Does AI pose a threat to your life savings and if so, how can you protect yourself?

The technology is moving so fast that even its creators seem uncertain about what's next. But fears have escalated in recent weeks that the damage could be grave-even existential-if the technology falls into the wrong hands.

What that looks like exactly is anyone's guess, but speculation has included AI agents going rogue and launching bioterrorism attacks, tricking countries into bombing one another, or hacking into major infrastructure like power grids or the financial system.

To safeguard your savings, control what you can.

The most immediate, ongoing threats are on the individual level. According to the FBI, nearly $893 million of the fraud complaints received in 2025 involved AI, and these scams are much harder to spot than they used to be. Gone are the days when poor grammar would give away a fraudster. One tell remains: a sense of urgency. Criminals try to break down your natural defenses by scaring you into action, and the best thing to do is "take a beat," the FBI says.

Threats at the institutional level require other strategies. For starters, "you should diversify," says Darren Kimura, president and CEO of AISquared, a firm that helps companies integrate AI into their workflows. If your bank or brokerage firm gets hacked, you might temporarily lose access to your account, and you don't want to lose the ability to pay bills or buy groceries.

Consider spreading your assets among a couple of "too-big-to-fail" institutions and a regional bank, Kimura says. Many Americans conduct their financial business online, but there's something to be said for establishing a relationship with a local branch where you could walk in to get help in a crisis.

One caveat: diversification can work against investors from a housekeeping perspective. Catherine Valega, a certified financial planner with Green Bee Advisory in Boston, Mass., says her older clients often struggle to manage accounts across institutions, especially when it comes to calculating required minimum distributions. Families may need to weigh the risk of mismanagement against the risk of an institutional hack.

To be sure, established firms have serious security operations that include redundancies, contingencies, and disaster recovery plans. In addition to their own protocols, the biggest players can also tap policymakers and engage government help in a crisis, says Larry Zelvin, ?head, security advisory, BMO Financial Group. The firm's data centers are in Canada, Zelvin says, which may provide geographic diversification for customers worried about attacks on U.S. facilities.

A spokesperson for LPL, the largest independent broker-dealer in the U.S., told Barron's that the company's "layered security controls and enterprise-grade capabilities" have blocked "thousands of potentially malicious events this year alone."

Big institutions typically store records on "air gapped" servers that are not connected to the internet and thus not vulnerable to cyberattacks. Still, it's a good idea to keep paper records of your most recent statement to have a physical record of your balance.

It's much more likely that any attack would cause temporary interruptions than an outright loss of funds. Still, if a brokerage were to fail and assets go missing, then Securities Investor Protection Corporation $(SIPC)$ insurance would protect securities and cash up to $500,000. Large firms carry excess insurance well over this limit. If a bank fails, FDIC insurance protects up to $250,000 per depositor per account category.

In a systemic crisis, the government could lift these limits. In March 2023, the Treasury secretary invoked an exception that allowed the FDIC to protect all deposits at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, which helped ward off a larger contagion.

"The most important thing is restoring that confidence," says Eric Young, senior managing director at Guidepost Solutions, a risk management consultancy.

Finally, one bit of old-school advice: Keep cash on hand in case you temporarily lose access to your money. Credit and debit card processing systems could also be hacked, and if you can't tap to pay you're going to need cash to tide you over.