AI is rewriting the rules of wealth creation, and Asia's insurance-heavy savings model is about to be tested by it.
Global household financial assets rose 8.6% to a record €268.4 trillion in 2025, according to Allianz Research's 17th annual Global Wealth Report. Markets did most of the work. Rising asset prices generated roughly four out of every five euros of new wealth, while fresh household savings declined 5.4% to €4.1 trillion. The headline looks impressive until inflation is factored in. Nominal assets are up 50% since 2019, but real wealth grew only 23%, and purchasing power sits just 5% above its 2021 level.
Singapore held fourth place globally in net financial assets per capita in 2025, at €192,840, according to Allianz Research. Financial assets grew 9.1%, slightly above the global average of 8.6%.
The more telling number for the insurance market is portfolio composition. Insurance and pension assets account for 47.2% of Singaporean household portfolios, against a global average of 24.8% and a North American figure of just 11%. That share is likely to reflect compulsory retirement savings through the Central Provident Fund alongside the life insurance savings products that play a central role in household wealth across much of Asia.
That structure sets Singapore, and much of the region, apart from Western markets. It also gives Asian life insurers a larger stake than their Western peers in whether households continue to favour insurance-based savings.
Across Asia excluding Japan and China, financial assets grew 9.8% in 2025. China grew 11.1%, though its household debt engine has stalled, with liabilities rising only 0.5% as the prolonged property downturn weighs on borrowing demand. Japan recorded 6.5% financial asset growth, with insurance and pension inflows rising 151.9%, albeit from a low base.
Those diverging paths share a common exposure. Through trade, capital flows and corporate earnings, all are linked to the AI-driven equity rally that the Allianz report identifies as the main source of both global wealth creation and global market risk.
For brokers and underwriters across the region, the dominance of insurance and pension assets in household portfolios offers some insulation from a direct US equity correction. The indirect channels, including business confidence, credit conditions and cross-border investment flows, are harder to hedge. The question is not whether Asia will feel a global AI correction, but through which channel it will arrive first.
The global trend is moving away from the Asian model. Worldwide, insurance and pension assets grew only 5.0% in 2025, less than half the rate of securities, which rose 12.4%. Their share of global financial assets fell 7.4 percentage points from 2005 to a record low of 24.8%. In North America, inflows into insurance and pension products fell 40.8% in 2025.
In the decade before the pandemic, insurance and pension products attracted an average of 44% of new household savings each year, according to Allianz Research. In 2025, that share was 22.4%.
For Asian life insurers, that is the central question the report raises. Strong equity returns make direct market investment more attractive to younger, wealthier savers, particularly where digital investment platforms make it easy to access. If Asian households follow the global shift, insurers built around savings-linked products will need to make a stronger case for protection and guaranteed returns. Japan's surge in insurance and pension inflows shows the trend is not uniform, and the region's savings model may prove more durable than the West's.
The Allianz report also raises a longer-run question in which the insurance industry has a stake. Allianz Research estimates that AI could affect approximately one in four jobs across major economies over the next three years, through reorganisation (10% of jobs), augmentation (5%) and displacement (8%). If productivity gains flow primarily into profits rather than wages, asset owners capture a disproportionate share. The top 10% of households globally already own 85.4% of net financial assets.
"AI could become the next great wealth engine, but the key question is who gets a stake in it," said Katharina Utermoehl, head of thematic and policy research at Allianz Research.
Allianz Research projects that global financial assets will grow by around 9% in 2026, before settling at 5% to 6% a year over the medium term as fragmentation, persistent inflation and elevated public debt constrain returns. For insurers and brokers across Asia, the report is a reminder that the region's distinctive savings model is an advantage only for as long as households keep choosing it.
