Dear Reader,
If you have $100,000 sitting in a bank account, you lost roughly $17,000 last year.
Not from a bad trade.
Not from a market crash.
From doing absolutely nothing.
In 2025, the dollar lost 12% in value.
Real inflation hit 5%+.
12% + 5% = 17% purchasing power gone.
And it’s happening again this year. And next year. And the year after that.
The people who understand this are already moving.
In a free presentation I just recorded, I’m revealing what we call “The 2026 AI Gold Rush.”
The ONE AI-linked asset class the U.S. government has no choice but to fuel… and BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and 170 public companies are already positioning into it.
The same strategy that delivered 12,480% for Mastercard investors since its 2006 IPO.
Mastercard was the pick-and-shovels play of the e-commerce boom.
The question every serious investor should be asking: what’s the pick-and-shovels play of the AI boom?
Sitting idle isn’t “playing it safe.” It’s the most expensive decision you’ll make this decade.
Watch the free presentation (and see how to stop the purchasing power bleed) →
To your wealth,
Tan Gera, CFA®
Decentralized Masters
P.S. BlackRock, Goldman, and 170 public companies are all positioning into the same asset class. Watch the free presentation to see which one →
Allianz Just Earned €14.1 Billion in Nine Months. Income Investors Should Pay Attention.
While most of the investing world debates which semiconductor company deserves a 40-times earnings multiple, Allianz quietly posted the highest nine-month operating profit in its history this morning and raised the ceiling on its full-year outlook. For income-oriented investors building wealth outside the AI trade, that combination deserves a closer look.
What the Numbers Say
Operating profit rose 7.8% to a record €14.1 billion through September, up from €13.1 billion over the same stretch of 2025. The third quarter alone delivered €4.7 billion in operating profit, despite high capital market volatility and elevated natural catastrophe losses. That Q3 figure beat the analyst average of €4.30 billion that Allianz itself had compiled.
Asset management operating profit jumped 35.1% to a quarterly record of €1.12 billion, from €828 million a year earlier. Net inflows of third-party assets reached €47 billion in the quarter. PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors together pulled in €132 billion of net flows year to date. That is not a one-quarter fluke; it reflects sustained demand for fixed income and multi-asset strategies at a moment when bond markets are pricing in a more complex rate environment.
Following the strong performance, Allianz raised the upper end of its full-year 2026 operating profit target range to around €18.6 billion, from its previous guidance of €17.4 billion plus or minus €1 billion. Core earnings per share increased 12.7% and reached €24.15, with underlying growth of 8%.
Why This Is an Income Story
Record profits matter to wealth builders mainly when they translate into cash returns. Allianz has been unusually direct about that. A share buyback program of up to €2.5 billion announced on February 25, 2026 was fully executed as of September 2026. Core return on equity was 19% on an underlying basis.
Allianz paid a dividend of €17.10 per share for fiscal 2025. The Solvency II ratio stands at a strong 219%, an increase of 1 percentage point compared with full-year 2025. That capital buffer is what gives the dividend and buyback their credibility: Allianz is not stretching to pay shareholders, it is running with capital well above what regulators require.
Building Wealth Around This Idea
Allianz is not a growth stock in the conventional sense. It will not double in eighteen months. What it offers is a durable, cash-generative business with multiple profit streams: property and casualty insurance, life and health, and an asset management operation that manages roughly €2.2 trillion in third-party assets through PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors. All business segments are ahead of their pro-rata full-year operating profit outlooks. That breadth matters: when catastrophe losses pressure the insurance side, as they did in Q3, asset management can carry the result, and vice versa.
For a long-term portfolio, that kind of structural diversification is worth something, particularly when the valuation does not demand a leap of faith. With a forward price-to-earnings ratio around 14 and a dividend yield around 4%, the valuation reflects a low-risk profile. Berenberg rates the stock a buy and carries a €684 price target, expecting full-year earnings at the upper end of company guidance.
A 14x forward multiple and a 4% yield sit comfortably inside a framework that income investors have been applying across sectors. Dividend durability depends less on yield size than on the cash-flow credibility and balance-sheet depth behind the payout.
Risks to Monitor
The €18.6 billion ceiling is explicitly conditional on major natural catastrophes or capital market events staying away. Q3 already showed what a bad catastrophe quarter looks like: natural catastrophe losses were about €1.1 billion in the third quarter, versus about €60 million a year earlier. A repeat of that severity in Q4 could eat into the final quarter’s contribution. Currency movements also affect the asset management result, since PIMCO’s revenues are largely dollar-denominated.
Daily Wealth Takeaway
Record profits and guidance upgrades attract attention. What actually builds wealth is finding a business that generates consistent, growing cash returns and pays you while you wait. Allianz’s nine-month result is a reminder that some of the most reliable compounders sit outside the sectors that dominate financial headlines.
