Investing & Retirement Women’s unique opportunity to make their mark

Between now and 2030, one of the most substantial demographic wealth transfers in U.S. history will unfold. In the span of half a decade, American women are expected to come into control of roughly $30 trillion.¹

If you’re a high-net-worth woman, then you’re about to find yourself at the center of this unprecedented shift in financial power. As a part of the vanguard of this ascendant demographic, your investment decisions, strategies, and personal priorities will play a crucial and early role in reshaping the how and why of the financial landscape.

But on both a societal and personal level, what might that reshaped landscape look like, and how can it be made to benefit you and your loved ones? To help answer those questions and analyze this new era in women’s financial empowerment, we spoke with Sabra Neidert, vice president and strategic consultant with Truist's Advice and Planning Group, and Nina Threets, weatlh advisor and vice president of medical at the Truist Medical Specialty Group.

Understanding how you can take advantage of this historical shift toward female financial empowerment begins with a clear picture of the overall circumstances and priorities of women investors. Four factors are key to getting that picture. On average, women:

• Outlive their male spouses
• Are increasingly both the emotional and financial heads of their households
• Have portfolio configurations that vary from their male counterparts
• Perceive the value of investing to go beyond the purely monetary

“There’s so much potential to make your mark during this wealth transfer to women,” says Neidert. “Accomplishing that starts with grasping how each one of these four factors influences one another and broadly impacts the lives of high-net-worth women, and then using that knowledge to optimize your investments in a way that reflects your circumstances and priorities.”

One of the biggest factors influencing the financial choices of high-net-worth women is the demands on their time. “Women are coming home from work to run a ‘second shift’ as the family’s emotional and financial administrator—then carrying on that role into their retirement years because of their longer lifespans,” says Threets.

Threets points out that on every front, women have more to take care of than most male peers, less time available in the present to take care of it, and longer timelines for having to manage those responsibilities. As a consequence, they tend to place a higher value on investment classes that don’t require micromanagement, prefer methods and tools that promote a work-life balance, and are overall more risk-aware investors.

If you find yourself nodding along to those statements, the rise of women as an investment power demographic is great news because a $30 trillion female investor class necessitates a shift in process by the financial industry to meet your preferences by:

• Reorienting investment strategies toward risk-aware female asset allocation preferences such as luxury goods like watches and jewelry—70% of which are owned by women.²
• Increasing your available time and independence by rolling out and improving cutting-edge digital platforms that enable remote management of nuts-and-bolts aspects of investment—as well as apps that expand your opportunities for self-controlled revenue creation and entrepreneurship.
• Transforming in-person wealth advising to a less transaction-minded and more relationship-focused space that takes women’s ideal visions of a work-life balance as the starting point for a more holistic approach to investment.

From retirement savings to real estate holdings, women want more control of their financial decisions and a greater work-life balance—and as their financial power increases, the number of institutions catering to those preferences and priorities can only rise. “That doesn’t just mean tech that supports their schedules and advising styles that fit their financial goals and lifestyle preferences,” says Neidert. “It also means us being motivated to field all-women financial teams that can provide female-centered, relationship-based investment advice from a position of authority and experience.”

If you find yourself as concerned about the quality of life as you are about the quantity of financial assets you’ll leave your heirs and community, then you already intuitively grasp a key fact about what’s being dubbed “the great wealth transfer.” Compared with male peers and spouses, moral intentionality is a bigger driver of high-net-worth women’s investment choices—with 49% stating a company’s social mission is a key factor in their decision to invest ¹ and more than 60% identifying philanthropy as their top passion or hobby.²

“It’s uncommon for me to find a stock that’s misaligned at the moral level in a high-net-worth woman’s portfolio,” says Threets. “Women would rather set up a charitable philanthropic trust and then invest in real estate or fine art than own profitable stock from a company that goes against their principles. That intentionality is a hallmark with women investors—and if you stretch it out across $30 trillion, it has big implications for not just the ‘how’ but the ‘why’ of investing’s future.”