AI is rewriting the rules of wealth creation, and the insurance industry has a direct stake in how that plays out.
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.
The distribution of those gains is where the insurance industry's exposure becomes evident.
New Zealand ranked eighth globally in net financial assets per capita in 2025, at €127,550, according to Allianz Research. Add real estate and it moves to seventh, with combined wealth of €282,020 per capita. The property weighting is pronounced: real estate assets in Australia and New Zealand grew 8.5% in 2025, well above the global average of 3.5% and comfortably ahead of the long-term rate for the region.
That property-led model shapes the risk picture in a specific way. New Zealand household wealth is less directly exposed to equity market movements than that of US households, but it is not insulated from them. A sharp correction in AI-linked global equities could reach New Zealand indirectly, through trade, business confidence and credit conditions, each of which feeds into commercial lines premiums and D&O exposures. New Zealand's household debt ratio stood at 72.1% of GDP at the end of 2025, higher than the global average, which is a reminder that property wealth rests on a leveraged base.
For New Zealand brokers, the signal from the Allianz report is more about the global macro environment than domestic household balance sheets. The AI-driven wealth surge of the past three years has been concentrated in US equities and US households. If it corrects, the consequences are unlikely to stay within US borders.
The Allianz report also tracks a structural shift that goes beyond the short-term correction risk. 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 to a record low of 24.8%, down 7.4 percentage points from 2005. In North America, inflows into insurance and pension products fell 40.8% in 2025.
The long-run picture is sharper still. 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%.
That shift has a direct read-across for New Zealand's life insurers and KiwiSaver providers, which compete for the same household savings. If households continue to favour direct market exposure over insurance-based savings and protection products, insurers will need to make a stronger case for the value of protection, particularly among younger savers building wealth through equities.
Household savings have tilted towards capital markets in a way that amplifies both the upside of a bull run and the downside of a correction. That concentration is a market risk, and it can become an underwriting risk too. Wealth concentrated in volatile assets can affect the financial position of businesses and individuals who buy D&O, financial lines and high-net-worth personal cover.
Beyond the correction scenario, the Allianz report 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, with reorganisation accounting for 10% of jobs, augmentation for 5% and displacement for 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 corporate 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 annuity products, the report is more useful than a market summary. It maps where concentrated wealth, elevated valuations and AI dependency have built up pressure, and what could happen to insurance exposures if that pressure is released.
