The great wealth transfer is set to reshape family legacies in the coming decades, highlighting the importance for families to preserve wealth and values. According to McKinsey & Co., women are expected to control $30 trillion in financial assets by 2030 in the U.S. alone, primarily due to wealth transferring from baby boomers.
A key consideration for families is ensuring that the next generation is fully engaged, particularly by empowering women to take an active role in financial discussions and decisions from an early age. This is especially important given that 38% of U.S. women do not plan to have important conversations around generational wealth transfer with their families, according to a study by Edward Jones.
Including younger female family members in financial conversations introduces diverse perspectives and fosters a more balanced approach to wealth management. Early involvement equips them with the skills and confidence to make informed decisions, benefiting both their individual growth and the long-term strength of the family’s financial legacy.
Providing financial education to help build confidence in investing for young women is essential
According to a study by The Williams Group, 70% of wealthy families lose their wealth by the second generation and 90% by the third. In addition, 75% of parents think providing financial guidance for kids is a moral imperative, but only 36% say they know how to do it, as written in Raising Financially Fit Kids by Joline Godfrey.
This highlights the importance of financial education as well as confidence in investing. Although women generally live longer than men, they have historically taken a back seat to financial decisions, as perhaps societal beliefs played a role in presuming men are better at managing money and making investment decisions.
A recent Fidelity survey contradicts this notion, with 64% of women saying they want to be more active in financial decisions, including investing. By 2030, women are set to control the majority of the $30 trillion to be transferred from the baby boomer generation. Thus as the great transfer begins, it is essential that they are prepared to take on significant family financial leadership roles. These decisions not only affect their immediate families but also shape the financial well-being for future generations.
While women want to be more involved in financial decisions, according to Fidelity, only 33% of women see themselves as investors feeling confident in their ability to make investment decisions. And only 14% of women say they know a lot about saving and investing, the majority of those respondents being millennials and Gen X. However, 9 in 10 women participants in the study said they planned to take steps within the next 12 months to increase their understanding of financial planning and investing.
The underlying theme to the study points not to a lack of skill but a lack of confidence. How do we help the next generation inheriting this massive wealth feel more confident in their skills?
Let’s point to the data. The Fidelity study sifted through 8 million accounts to discover that women actually are superior investors, earning 0.4% in return annually compared with their male counterparts. And quite interesting was that when they asked all participants which gender was better at investing, barely 9% chose women. One factor that made women better investors is that men trade 35% more frequently, while women tend to stay put with diversification.
Even during particularly challenging times for markets, like March-August 2020, a Goldman Sachs analysis revealed that 48% of women-led hedge funds outperformed the market versus 37% of male-led funds. This parallels the original, more well-known published study in 1997 by Terrance Odean (University of California, Berkeley) and Brad Barber (University of California, Davis), who found that, specifically, women hedge fund managers outperform men by approximately 1% per year.
Single men underperformed by 1.44% per year compared with single women. The lower performance for single men was attributed to overconfidence and overtrading — by over 67% more than single women. The majority of men had a higher degree of overall confidence and were twice as likely to rate themselves “very knowledgeable” about investing, while women were more likely to understate their skills, saying “they are not very knowledgeable.”
Women can and do make good investment decisions — they may just need the confidence to believe it. More female mentors in the investment profession can help bridge this gap by working with the next generation in developing the skills and confidence to build on the humble success women have in making financial decisions.
Christine Lagarde, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, made a bold statement in pointing out that if more women had been in economic leadership positions in the early 2000s, the global economy would be in better shape, intimating that we may have been able to thwart the subprime bubble. “As I have said many times, if it had been Lehman Sisters rather than Lehman Brothers, the world might well look a lot different today,” Lagarde said.
This doesn’t mean that all women are better investors than all men. However, it does illustrate the success women can have in investing if they are confident and believe in themselves instead of falling back to historical societal biases.
Strategies to help bring young women to the table
Promoting financial literacy boosts confidence and independence, empowering girls to make informed decisions and pursue their goals without reliance on others. Between the ages of 8 and 14, girls’ confidence levels drop by 30%, as reported by YPulse. Just like learning to ride a bike, exercising young girls’ financial muscles sets them up for success across various aspects of life. Financial education fosters healthy relationships by reducing financial stress and preparing them for financial discussions in personal and professional settings — ultimately benefiting family finances as well. As a family or family office, it’s important to identify ways to encourage girls/women to effectively do this, starting by creating an open environment that values their input.
Strategies to consider:
- Establishing a historical understanding of the family or family office's dynamics and ongoing state of its financials.
- Inviting female family members to attend and participate in meetings that match their current level of ability, such as listening in and encouraging them to actively contribute to the dialogue and weigh in on investment options.
- Pairing females with mentors within the family or trusted financial advisers and providing access to resources like investment workshops or online courses tailored to their interests.
- Establishing regular touch points, such as monthly check-ins or collaborative investing and budgeting sessions, to keep them engaged and build their confidence in financial decision-making.
- Communicating the impact and results of the female members’ participation in financial meetings and decisions, encouraging continued enthusiasm and overall improvement in the family’s financial success.
Long-term impact of empowering young women
Educating young women enhances a family’s financial legacy by developing leaders equipped to navigate complex economic landscapes. Their involvement can lead to long-term success, such as preserving and growing wealth across generations, making strategic philanthropic investments or expanding a family business.
The 2021 Fidelity study shines a positive light on the recent strides in more women taking a confident seat at the investment table. In the study, 50% of women say they have become more interested in investing since the beginning of the pandemic, and 42% say they have more to invest. In addition, 70% of women say they want to learn more about selecting individual stocks. And finally, 77% of women said that if they had a financial adviser to help them invest, they would be more confident about their financial future.
As the great transfer begins, it is ever more important for female inheritors to seek a trusted adviser to help them grow in their confidence and steward the family wealth and legacy to build a solid foundation. Bringing young women into family financial discussions early is a powerful way to prepare them for the future. It isn’t just learning the numbers, it's nurturing confidence that inspires them to take an active role in managing wealth and making decisions that impact the family. By investing in their financial education, we’re not just equipping them with valuable skills — we’re ensuring the family's legacy is in capable, sustainable hands.