AI is rewriting the rules of wealth creation, and Australia's superannuation system means households are more exposed to that shift than their property-heavy balance sheets suggest.
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.
Australia holds a distinctive position in the global wealth picture. Net financial assets per capita reached €113,190 in 2025, ranking Australia 11th globally on financial assets alone. Add real estate and it climbs to third, with combined net financial and property wealth of €392,500 per capita, according to Allianz Research. That gap between the financial and combined rankings is the widest of any country in the top 20. Australian household wealth sits predominantly in property.
Superannuation explains much of the financial assets picture. Insurance and pension assets account for 54.6% of Australian household portfolios, well above the global average of 24.8%, and the share is moving in the opposite direction to the worldwide trend. Globally, the insurance and pension share of household financial assets fell to a record low in 2025. In Australia, compulsory contributions keep money flowing into super regardless of market conditions.
Those steady inflows, however, do not protect balances from market movements. Super funds are among the largest investors in Australian and global equities, so a household with no direct shareholdings can still carry significant equity exposure through its super account. A sharp correction in AI-linked global equities would reach Australian households through their retirement savings, even if few hold shares directly.
Financial assets grew 9.6% in Australia in 2025, above the global average of 8.6%, and real estate assets grew 8.5%, comfortably above the long-term average. The risk picture for Australian brokers is not one of immediate household balance sheet fragility. Instead, concentrated property wealth and equity-exposed super balances meet a global correction scenario that could weaken business confidence, tighten credit, and push D&O and financial lines claims higher.
Australia's rising insurance and pension share stands out against a global shift in the opposite direction. 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 reach 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%.
Compulsory super insulates Australia from that trend in terms of flows. It also means the health of Australian retirement savings is closely tied to global market performance. For life insurers providing group cover through super funds, and for advisers whose clients rely on super as their main financial asset, that link matters more than the headline wealth ranking.
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.
A shift in value creation from labour towards capital widens the gap between those with assets to insure and those without. It also expands liability exposure tied to AI governance, as boards face increasing scrutiny over how AI is adopted, disclosed and managed.
"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 brokers and underwriters pricing financial lines, D&O, and life and group risk products in Australia, the report maps where concentrated wealth and elevated valuations have built up pressure, and how directly a correction could reach Australian households through super.
