics. Meanwhile, Health and Wealth Planners (HWP) help clients address medical funding issues by tailoring insurance products to their needs. Furthermore, Taikang’s insurance offerings—such as Green Channel for Medical Services, Jianbaotong, Premier Medical Care, and Overseas Medical Care—enable clients to secure access to the most prestigious medical resources both domestically and internationally.

After four years of accumulation, both Taikang’s training programs and Liu Lübing’s personal business development have entered a phase of flourishing results. This is reflected in the data by a multiple-fold increase in performance. From 2020 to 2022, Liu Lübing consistently achieved annualized standard premiums exceeding one million yuan.

“Whether driven by the impact of population aging or propelled by national policies, society’s attention to elderly care has been steadily increasing, resulting in increasingly strong feedback at the business level. Meanwhile, both the brand recognition of our retirement communities and Taikang’s influence have grown significantly, allowing us to ride the wave of opportunity alongside the platform’s development,” said Liu Lübing.

In Liu Lübing’s view, HWP (Health and Wealth Planner) professionals do not earn their income through eloquence, but rather through cognitive expertise. From this perspective, Taikang offers an exceptionally clear career development path, a process that requires continuous learning and progressive mastery of increasingly complex challenges.

“Taikang’s training system not only includes sales skills training for new hires, but also high-level programs such as the Tsinghua-Peking University Training Class. I have participated in all HWP system training courses, ranging from GPA, ETA, demonstration classes, and LIMRA community-based experiential training to ‘Appointments with Tsinghua and Peking University,’ all of which have continuously updated my professional knowledge.”

On this platform, everything thrives. By assembling a premier faculty of renowned experts from leading insurance and financial institutions across the global production, academic, and research sectors, we have developed the HWP (Health and Wealth Planner) system. Featuring nearly twenty courses covering comprehensive planning, retirement, insurance, healthcare, wealth management, and end-of-life care, the program empowers participants to transition from traditional insurance product salespeople to strategic planners for the health and wealth management of high-net-worth clients.

Over the past four years, continuous feedback from clients has reinforced Liu Lvbing’s belief that Health and Wealth Planners (HWPs) must bear a strong sense of social responsibility. Issues related to healthcare, elderly care, and insurance-based financial planning are of great concern to clients yet remain challenging to resolve. By leveraging their professional expertise to help clients address these issues and enhance their well-being, HWPs like Liu Lvbing find a profound source of personal fulfillment.

Today, Liu Lübing has also charted a clear career development path for himself. He stated, “The role of Health and Wealth Planner affords me considerable autonomy and a strong sense of fulfillment, while Taikang’s platform opens up even greater possibilities. Looking ahead, on one hand, I aim to strengthen my personal brand, attain the title of Chief Health and Wealth Planner, and deliver superior performance results. On the other hand, I have assembled a team of more than ten highly educated professionals with overseas study experience, with the goal of delivering greater value to our clients.”

Through Liu Lübing’s success, we see the vast potential and room for growth in China’s insurance industry amid the rise of the new middle class.In fact, the Health and Wealth Planner (HWP) represents not only a high-quality transformation of the agent role but also offers significant insights for the reform of China’s life insurance distribution channels.

In the face of aging-related, health, and wealth risks accompanying the era of longevity, Health & Wealth Planners (HWP) span the three domains of elderly care, health, and wealth management. By integrating “insurance payment + tangible services,” they professionally serve high-net-worth and mass-affluent individuals throughout their entire life and wealth cycles, providing one-stop solutions for elderly care, health, and wealth management. Gradually, HWP is becoming an indispensable innovative force in the era of longevity.