The Inter-Gender Wealth Transfer – It’s Happening #035

I hosted a conference for the Consumer Duty Alliance recently.  The theme - the evolution of financial planning. There were many excellent speakers, but one that particularly resonated, Vanessa Barnes. spoke of the inter-gender wealth transfer. The statistic that jumped out for me was:

By 2030, it's predicted that over 60% of private wealth will be controlled by women.

Wait, what?! Is this true?

I’d heard mention of the wealth transfer before but hadn’t entirely grasped it.  After all, it’s not as though women have suddenly closed the gender pay gap¹. So, what's driving this shift?

Why Is This Happening?

To be clear, I can’t find the exact data to back up the quote above however, there are enough statistics, particularly from the US,² and facts to support this claim:

1. The aging Baby Boomer³ generation. In a typical heterosexual marriage, the husband is three years older than the wife and has a shorter life expectancy. As a result, men often die first leaving the family wealth to their wife.

2. The rise in divorce rates among women over 65—the so-called "Silver Splitters” and,

3. The increasing number of female entrepreneurs, executives and professionals.

When you piece these trends together, you can see why this shift is occurring.

Are Women—and the Financial Advice Industry—Prepared?

Financial decision-making has long been considered a “man’s world”, a so called “blue job”, with the financial services industry built by men, for men, to meet this belief.

As a woman ‘growing up’ in this male dominated sector, I believed that financial planning and money management were the same for men and women. Lately I’ve been reconsidering this view.

So, the question raised at the conference was;  ‘how is the financial services industry preparing for this transfer of wealth?’ After all, women are not just a marketing subset of men.

How Women Think About Money

As I’ve reflected, I can see the differences in how women engage around money when compared to men. I thought I’d share my observations:

• Meaning: Women focus less on the numbers and more on what those numbers mean for their lives and their families.

• Security: The question women most frequently ask is, "Will everything be alright?" They want assurance that their financial plan is robust and that their future is secure.

• Investment Strategy: I’ve seen both extremes here—either little interest in investments or a hyper-focus on the details. Both can signal a lack of confidence, education, or understanding—or they might simply reflect personal attitudes.

• Family Focus: Many women are concerned about supporting aging parents or helping children with educational costs or property purchases. This can sometimes lead to them deprioritising their own financial needs.

• Doing good: Women seem more aware of injustice, inequality and climate change. As such they are keen to invest their money in funds that focus on Environmental, Societal or Governance (ESG) issues to help rebalance.

• Relationship with Advisors: Women often take longer to build trust with their financial planner. They value being listened to, seen, and understood.

• Sensitivity to Sales: There’s a strong aversion to jargon, sales tactics, and being patronized.

• Risk Tolerance: Women often have a lower appetite for risk, which may reflect educational gaps, the framing of risk, or even maternal instincts.

The differences between the sexes are subtle but important. But gender aside, we would all benefit from our advisors truly seeing the human sitting before them.

Two important Caveats:

1. Of course, these observations don’t apply to all women, and some of these traits could easily apply to men too.

2. I’ve deliberately left out the complex impact of grief on financial decision-making when money is received via death or divorce, though it’s clearly an important factor in this conversation.

You

I haven’t personally witnessed this wealth transfer at scale.  And I wonder how the Baby Boomer wealth transfer from husband to wife will filter down to the next generation. 

But how about you, have you experienced this shift in wealth? What have you noticed?

If you are a woman (or maybe a financial planner), how do my money observations land for you? 

Do drop me a line, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Until next time,

Ruth x

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1. The Gender Pay Gap is the difference in pay between men and women- in April 2022 this was 8.3% among full time employees.

2. Women, wealth and investing - Morgan Stanley; Women as the next wave of growth in US Wealth Management - McKinsey & Co

3. Baby Boomers are typically defined as those born between 1946 and 1964