On paper, 2025 was a spectacular year to be alive, personal wealth around the world climbed at its fastest clip since 2017, due to roaring stock markets and soaring asset prices. But peel back the headline number, there is an interesting story. According to UBS’s latest Global Wealth Report, most of that windfall never reached ordinary households at all. It piled up at the very top. The bank’s figures put global personal wealth growth at 10.8% in dollar terms last year, more than double the pace of 2024, and the third consecutive year of expansion.