Tatler House Dialogue: Reframing legacy, purpose and wellbeing with Great Eastern Private

That distinction extends to how her generation defines beauty itself. “Beauty is not just about appearance,” Leow said. “It's about feeling confident, grounded and cared for, inside out. Beauty is holistic, not just cosmetic.” She traced that philosophy to a generational shift in how wellness is discussed with clients. Reflecting on the group's mental health initiatives—developed with partners including the Singapore Association for Mental Health—she was careful not to frame it as a correction of the past: “It's not that our parents' generation did anything wrong. It's just that a new generation of consumers has a different approach.” She pointed, too, to The Postpartum Edit, now marking its first year, which has supported hundreds of women through a chapter of life she felt the beauty industry had long overlooked.

That same generational lens ran through Shenile Teo's reflections as Executive Senior Director at Great Eastern—though for Teo, the story was personal as much as professional. Over three decades in the industry, she has grown her own family and her own agency side by side, and increasingly draws a straight line between the two. “Many people see insurance as pure protection,” she said. “But in a broader sense, it's more than that—it involves estate planning, succession planning, and many aspects of a family's life.”

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Teo described leading across three generations within her agency—independent, hardworking Gen X like herself; adaptable Gen Y; and outspoken Gen Z—and credited her Gen Y leaders, many with her for over a decade, as the bridge between her own approach and her daughter Shevin's. The lesson she gives every new leader who joins her, she said, is simple: build a genuine work-life balance. It is a principle that shows up just as concretely with her clients—Teo has personally accompanied them to medical appointments since her very first year in the business. “It's not just a transaction,” she said. “I consider myself part of my clients' family.”

That throughline reached its clearest expression when her daughter, Shevin, joined the conversation from the floor. “At home, she's a motherly figure,” Shevin said. “But at work, she's also like a mother to many of our colleagues.” Where Teo brings three decades of credibility, Shevin said she brings a fresh, younger perspective—and the two don't always agree. “Because we're mother and daughter, we can disagree more openly than normal colleagues,” she said. “But we get over it quickly, because we understand where each other is coming from. It's a privilege and a responsibility to carry it forward—not by exactly following what she's done, but doing it in my own way.”

Abby Leung, Group Head of High Net Worth at Great Eastern, widened the lens to the proposition built around women like the ones in the room. “We are multitasking all the time,” she said, describing how women's needs shift with every life stage—a philosophy made tangible through Great Eastern Private's seven professional domains: Health and Longevity, Legal Advisory, International Tax, Trust and Family Office, Next-Gen Leadership, Philanthropy and Global Lifestyle, each backed by trusted specialist partners.

Leung grounded that ecosystem in scale: 118 years as Singapore's oldest and most established life insurer, over S$123 billion in assets under management, and more than 16 million policyholders across the group. “Your very first mandatory insurance, when you enter the workforce, is underwritten by us,” she said—a fact she described as a national responsibility as much as a commercial one. For next-generation and ultra-high-net-worth clients specifically, she said the value isn't a single product but continuity: a family office advisory structure that follows a client from her first job, through motherhood, into running or inheriting a business.

Closing the evening, each woman was asked what she was building beyond financial performance. For Leung, it came back to a single idea: “You need to feel financially, physically and mentally capable—that's what longevity really means.” For Teo, the answer was simpler still: “As a first generation, you need to lead by example. Your children, your colleagues—they're not listening to what you say. They're watching what you do.”

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